Thank you for attending the Wild & Scenic Film Festival and wanting to take direct action to help our region and the planet! Here are some actions you can take to make the world a greener place:
We are on Indigenous land
If you are attending the in-person event, we are gathering on the occupied, stolen, and unceded ancestral and traditional lands of the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Ute Nations, as well as 48 other nations that occupied this land in the last 500 years.
If you are attending this event virtually, you can see whose land you are gathering on at native-land.ca.
As a first step towards accountability and reconciliation, we must commit to knowing the history of genocide, displacement, and dispossession that created Colorado. An Indigenous organization working on examining the true history of Colorado and working to develop restoration recommendations and education for the Colorado community is People of the Sacred Land. We ask that folks support these efforts.
You can support the renaming of Mount Evans Wilderness to Mount Blue Sky Wilderness with The Wilderness Society here.
Additionally, you can support the work of the following Indigenous-led organizations in our area:
- Spirit of the Sun (direct actions below in the Actions from our Featured Partners section)
- Womxn from the Mountain
- Sand Creek Massacre Foundation
Actions from our Featured Partners
Environmental Learning for Kids (ELK) depends on the support of donors who are passionate about science, leadership, outdoor experiences, and learning. Please help them fulfill their mission by donating today.
Volunteer with ELK. Join the ELK staff, Board, and youth for a service project at a local park, pond, or along the South Platte.
Enroll your child or let others know about the services that ELK provides so they can enroll their child.
Explore ELK’s new brand. ELK’s brand refresh is a symbol of their shared vision for a diverse, inclusive outdoor community. It’s an invitation to continue their transformative work. Please explore their new brand and share with others.
Support the Inclusive Guide with a donation. Support the guide, which helps people find spaces others think are safe and welcoming while giving businesses feedback about how the community perceives their experience.
Join the Inclusive Guide to review and share the places that foster welcoming spaces and celebrate all identities! (Allies, your voice is also needed! Even if you don’t live at the intersection of any marginalization, your reviews help establish a baseline to know whether folks who do experience marginalization also experience different service at a business).
Share the Business Partnership Program with businesses you know or sign up your business to participate!
Spirit of the Sun’s goal is to boost the resiliency of Native youth, and help them become leaders in both the business world and in their communities. By donating to Spirit of the Sun, you will help them support, empower, and uplift Native/Indigenous Peoples by providing workshops that are rooted in Native culture and traditions.
Volunteer with Spirit of the Sun to help with sorting and delivering nutritious food to Native elders and others in need at their food shares on Fridays.
Encourage Native youth to join the Youth Mentorship Program.
Offer your time and expertise as a chaperone for an Outdoor Equity Trip. They are looking for chaperones with experience in outdoor activities not limited to skiing, snowboarding, climbing, fishing, hiking, etc.
Book Spirit of the Sun for an accomplice training and take a step towards decolonizing the relationships within your community or organization.
Take direct action to help shut down Suncor, one of Colorado’s largest emitters of greenhouse gasses and toxic air pollutants.
Sign up for Spirit of the Sun’s newsletter to receive important updates and ways you can connect and support their projects throughout the year.
Join Community Science
Colorado Pika Patrol
The Colorado Pika Project is a research project implemented by community scientists across Colorado. Through long-term monitoring of pika populations, we are not only providing useful data to researchers and land managers, but we are doing so in a way that educates and engages Coloradans in conservation and the local impacts of climate change.
Pika Patrol App
Can’t commit to the Colorado Pika Patrol project? The Pika Patrol App allows you to record observations of American pikas wherever you find them!
Colorado Corridors Project
Colorado Corridors Project remote-triggered cameras collect tens of thousands of photos each year in an attempt to make a case for building an overpass for wildlife along the I-70 mountain corridor. Because of this overwhelming data, they need help identifying the wildlife you see in these photos. With your help, they can process and analyze the data much faster than if they did it on their own.
Colorado Bat Watch
Colorado Bat Watch was developed by Rocky Mountain Wild in collaboration with bat experts from the U.S. Forest Service, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Colorado Natural Heritage Program, and the North American Bat Monitoring Program. This program recruits and engages community scientists to collect data that will enable these agencies to monitor bat species over time and better understand the impacts of white-nose syndrome and other threats on local bat populations.
Go Big! Central Colorado Bighorn Sheep Survey
The Central Colorado Bighorn Sheep Survey engages the community in recording observations of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, domestic sheep, and domestic goats in Central Colorado. The data collected by volunteers participating in the project will inform conservation strategies for Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep in Central Colorado.
Join Denver Zoo’s Boreal Toad Conservation Team
In the summer months, volunteer community scientists on the Boreal Toad Conservation Team help us to search the mountain wetlands of Colorado for this hard-to-find amphibian. The data us and our volunteers gather in this projects informs CPW’s management of boreal toads, identifies future sites for wild reintroduction, and uncovers unknown populations (and we hope even ‘super-toads’ that may have natural resistance to chytrid fungus).
Join Audubon as a Climate Watch community scientist
Explore how North American birds are responding to climate change. This innovative community-science program enlists volunteer birders across North America to count certain bluebirds and nuthatches in the same place (or places) twice each year. By sticking to a scientific protocol and sharing their results, these community scientists help track whether birds are moving in accordance with projections from Audubon’s climate models.
Join Bumble Bee Watch
Volunteers needed to submit photos or videos of bumble bee nest sightings. The bumble bee nest sighting can come from anywhere within North America. An ideal sighting would include an image of the bumble bee (to determine the species), a GPS location (to be used in future habitat analyses), a description of the location and materials of the nest (i.e. in my garden, underground or in a woodpile), and, if possible, a video of the nest, surroundings, and activity.
Join Sheep Mountain Alliance in monitoring local ecology and wildlife
Sheep Mountain Alliance is working with local conservation partners to broaden our offerings of citizen science programs. In many ways, citizen science is an ideal activity for physical distancing, so we are hoping to start a pilot program this summer.
Direct Actions You Can Take from our Local Partners
- Take action with the Center for Biological Diversity. Tell NOAA Fisheries to prioritize Puerto Rico coral reefs by halting the dredging that would smother and kill them.
- Take action with the Center for Biological Diversity. Tell Biden to expand the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument for wildlife.
- Take action with the Center for Biological Diversity. Stick up for grizzlies now: Tell the agencies it’s past time to restore these majestic creatures to the North Cascades.
- The Master of Conservation Leadership program at Colorado State University is a master’s degree which prepares leaders to address complex conservation issues at local, regional, and global scales. The program is built around principles of experiential learning, interdisciplinary instruction, and applied approaches. Working closely with a network of practitioners and organizations, Conservation Leadership is the option for individuals seeking to make a difference in the lives and ecosystems of our planet. For more information, please fill out this Interest Form.
- Take action with People and Pollinators Action Network and donate for a Pollinator License Plate to support PPAN’s habitat grant program. And sign the Pollinator Safe Pledge!
- Support Next 100 Colorado’s work to create an inclusive approach to public lands over the next 100 years with a donation.