Watershed Biodiversity Initiative (WBI) is a 501c3 non-profit organization that facilitated the comprehensive Roaring Fork Watershed Biodiversity and Connectivity Study - an unprecedented effort to develop a science-based strategy for the protection and restoration of natural biodiversity and habitat connectivity in Colorado’s Roaring Fork Watershed.

Our partners at Colorado Natural Heritage Program completed the scientific research behind the study between 2018 and 2021. The results of the study, and several “Big Ideas in Conservation” that follow from it, were published in September 2022.

HELP KNIT IT BACK TOGETHER!

WBI is thrilled to serve as the Fiscal Sponsor for an exciting new organization called Roaring Fork Safe Passages (RFSP). RFSP formed in late 2022 to create citizen advocacy in support of reducing vehicle wildlife collisions in the Roaring Fork Valley while knitting back together our watershed’s now fragmented wildlife habitat.

The objective of RFSP is to build on WBI’s work and to conduct a valley wide study and mitigation plan that is specific to Highway 82 and Highway 133, and to identify and prioritize these focal points, and to suggest mitigation strategies (tunnels, bridges, fencing, technology or optimization of existing structures).

This Prioritization Study and Mitigation Plan is a crucial step to receiving state and federal funding to construct the mitigation structures. To complete this study, RFSP has launched a fundraising effort with the goal of raising $150k by June 1st, 2023. To learn more, or join RFSP’s mailing list, please visit roaringforksafepassages.org.

WBI is a 501c3 non-profit. All donations collected by WBI on behalf of RFSP are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by state and federal law.

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