<\/p>\n
\u201cThe care of rivers is not a question of rivers, but of the human heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
-Shozo Tanaka, 19th century Japanese politician<\/p>\n
When Barb Horn reads these lines from Shozo Tanaka, considered Japan\u2019s first conservationist, she take a pause, and says it just about sums up her decades long career working with rivers, water quality and people.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I did science as a path to work with people and to work with what I love, which is rivers,\u201d she said. \u201cI love people and I love rivers, and it was a natural thing to bring them together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Horn worked for years for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, starting in 1989 what is certainly her legacy, River Watch of Colorado, a one of a kind program that sends hundreds of volunteers across the state to rivers to test for water quality.<\/p>\n
River Watch is a partnership between CPW and a nonprofit called River Science.<\/p>\n
For one, the program has been vital for tracking river health in Colorado, providing years worth of water quality data, which has helped influence environmental cleanup projects and policy making.<\/p>\n
\u201cIts been an enormous help,\u201d said Peter Butler, a co-founder of the now defunct Animas River Stakeholders Group, which for years, led the cleanup of mine contamination around Silverton that impacted the Animas River.<\/p>\n
And, River Watch has helped foster the next generation of environmental stewards and scientists by enlisting students from schools around the state to take the lead on testing the waters of their hometown rivers.<\/p>\n
\u201cColorado has been very fortunate to have Barb Horn,\u201d said Buck Skillen with the local Trout Unlimited chapter and a longtime River Watch volunteer. \u201cShe\u2019s been a true gift to Southwest Colorado, as well as the whole state.\u201d<\/p>\n
Horn recently retired from CPW and the River Watch program, but that doesn\u2019t mean she\u2019s going anywhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cBarb is truly a unique person,\u201d Skillen said. \u201cOn the Animas, there\u2019s certain sites with upwards of 25 years of monthly sample data. It\u2019s due to Barb\u2019s passion, expertise and persistence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Horn, 58, was born and raised in Broomfield. Her parents weren\u2019t the outdoorsy types, but whenever the family would go up to visit Estes Park, Horn would immediately go down to play along the Big Thompson River.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was the kind of kid who could not sit still,\u201d she said. \u201cSo I\u2019d go straight for the river. I was fascinated by rivers.\u201d<\/p>\n
In high school, Horn wanted to be a counselor. But, oddly enough, her own school counselor recommended against it. So, she went onto her next love: rivers and science.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut all along, the passion for me was about working with these groups,\u201d she said. \u201cSo many people who get into wildlife management think it\u2019s all hugging a bighorn sheep, when 99% of the job is dealing with people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Horn started an internship at the Division of Wildlife (now CPW) around 1990, and her career trajectory very much tells the story of the evolving need and desire to more accurately hone in on river health over the years.<\/p>\n
At the time she started her career, most people thought of places that needed an environmental cleanup were sites that posed a risk to human health, such as the nuclear Rocky Flats Plant outside of Denver.<\/p>\n
But, around the time a concerted effort to clean up the Idarado mine site outside Telluride and Ouray, Horn said that increasingly, impacts to fish and other wildlife started to become a priority.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe health department needed data to say, \u2018What streams are polluted?\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cMy job was to go out and generate data on rivers that potentially could qualify for (cleanup) funding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not long after, Horn heard of a doctor in Wisconsin that had been bringing students out onto rivers to monitor waterways there. And it clicked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said we got to do that in Colorado,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd it blew up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Partnering with schools, River Watch first brought students out to test water quality in major rivers basins \u2013 the Animas, Arkansas, Eagle and Clear Creek. But within five years, more than 200 schools across the state were participating in monthly monitoring.<\/p>\n
River Watch would provide the equipment and training, and schools and their students would do the dirty work on the ground, covering vast portions of the state that just wasn\u2019t possible for other agencies with limited resources.<\/p>\n
At one point, Horn said every single junior high school from Silverton down to Durango, even crossing the state line into Aztec, were taking part in the River Watch program.<\/p>\n
And the data was being put to good use, Horn said. State agencies would rely on it to set water quality standards for rivers, and it allow allowed policy makers to prioritize which areas needed cleanup projects the most.<\/p>\n
Butler said River Watch\u2019s data was the Animas River Stakeholders Group\u2019s main information source for tracking water quality.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd because it\u2019s monthly, it gives us a long record of how things have changed over the years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In fact, Butler said River Watch\u2019s data on the Animas was the only way the Environmental Protection Agency knew water conditions had returned to pre-spill conditions after the Gold King Mine blew out in 2015.<\/p>\n
\u201cEPA had no data before the spill,\u201d Butler said.<\/p>\n
Just as important as keeping a long record keeping of water quality is the contribution River Watch has made to foster the next generation of environmentalists and scientists, Butler said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people that get River Watch training go into the sciences or water quality issues,\u201d he said. \u201cIt trains a lot of people and gets them interested and involved with science.\u201d<\/p>\n
Horn said that over the years, it has gotten harder to partner with schools, and as a result, more volunteers have stepped up to keep the program running. Around Durango, some schools still participate, such as Animas High School.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis program does a good job of letting these kids know they are important and this work matters,\u201d Horn said. \u201cThey connect to nature, and then they connect to a community that cares about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several factors went into Horn\u2019s decision to retire.<\/p>\n
On the one hand, Horn said she ran into issues with the bureaucratic nature of CPW, which she said suffers from inclusion issues. As a result, she decided to retire earlier than she wanted.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a diverse group,\u201d she said. \u201cNot everyone feels like they belong. We\u2019re an amazing agency on the outside, but we have work to do on the inside.\u201d<\/p>\n
CPW said it a statement the agency does not comment on personnel issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Riverwatch program is a valuable program for Colorado,\u201d CPW wrote in an email.<\/p>\n
And, on the other hand, Horn said it also felt like the right time to pass off River Watch to someone who can direct the future of the program.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter 30 years, it\u2019s also time,\u201d she said. \u201cA good leader knows when to step down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Horn plans to take some time off, and then eventually build another career as a voice coach or therapist to help women and young people find their voice and power \u2013 hearkening back to her desire to be a counselor all those years ago.<\/p>\n
But, she\u2019ll certainly still be found playing along the banks of a river.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll probably come back and volunteer,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n