The mission of the Left Hand Watershed Center is to assess, protect, and restore the quality of our watershed, and to serve as a hub for watershed issues through the fostering of stakeholder collaboration.

Goals

In pursuit of our mission the Left Hand Watershed Center endeavors to carry out the following goals:

Understand the State of the Watershed

Assess and monitor conditions in the watershed, in order to identify, prioritize, and facilitate the remediation of threats to water quality and watershed heal.

Watershed Science Program

Facilitate Stakeholder Cooperation

Build and maintain an effective watershed protection program that fosters open communication and cooperation among stakeholders, and serves the needs of landowners and other stakeholders, with strong public and financial support.

Outreach and Education Program

Promote a Stewardship Ethic

Communicate water quality and watershed-related information that increases the awareness of the public, property owners, stakeholders and local decision makers and promotes a stewardship ethic that improves the overall stream quality and long-term resilience within the watershed.

Stewardship Program

Plan and Implement Projects

Facilitate and lead planning and implementation projects, consistent with applicable laws, property rights, water rights, local policies and procedures, management plans, and master plan guidance, in order to enhance water quality, ecological function, flood resilience, and the natural character of the watershed.

Restoration Program

Left Hand Watershed Center History

Since 2005, Lefthand Watershed Oversight Group, a nonprofit watershed organization based in Boulder County, has been working to restore and protect Left Hand Creek Watershed for generations to come.

Lefthand Watershed Oversight Group was originally formed by residents and stakeholders as a watershed protection group in response to necessary mine clean-up activities in the watershed. One of the first activities of the group was to develop a watershed plan to direct future efforts at cleaning up mine wastes. Early efforts included implementing many of the mine related clean-up activities and monitoring water quality throughout the watershed to ensure a healthy watershed.

The 2013 flood created a new set of watershed management issues in Front Range watersheds. During the first 6 months following the flood, victims were relocated, roads received temporary repairs, debris-clogged channels were enlarged to accommodate spring runoff, destroyed headgates were replaced, and some emergency stabilization of channels was done.

More about the history of the Watershed Center…