This past Wednesday, the 9th, the Western Slope Environmental Resource Council (WSERC) Board of Directors approved the Agreement and Plan of Merger between WSERC and NFRIA and voted to present the Agreement and Plan of Merger to the membership for a final vote. This vote is tentatively scheduled for June 29th.
Whatever the WSERC membership decides, their vote will end a process that began early this year with unofficial talks and picked up pace when the merger was unanimously approved both by an unofficial WSERC membership straw poll vote and subsequent official NFRIA membership vote at our respective annual meetings.
Throughout all of this, our membership has shown tremendous support and enthusiasm. The NFRIA Board of Directors and I appreciate this support and will use it as inspiration as we begin an exciting new chapter.
At NFRIA, we are optimistic that by the end of July the merger will officially take place, and as the NFRIA-WSERC Conservation Center we can begin to move forward with renewed vigor and focus. The bottom line is this: we have much work left to do in this valley. We have done a great deal to preserve and restore the North Fork River; however, within the next year we will release our new and updated Watershed Plan, take on another major river restoration project, likely initiate two new water quality monitoring programs (one for selenium and the other for natural gas production), administer a brand new youth river awareness education program, make over $70,000 worth of improvements to the Paonia River Park, and begin to write the grants that keep our work alive and our mission strong.
Thank you for sticking with us during this process. We will be in touch again when the merger is final.
Regards,
Dave Stiller
Executive Director
No comments:
Post a Comment