A new year brings with it resolutions, pledges, and people striving to better themselves. I thought it would be good to also highlight some opportunities where we can better our communities and beautiful public spaces this year.

The Protect Our Rivers organization has three river cleanups scheduled for 2023 around Colorado. RSVP on the event page of their website here.

• 16th Annual South Platte Cleanup - Saturday April 29th - Denver, CO
• Poudre River with Weibel Auto Group and American Whitewater - Saturday August 5th - Fort Collins, CO
• National Public Lands Day - Upper C - Saturday September 30th - Kremling, CO

The Greenway Foundation hosts youth and high school focused events worth checking out including a South Platte River cleanup in 2023. Registration will open in March here.

• Spring High School Stewardship Day - South Platte River cleanup along the river at Johnson Habitat Park. Food and service hours provided but is for high school aged youth only.

The Denver Park Trust is putting on a citywide stewardship day including park cleanups at several locations around Denver. More details will be coming here.

• Parks, Rivers, Trails & Trees - May 13th - Citywide park cleanup followed by a community celebration

The Confluences is a family blog focused on wilderness and camping which has hosted three annual Clean Creek cleanups called A Cleaner Clear. Recaps from past events can be found on their blog here. A 4th annual cleanup should be watched for in late 2023.

Do you have a location that you'd like to organize a cleanup for? The folks responsible for A Cleaner Clear have a blogpost laying out all of the steps you should take when planning a cleanup. If anything, it helped remind me just how much work and personal time goes into planning events like these.

These are just some events that I've found coming up in 2023. I know that I've missed many so if there are others, please share them with the group! The year is still young so many events haven't been announced yet. Have a wonderful 2023!

Danny McCausland is an Analyst II at Metro Water Recovery. He has over 9 years experience working in the water quality field.