Two dozen college kids from all over the Southwest have flocked to Denver this weekend to learn about the history and future of the Colorado River – their source of water.
The event, the Nuestro Rio Youth Leadership Summit, was put on by Nuestro Rio (Our River), a nonprofit that organizes Latinos in the Southwest to conserve the Colorado River.
From July 23-25, at Denver Metro University, participants will learn about the river’s history, its critical role in the region’s ecosystem, the strain it’s under and how to engage communities in conservation efforts.
“Not only is the Colorado River a great source for life in the western deserts, it is also a “book” with countless tales of America’s natural and cultural history,” said Adrian Hernandez Lopez, a participant from southern California, in a release.
Nuestro Rio bills the summit as representative of “the growing engagement of Latino and Native Americans, who recognize that the Colorado River system is not bounded by state lines, but by history, culture, and watersheds, and that everyone in the basin needs to be committed to working together to solve the challenges facing the river.”
Photo credit: Denny Armstrong, Creative Commons, Flickr.
