Mountain Studies Institute would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to Purgatory Resort and the greater community for the $12,500 raised during the Jan. 27 Community Benefit Day. MSI is honored to have been chosen as a beneficiary.
The funds will be used to host the inaugural San Juan Resilience Youth Summit to be held April 18 at the La Plata County fairgrounds. The SJRYS will provide opportunity for middle school and high school students from Durango and the surrounding region to investigate topics in forest and watershed health, share data and present their findings at a summit to be held in Durango each spring.
In our first year of this program, MSI will focus on Animas/San Juan River Watershed communities, including Silverton, Durango, Bayfield, Pagosa Springs and Aztec. The goal is to provide students an opportunity to develop critical thinking skills about the interconnectedness of our ecosystems which will be accomplished by sharing information among the schools. Students will have hands-on field trip opportunities to make observations and will use an app-based platform to share data. Please contact info@mountainstudies.org for more information about the summit.
This partnership with Purgatory opens new opportunities to offer these experiences to schools and groups across the San Juan Mountains to investigate the links between watershed health, forest conditions and air and water quality.
Thank you to the Purgatory leadership team for selecting Mountain Studies Institute. And thank you to all that came out to ski with us. We had a great time!
Marcie Bidwell, executive director and the Mountain Studies Institute Team
