Watershed Educator & Restoration Coordinator

Watershed Educator & Restoration Coordinator with the Coldharbour Institute — Gunnison, CO — Service Dates:
April 16, 2026 – October 31, 2026 — Average Hours per Week: 30 hours / wk — Days/Hours of Service:
Variable; typically 9-5 with occasional restoration and workdays scheduled on weekends — Minimum # of Hours to Complete Term: 775 Hours minimum (675 hr term April 16, 2026
- Sept 30, 2026 + 100 hr term Oct 1, 2026
- Oct 31, 2026)

Blue Elements Watershed Stewards are committed to increasing community resilience in the face of changing water conditions by supporting sustainable access to one of Colorado’s most valuable natural resources. Ameri Corps members will support organizations serving the water education and monitoring sectors in the Arkansas River Valley and beyond. Members may provide water education to youth and adults, complete watershed management projects, and support water quality monitoring projects.

Coldharbour Institute (CI) is a 501(c)(3) organization with a mission to advance regenerative practices to improve the health of working agricultural lands and watersheds through education, research, and applied practices. Our vision is the broad adoption of practices that result in healthier soils while producing food, energy, and providing ecosystem services for our communities.

Communities need healthy foods and energy to thrive. Yet our natural resources providing for these needs may be degraded by that production. CI is educating the next generation of land stewards in regenerative practices to improve soil health and watershed functioning while enhancing food and energy security. Our ranch has been impacted by past land uses and is undergoing active restoration efforts led by our team;

we use this effort as part of our educational programming.

CI is uniquely poised to facilitate the adoption of regenerative practices to address these challenges. Coldharbour Ranch is a working ranch. We have a NRCS wetland easement which requires that our grazing practices meet verifiable ecological outcomes. Our workshops use real-world experiences to demonstrate the success of land management techniques. We coordinate these opportunities through four core program areas:
Healthy Watersheds, Regenerative Agriculture, Education & Research and Equitable Solar Solutions.

CI is a small organization with two staff members, two fellows, and an engaged board of directors. Our office is at Western Colorado University. We run most of our educational programming at the Coldharbour Ranch, a 342 acre ranch east of Gunnison. We have a house in Gunnison that we use for affordable housing for our student fellows and staff members.

Coldharbour Institute is seeking an Ameri Corps intern to assist with coordinating education, restoration, monitoring and research activities tied to our Healthy Watersheds program. The Ameri Corps intern will work as an integral part of the small team that will be conducting water education events and implementing watershed restoration projects on the Coldharbour Ranch. While the majority of intern duties will be tied to our Healthy Watersheds program, occasionally the intern will be asked to participate in other aspects of our programming and organizational operations.

Day to day service activities may vary. The intern will be responsible for helping to organize volunteer restoration workdays, collaborating with other staff to secure materials and plan restoration activities, and developing educational programming.

• Conduct educational tours and programming with community groups and students
• Create water education outreach materials and curriculum
• Coordinate and execute River Watch sampling events
• Engage in restoration project implementation and monitoring events; write reports
• Assist the CI team with other organization projects that relate to the improvement of watershed health including native plant growing and restoration, noxious weed management, biochar and compost applications, etc.
• Participate in CI communications and outreach events

• Fir…