Jon Hare, HCCA Advocacy Director, elected to the Environmental at Large position on the Gunnison River Basin Roundtable

Jon Hare
Dec 10, 2024
2 min read

For Immediate Release:

December 11, 2024

Contact: Jon Hare, jon@hccacb.org

HCCA to represent the environment for the Gunnison watershed

Jon Hare, Advocacy Director for High Country Conservation Advocates (HCCA), was elected in November to serve on the Gunnison Basin Roundtable in the Environment at Large position. The Gunnison Basin Roundtable was established in 2005 by the Colorado Water for the 21st Century Act to facilitate discussions on water management issues and encourage locally driven collaborative solutions. In addition to the Gunnison River, there is a Roundtable for each of the state’s major river basins and the Denver metropolitan area.

Hare brings a conservation focus to the Gunnison Basin Roundtable as an experienced fisheries biologist in the Upper Colorado watershed with almost a decade of work administering mining, dams, reservoirs, ditches, diversions, springs, and leading maintenance/rehabilitation projects on the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forest.

“As the snow melts from the peaks and flows towards our communities, there are thousands of factors that influence our water. Across the Gunnison watershed, there are many opportunities to improve soil and water conservation by reducing erosion, sedimentation, and water loss - especially on public lands. In this position, I hope to be a source of energy and ideas for problem solving, connectivity, and collaboration on the Roundtable to benefit the conservation of our Gunnison River.”

The 2005 Colorado Water for the 21st Century Act directs and funds the Colorado Water Conservation Board to host Roundtables for each major river basin in the state and mandates the committee be comprised of representatives from a range of interests including water users, environment, industry, recreation, agriculture, municipal, and government. The Roundtable membership broadens the range of stakeholders who are actively participating in Colorado’s water decisions and brings in hundreds of citizens into the process.

The Roundtable requires that the Environment at Large position be a representative of a regional, state-wide, or nationally recognized environmental conservation organizations that has operated in Colorado for at least five years. Since 1977, HCCA has been the grassroots non-profit dedicated to protecting the health, integrity, and beauty of the public lands, waters, and wildlife of Colorado's Gunnison Country.