RIDGWAY – Boaters and river activists are getting excited for this weekend’s First Annual Ridgway River Festival, to be held on the mighty Uncompahgre. In addition to live music, whitewater festivities and kids’ events, the festival is an opportunity for the community to learn more about their river and the watershed they call home.

A watershed is a region of land where water from rain and snowmelt drains downhill into a body of water such as a river, lake, wetland, sea, or ocean. For many environmentalists, their watershed takes precedence over political boundaries as a way of identifying where they live.

Ridgway, Ouray and Montrose are located in the Uncompahgre watershed. The Uncompahgre River is a tributary of the Gunnison and runs for approximately 75 miles from Lake Como, at 12,215 feet in northern San Juan County, to join the Gunnison at Confluence Park in Delta. The river forms Poughkeepsie Gulch and the Uncompahgre Gorge. There are two dams on the Uncompahgre, a small diversion dam in the gorge and Ridgway Dam, which forms Ridgway Reservoir. Mining activity in the San Juan Mountains contaminated the river with heavy metals, a problem that persists today.

To educate the public about their watershed, the river festival will feature an educational river walk and a watershed education tent. The river walk will begin at 9 a.m. at the Rollans Park parking lot. Bill Coughlin, owner of Western Streamworks, will lead participants downstream, discussing the Town of Ridgway’s Uncompahgre River Restoration Project, the river trail system, the ecology of the stream ecosystem, the glacial geology of the area, and stream channel dynamics and hydrology. This is sure to be a wonderful opportunity to better understand the habitat and transformations of the Unc.

The Watershed Education Tent will be set up at Rollans Park from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Information will be available from several not-for-profit river and whitewater groups such as the Colorado Watershed Assembly, the Black Canyon Land Trust, American Whitewater, American Canoe Association, SavingParadox.org, and Friends of the River Uncompahgre, as well as public lands agencies involved in the stewardship and management of lands within the Uncompahgre watershed.

To help celebrate the river, the festival will feature several local musicians. Acoustic artist Christina Callicott starts the show at 11:30 a.m. A semi-acoustic set by groove-rockers Fall Baby follows at 12:30 p.m., and high-school rock prodigies Fair Sickness take the stage at 1:30 p.m. The Red Mountain String Band closes out the show with a set from 2-5:30 p.m.

This Saturday, bring the kids, the canoe and the camera, and take part in celebrating the river that unites Ridgway, Ouray and Montrose into residents of one big happy watershed family. —Watch Staff Report