The Buddy Program gets a bird’s-eye view of the Crystal River

It’s not everyday that students get to fly above the landscape they call home. 

But this past Thursday, students from Glenwood, Roaring Fork and Basalt High Schools joined an annual tradition run jointly by EcoFlight and The Buddy Program, where two six-seater Cessna 210 take groups into the air past the slopes of Mount Sopris and up to McClure Pass, on a flight that traces the Crystal River’s path. 

“There are some things that you can just see better from the sky,” Alex Braiedy, a program coordinator for The Buddy Program, said. 

For almost 25 years, EcoFlight has been operating flights to “educate and advocate for wildlands, watersheds and culturally important landscapes,” according to their website. And for the last decade or so, they’ve been working with The Buddy Program’s outdoor leadership classes, called the LEAD program. 

“It started really small, with just a few kids, and The Buddy Program’s outdoor leadership program has really grown,” Lea Linse-Hirro, conservation policy director at EcoFlight, said. “It’s become a highlight of the fall.” 

Experts on environmental conservation, including Michael Gorman, campaign director at Wilderness Workshop, and Ryan Martin, a water resources engineer for the town of Carbondale, joined the flights. Before take off, they noted things to look out for, like the hydrology that makes a free-flowing river so unique.

“Building dams has helped throughout the West. But, when you put a dam on the river, it has a big impact,” Gorman said. “You’re keeping water from going downstream when it otherwise normally would. You’re changing the hydrology of the river, which in turn changes kind of everything.”

He suggested that students look out for the places the river “braids” and “meanders.” 

The Crystal River is one of Colorado’s last free-flowing rivers that local groups have strived to keep free from dams and out-of-basin water diversions for decades through pursuing a Wild and Scenic designation from the federal government. The Crystal has been eligible for this designation since the 1980s but has yet to officially gain that status.

Gorman previously told The Aspen Times that the next steps to getting the designation would be to work with the wider community to put together a specific plan and proposal that could form a “tangible legislative package to look at.”

“Since the Crystal already is undammed from Carbondale for its whole terminus, then it would be a good candidate to get it protected,” Martin said Thursday.  

But Gorman also pointed out the nuances of the issues and said there are benefits to having dams as well.

“Being able to access some water from the river is required, so we do have to figure out a way to build the right type of infrastructure in these rivers where we can keep it wild and scenic, and then still get the water that the private irrigators need or the town needs,” he said. 

Opportunities like EcoFlight can also lead students down a new career path. Linse-Hirro — who went on her first EcoFlight when she was a high school student herself — is an example of this.

“It’s kind of what set me on my current trajectory,” she said. “You can learn about water or land management or environmental policy in the classroom, and you … can get in an airplane and see, this is where my water comes from. This is what a watershed looks like.” 

Linse-Hirro, who went to high school in Carbondale, added, “It’s really cool to be able to keep sharing that with students in the valley.”