Environmental Stewards

Western Hardrock Watershed Team

WHWT is a coalition of community/watershed improvement groups, confronting the challenges that remain from historic mining in the West. We address environmental degradation and community impoverishment, providing rural mining communities with the skills and capacity they need to make their neighborhoods / watersheds better places to live and work.

The Western Hardrock Watershed Team (WHWT) provides important capacity-building support to rural mining communities. Made possible by an innovative partnership among the Office of Surface Mining, AmeriCorps VISTA, Southwest Conservation Corps, state mining offices and local community/watershed groups, the WHWT places year-long, college-trained OSM/VISTA Volunteer Watershed Development Coordinators with local groups working in communities impoverished by pre-regulatory mining activity in their home place/watersheds. Each placement is for a minimum of three years, requiring a commitment to capacity building and long-term improvement at each WHWT site.   www.hardrockteam.org

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