The Colorado Water Trust is a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring water to Colorado's rivers. Since 2001, they work with farmers, ranchers, and other water rights holders to return water to streams and rivers through voluntary, market-based transactions.

Their approach involves:

• Partnering with rural stewards who have water rights for irrigation and other purposes, encouraging them to share this finite resource with the community
• Following legal water transfer processes to ensure water flows back into rivers
• Operating non-partisan and focusing on practical solutions rather than advocacy or legislation

The organization has made significant impact, restoring over 31.9 billion gallons of water (98,022 acre-feet) across 814 miles of Colorado's rivers. Their work addresses the challenges of population growth, climate change, and historic drought that threaten the state's river ecosystems, local economies, and communities.