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. '. .~, ~ ? r; vJl....'t...."" Stakeholders The Stockgrowers The Y-Bar Ranch is exactly what you'd expect of a cattle ranch in the Upper Gunnison River Basin, Tall spruce trees surround the house, which has the look and feel of a home that has been lived in and worked in for generations, Two cow-dogs bark from the side-yard, and a tlatbed work truck is parked in front of the house, Near the house is a complex of corrals, and a barn boasting the Y-Bar brand, Cattle push through the snow out back, nosing for hay leftover from the morning feeding. The Y-Bar is a working cattle ranch owned by Spann Ranches, The Spann family owns several ranches in the upper East River Valley north of Gunnison, and another just west of Gunnison along Highway 50, The family also owns a small ranch at Olathe and farmland near Delta in the lower Gunnison River Basin, Five generations of Spanns have produced cattle in the East River Valley, and illustrate the "first in time, first in right" water doctrine, The family owns senior water rights in the East and Upper Gunnison Rivers, Cattle ranching has always been a difficult way to keep the wolf from the door. More often than not, ranchers are land rich and cash poor, and in times of economic uncertainty, population growth and rock bottom cattle prices, the challenge to meet the bottom line is even greater, Ken Spann and his family work the Y-Bar Ranch, Ken is passionate about his vocation, his community and his lifestyle, The 46 year-old rancher received his law degree from the University of Colorado, is past President of the Gunnison County Stockgrowers Association, and past Chair of the Federal lands Committee of the National Cattlemens' Association, He is a member of the Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District, representing the lower East River and Taylor River Basins, Ken is no stranger to hard work. "My grandfather used to tell me you could judge a man's industry by his shovels and his dogs," said Ken, "If a man works hard, his shovels are shiny and his dogs are skinny" Upwards of 150 irrigators live and work in the Upper Gunnison Basin, livestock producers who own most of the senior and many of the junior water rights in the Basin, Most ranches occupy the fertile bottomland near rivers or streams that provide needed irrigation water. "The way the valley was homesteaded," explained Ken, "the senior water rights lie in the core center of the valley Almost all the junior rights are up in the tops of the drainages," Original adjudication of Gunnison Basin streams and water rights took place as early as 1894, Irrigation water grows hay during the short summers, for harvest in the fall to feed cattle during winter, Water is diverted from the river at a "headgate," and then distributed to outlying hay meadows by a system of irrigation ditches, Irrigation decrees are based on being able to irrigate a described and decreed piece of land, In order to exercise a water right you need a court decree, which specifies where and how the water must be used, To that extent, use of the water is attached to the specific piece of land, However, a person can change a water right, which can include selling, so that it can be used at a different location or for a different purpose, That change requires a change of water right, which is decreed by the court. Water is attached to the land by decree, but if you want to change it you can go to court and seek to do so, Ranchers in the Upper Basin use "tlood irrigation" to nurture their hay crop; the distribution ditches are temporarily dammed and small channels are cut in the ditch walls to allow water to spread onto the field, At the bottom of the field, most of the water is collected in another ditch, which carries it to the next irrigator downstream, The same water is used again and again, The Colorado State Engineer administers about 990,000 acre-feet of annual runoff water in the Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District. Upper Basin irrigation water is "turned on" between April I and May I every year, depending on annual variations in climate, Irrigation is terminated and ditches are drained by October 31. For the years 1990-2000, combined tlood irrigation diversion for all ditches in the Upper Gunnison District averaged 556,648 acre-feet per year, That amount of water was applied to approximately 63,600 acres, equivalent to an average annual headgate diversion of 8,75 acre-feet per acre, Those figures indicate a 7,15 acre-feet per acre return tlow to the river (totaling 454,740 acre-feet); actual consumption of water per acre was 1.6 acre-feet. These estimates are based on periodic field tlow measurements in irrigation ditches, and an estimate of irrigated acreage made by the State Engineers Office, In recent planning studies, an annual headgate diversion requirement of 5,32 acre-feet per acre for tlood irrigation has been used, In this case, the net irrigation requirement to water hay crops was estimated to be 1.6 acre-feet per 13