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The 36th Annual Headwaters Conference returns to Western Colorado University this weekend, Nov. 7-8, marking 10 years of the University’s Master of Environmental Management (MEM) program and decades of dialogue about life in the West.
This year’s Headwaters Conference, themed MEM at Ten: A Decade of Impact, will highlight the achievements of alumni working throughout the Gunnison Valley and around the world in fields ranging from stream restoration and ecology to community resilience and planning. It is also an opportunity to honor MEM donors and partners who have made the MEM program so impactful for students and community organizations alike.
The conference is an annual “opportunity to convene voices from around the Gunnison Valley and beyond who can speak to a host of different environmental concerns and opportunities,” said Micah Russell, dean of Western’s Clark Family School of Environment and Sustainability, where the MEM program is housed. “The idea is that our students and members of the community have an opportunity to be exposed to deep thinking and public intellectuals you wouldn’t necessarily find in the average classroom.”
The conference opens on Friday evening with a happy hour and panel discussion featuring seven alumni who will share how their graduate work at Western helped launch their careers.
On Saturday, the Headwaters Conference takes the experience outside. Four hands-on workshops, all led by MEM graduates, will put participants in the field to learn about stream restoration and efforts by the Crested Butte Land Trust to balance the area’s recreation economy with ecological considerations. Another online workshop will focus on community resilience in the current climate.
A perennial Headwaters favorite is a workshop called Water Games, held on Saturday, that brings together members of the community, including high school students, in a roundtable environment to discuss drought resilience and other water-related issues in the West.
The conference wraps up with a celebration on Saturday evening with food trucks and the inaugural MEM Alumni Awards. “It’s something of a reunion and the whole community is welcome,” Dr. Russell said.
The Headwaters Conference is free and open to the public.