Across the Colorado water community, and the whole of our nation, there is broad recognition that we need to find ways to address racial and socioeconomic divides to bring new voices to the table and pursue increased access and equitable involvement. This is relevant to our fields of water policy, water management, and water protection and especially public education, participation and outreach.

As always, the conference will cover a cross-section of topics ranging from forest health to flood risk management, stakeholder outreach to climate change, streamflow protection to protecting private lands, river restoration to stormwater management, project permitting to water quality protection, and all aspects of adaptation.

In considering identified gaps between science and policy, how are practitioners, academics, educators and decision makers finding success in making our policies a better reflection of science than ever before? What adaptive management tools are most useful? Where is there still room for improvement?