In the late 90s, Rich Schrader founded River Source to address watershed resilience and has since tirelessly grown the organization into a hub that offers climate-related educational programs for people of all ages. Last month, we were grateful to sit down with Rich to learn about River Source’s current and upcoming priorities.
River Source recently created their “Watershed Academy,” a new project that aims to provide a green jobs pathway for urban and rural youth in northern New Mexico. The program allows the participants to gain hands-on experience and skills related to water while learning about the health of our water supply. The Academy has the mutual benefit of bringing an awareness to the issues surrounding our water quality- for drinking, for wildlife, for plants – in addition to teaching people tangible skills that can be applied to protect it. This incredible initiative has been brought to communities in Tierra Amarilla, Ojo Caliente, Santa Fe, San Felipe Pueblo and even reaching parts of Albuquerque.
The Watershed Academy is an important reflection of River Source’s overall mission – to go into different communities and work collaboratively to bring solutions based on the specific needs of those particular environments. This means working with people of all ages and entire communities that want to protect their water. River Source works with local NGOs, governmental entities, and schools to build teams around restoration projects that fit the communities they serve. It’s important to build capacity and align the work – to meet people where they’re at and adapt for that place to catalyze long-term community projects.
This is an important lesson we should all carry as we grapple with upcoming changes. As Rich puts it, the lived experience we all had this past year has brought an awareness to how we are reaching the tipping point in terms of our climate crisis. In the middle of this pandemic, we witnessed how aerosols connect us – through the COVID-19 pandemic but also more broadly on our reliance on our water supplies. This idea of shared resources and shared disruptions has allowed us the potential to reflect how water and air are crucial to being healthy. This is also why River Source plans to pivot into creating metrics for restoration projects and wetlands so we can better measure and understand the health of these life-sources and build plans to protect them.
At the state level, River Source hopes to see our state continue to be agile and ready to adapt to future challenges. One of these solutions is expanding our renewable energy as both a means of addressing climate change and also moving toward a cleaner economy with new jobs. They also hope to see more willingness to invest in watershed management and updating our infrastructure to accommodate upcoming energy diversification and ensure our resources are not damaged in the process either.
ReNew Mexico is proud to elevate their work as they continue building and nurturing future generations of water experts. If you would like to learn more about their initiatives and support their efforts, you can check out their page here.