WHWT
How We Work
Partnerships make the Western Hardrock Watershed Team work.
Lake Fork of the Gunnison, outside of Lake City, CO. Photo © Barbara Hite.
The Western Hardrock Watershed Team (WHWT) was created in 2006 as a partnership between the Office of Surface Mining (OSM) and AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) at the request of the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining & Safety (DRMS). The WHWT helps provide important capacity-building support to rural mining communities through innovative partnerships. In addition to OSM, AmeriCorps VISTA, DRMS, the Southwest Conservation Corps (SCC) and the New Mexico Abandoned Mine Lands (NMAML) programs have become important partners. The SCC acts as a non-profit sponsor, assists with office space, and is a close collaborator. DRMS and NMAML provide a cost match for many of the sites.
The WHWT aids in placing college educated OSM/VISTA Watershed Development Coordinators with groups working in communities and watersheds impoverished and degraded by pre-regulatory mining. Each community/watershed group agrees to support an OSM/VISTA for three years. The OSM/VISTAs pledges to work with the community/watershed group for one year. These commitments ensure capacity building and long-term improvement at each WHWT site.
WHWT OSM/VISTA Volunteer Kristin Hettich with representatives from the EPA, DRMS, and community members outside the Dinero Tunnel, Leadville, Colorado.
To date the WHWT is responsible for placing OSM/VISTAs in over 20 watershed groups throughout Colorado. In 2009 the WHWT underwent an expansion into New Mexico, and now has 3 OSM/VISTAs working in historic mining communities. We are currently working on expansion into other states in the Rocky Mountain West with a history of Hardrock mining.
OSM/VISTA Teams Coordinator, T Allan Comp, Ph.D.
The WHWT was founded and is coordinated by T. Allan Comp, PhD, of the OSM to emulate the successes of the Appalachian Coal Country Watershed Team (ACCWT). Dr. Comp started the ACCWT in 2002 to provide rural Appalachian coal communities impoverished by the results of environmental degradation the help they needed to make their local watersheds healthier places to live and work. The ACCWT now has more than 50 full-time OSM/VISTA Volunteers who live and work in the local communities to promote environmental and social change at a grassroots level.
Before the ACCWT, the inspiration for these watershed teams and the beginning of his experience working with AmeriCorps VISTA Volunteers stems from the non-profit which Dr. Comp originated and directed, the AMD&ART Project. A recipient of multiple awards, the AMD&ART Project continues to provide an example of innovative, multidisciplinary partnerships in reclamation and community revitalization.