Gates Family Foundation and the Colorado News Collaborative announced today that Ark Valley Voice (AVV) Journalist Tara Flanagan has been awarded a water fellowship, to participate in a statewide newsroom effort to strengthen water reporting at newsrooms across Colorado. Water is a complex topic that is of fundamental importance to our state.
Flanagan is one of 10 journalists selected from a field of more than 30 reporters for this five-month water fellowship, adding Ark Valley Voice to a peer network that will become skilled at covering this vital topic.
AVV’s submission focused on the importance of the Arkansas River Basin and its water compact with the Colorado River basin, explaining: “The Arkansas makes water calls on the Colorado, specifically for water augmentation written into statutes, Land Use Code, and the basin compact. The Colorado River is over-allocated; depending upon how the Colorado Basin Compact is renegotiated, it could have a direct impact on the Arkansas River Valley. We want to understand and explain the interconnected nature of these two basins, explain the role of the Upper Ark Water Conservancy, and the impacts to our mountain communities should long-term water policy not be achieved.”
Fellows’ reporting projects will help uncover and explain timely water issues facing Coloradans — including the human, ecological, and economic impacts of drought, climate change, forest health, demand management, water quality, agriculture, industry, and more.
“In selecting 10 fellows to receive training, coaching and financial support, our review committee prioritized developing a cohort of grantees that, as a whole, serves a range of Colorado geographies, river basins, and rural/mountain/urban/suburban communities,” read the announcement from the Colorado Media Project which coordinated the fellowship selection process. “The committee also prioritized selecting fellows with diverse backgrounds and skillsets, representing a variety of media (print, digital, broadcast, radio, photo, data analysis, and visualization).”
Fellows will participate in a series of four “Water Fluency for Journalists” workshops presented by Fresh Water News (an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit news service) and receive coaching support for individual and collaborative reporting projects from the Colorado News Collaborative (an independent, nonprofit local media resource hub and ideas lab involving journalists from more than 140 newsrooms across the state, including AVV).
The fellowship experience and $1,000 journalist stipends are made possible with support from Colorado Media Project and the Denver-based Gates Family Foundation.
In the past two years, AVV has been the recipient of two NewsMatch grants provided by the Gates Family Foundation, recognizing our commitment to quality journalism.
Congrats Tara!
Very impressive for you and our AVV organization.