Field Notes

Winter 2023

Our Impact in Numbers

WRA is unique among conservation organizations. We focus on state-based action to urgently reduce carbon emissions and protect rivers and lands in the face of climate change. Using legal and policy expertise developed over three decades in the West, WRA is a leading driver of state action to reduce carbon emissions and protect the environment.

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WRA as an Organization

7 states: To do our part in the fight against climate change, WRA works across seven states in the West to advance clean energy and reduce emissions, save water and protect rivers, and protect lands and access.  

45 Bills were passed in support of tackling climate change and protecting rivers, lands, and air.  

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 33 years: Founded in 1989, WRA has a 33-year history of on-the-ground, solutions-based climate change impact.  

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Clean Energy

We have secured annual carbon emissions reductions of 76 million tons.  

WRA secured over $300 million in state investments in transportation electrification in the last year and a half. That’s ten times the previous total collective investment in our region. We are on a path to securing at least an additional $300 million in the next few months.  

WRA helped pass the region’s very first, and one of the nation’s first, clean heat bills that will force utilities in Colorado to reduce emissions from natural gas by over 25% by 2030.  

Healthy Rivers

WRA led policy development and advocacy at the Colorado Legislature for the successful passage of a turf replacement program that provides $2 million in funding for Coloradans to replace high-water grass landscaping with water-efficient landscaping.  

WRA supported Colorado in designating over 520 miles on 25 streams across southwest Colorado as Outstanding Waters, marking the adoption of the largest community proposal for Outstanding Waters in Colorado’s history.    

WRA helped block the Lake Powell Pipeline and its disastrous effects.  

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Western Lands

We’ve helped to add new or additional layers of protection for wildlife habitat on 7.8 million acres in the past year. 

Building on an idea from New Mexico, we helped establish the new Outdoor Equity Grant Program with dedicated funding in Colorado in 2021.

Our work helped secure over $200 million in appropriations for land conservation in Colorado and New Mexico.

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Western Resource Advocates