• online registration

• lodging information
  
• download .pdf brochure

9:00 a.m.    Pre-convention Workshop: Flow Measurement

4:00 p.m.    Workshop concludes - dinner on your own

 8:00 a.m.    Registration and Breakfast — Breakfast burritos, cinnamon rolls, & refreshments.

 9:00 a.m.    Welcome: Matt Cook, President of DARCA

 9:15 a.m.    Opening Keynote: Congressman John Salazar

10:15 a.m.  Networking and Exhibits.   - Enjoy Refreshments & Snacks.
               
Focus On: The San Luís Valley and the Río Culebra Basin

• Culebra Watershed Issues  ~  Joe Gallegos, Costilla County Commissioner & 5th generation acequia farmer on the San Luís People’s Ditch (first adjudicated water right in Colorado) 

11:45 a.m.  A traditional Lenten meal will be served:  sopa de alberjón maduro {yellow split pea soup}, torta de huevo en chile rojo {egg pattie in red chile sauce}; papas cuarteadas al horno {baked split potatoes}; cacerola de pescado {fish cake casserole}; calabacita con elote {steamed squash with corn}; panocha con crema {Indian pudding with  cream}; té de manzanilla {chamomile tea}.

• Lunch Speaker: Rick Manzanares, Director at the Fort Garland Museum, will discuss heritage tourism and the strategies that communities can utilize to attract tourists but still maintain their cultural heritage.

Focus On: Acequias—An Ancient Water Delivery System.   

• “Agua es la Vida~ Water is Life.”  Priscilla Salazar Martínez, Acequia Farmer. Priscilla will take you on a visual journey through the Acequia Villages surrounding San Luís.
• Acequia Designed Strategies for Water Conservation. Estevan Arellano, Journalist and Novelist, Embudo, New Mexico
  

2:30 p.m.    Networking and Exhibits.—Enjoy Refreshments & Snacks.

Focus On: Innovations in Colorado Water

• Colorado Water Congress Legislative Update. Doug Kemper, Executive Director of the Colorado Water Congress
• The Super Ditch in the Arkansas Valley.  John Singletary, Chairman, and Jay Winner, General Manager,  Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District

5:30 p.m. Cocktail Reception and Dinner with Live Entertainment

• For dinner you will be teated to; grass fed lamb & beef, red and green chile, tortillas de harina, bolita beans, potatoes., calabacitas made from heirloom acequia nourished baby green pumpkins.  Dessert will be organic applesauce & organic carrot cake. Dinner catered by Pepitas.

Speaker—  Dr. Devon G. Peña
Professor of Anthropology
Environmental and Chicano Studies at the University of Washington.
The Acequia Institute, San Acacio, Colorado
www.AcequiaInstitute.org

Following Dinner until 11:00 p.m. Dance with the Music of DJ ~ Larry Ortega

8:00 a.m.    Breakfast with the Board

• You will be treated  to chicos cooked with grass-fed pork, homemade rolls, chile caribe, and Pepita’s pancakes, with traditional chokecherry (capulín) syrup. Chicos are heirloom white tender corn, husk-baked with piñon wood overnight in an outdoor mud-brick bee-hive shaped adobe oven called an horno. These sun dried dehydrated corn kernels are delicious when cooked.

8:30 a.m.    DARCA Annual Board Meeting

Focus On: Learning From Our Neighbor to the North

• Dealing with Water Shortages in Times of Drought. Jim Csabay, Chairman, St. Mary River Irrigation District, Lethbridge, Alberta
  

10:15 a.m.  Networking and Exhibits.—Enjoy Refreshments & Snacks.

Focus On: San Luis Valley History & Future

• A History of the Closed Basin, Dick Stenzel, Applegate Group Inc.
• San Luís Valley Water Preservation Strategies, Christine Canaly, Director, San Luís Valley Ecosystem Council
  

12:00 noon.  Convention Ends. Lunch is on your own. Please enjoy one of OUR fine Family Restaurants

1:30 - 3:30 p.m. "Mini" Sacred Circle Tour ($15.00)

Saturday Sacred Circle Tour 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. ($40)