Respect the Yampa. Those of us who think about the river every day embody this ethic, and I hope we have convinced you to keep the Yampa River at the forefront of your thoughts and actions.

This river that connects our community provides a great deal to all of us: water supply for our towns, agriculture, recreation, and just providing the kind of aesthetic reward that a healthy river ecosystem can inspire in everyone that takes a moment to take it all in.

If you made it out to the recent Yampa River Festival here in Steamboat Springs, you saw what kind of passion the river inspires in people. Many of us love to recreate on the river and feel its power when peak flows have it running full bore.

I’m always inspired by the many rafters, kayakers, tubers and paddleboarders that come out to show us what they can and maybe pick up a sweet prize along the way. Another year of intense spring runoff made it a little exciting for tucking in under the bridges for some of those races!

If you’ve been around here for more than a couple of years, then you know we’ve had a lot of subpar runoff years in recent memory.

Those conditions are much more likely to lead to low flows later in the summer and fall and the resulting high temperatures aren’t good for the fish and other organisms that call the river home. It also makes life difficult if you rely on water rights from the smaller tributary streams to water your fields or for keeping the river open to support your business interests.

Maybe our luck will continue, and we’ll get a second straight summer season with good basinwide stream flows and no river closures in Steamboat. But even if the rain shuts off tomorrow and temperatures soar, the Yampa River Fund is once again contributing to water security for today and tomorrow.

With five grant awards to project applicants this year we are continuing to provide sustainable funding for supplementing low flows, supporting important stream restoration projects, and working with local agricultural producers to replace aging agricultural infrastructure with structures that add environmental and recreational benefits.

If you were at the Yampa River Festival this year, you may have seen a table with information about the Yampa River Fund and maybe you even decided to donate to our cause (thank you!). You may also see an opportunity to “Round up for the River” next time you are out shopping.

We are working with several local businesses to enable customers to contribute to these efforts in a program called the Yampa Ripple Effect. We couldn’t have built this endowment fund without broad support and that includes local businesses, agriculture interests, both Routt and Moffat counties, municipalities, local residents and visitors alike. We greatly appreciate the continuing support.

The board of directors and steering committee of the Yampa River Fund are excited to see another excellent round of river projects get the funding they need to move forward.

Each year, the fund will continue to support these types of projects and help take the necessary steps to support a healthy, flowing river that benefits everyone. For more information, visit YampaRiverGund.org or YampaRippleEffect.org and reach out with questions to mike@friendsoftheyampa.com.

Mike Roberston is the manager of the Yampa River Fund.