My WebLink
|
Help
|
About
|
Sign Out
Home
Browse
Search
FLOOD10357
CWCB
>
Watershed Protection
>
DayForward
>
FLOOD10357
Metadata
Thumbnails
Annotations
Entry Properties
Last modified
6/11/2010 2:07:19 PM
Creation date
5/15/2007 10:43:24 AM
Metadata
Fields
Template:
Watershed Protection
Document ID
123
County
Rio Grande
Stream Name
Alamosa River
Basin
Rio Grande
Sub-Basin
Alamosa - Trinchera
Water Division
3
Title
Alamosa River Watershed Project Literature and Watershed Assesment, Final EPA Report
Date
9/30/2003
Prepared For
Valle del Sol Community Center
Prepared By
US Environmental Protection Agency
Watershed Pro - Doc Type
Project Report
There are no annotations on this page.
Document management portal powered by Laserfiche WebLink 9 © 1998-2015
Laserfiche.
All rights reserved.
/
111
PDF
Print
Pages to print
Enter page numbers and/or page ranges separated by commas. For example, 1,3,5-12.
After downloading, print the document using a PDF reader (e.g. Adobe Reader).
Show annotations
View images
View plain text
<br />I <br />I <br />,I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I' <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />include the Rio Grande National Forest, the Great Sand Dunes National Monument, the <br />Alamosa and Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuges and extensive tracts of land <br />administered by the Bureau of Land Management. <br /> <br />3.2 The Alamosa River Watershed <br /> <br />The Alamosa River Watershed comprises 127,000 acres in Conejos County in the San <br />Luis Valley of south central Colorado (Figure 1). The mainstem of the Alamosa River is <br />53 miles long. There are several high elevation tributaries on the east side of the <br />Continental Divide (above 12, 000 feet elevation) that make up the headwaters of the <br />river. The Alamosa River flows to the east and dissipates in wetlands near the Rio <br />Grande River at an elevation of 7,000 feet. The main tributaries to the Alamosa River <br />are Iron Creek, Bitter Creek, Alum Creek, and Wightman Fork. These tributaries heavily <br />influence the water quality of the Alamosa River. Many of these tributaries have <br />naturally high concentrations of metals and high sediment transport due to the geology <br />of the area. <br /> <br />The Conejos County Soil Conservation District with the support of the Natural Resource <br />Conservation Service (NRCS) developed the Management Plan for the Alamosa River <br />Watershed in 1997 (6). The watershed plan was initiated due to watershed problems <br />from mining, channel straightening, and overuse of riparian vegetation. The former <br />Watershed Coordinator, Jeff Stern, started acquiring the information for the watershed <br />plan in 1995 and developed the final report in 1997. This document is an excellent <br />resource toward understanding the basic watershed conditions that are still relevant in <br />2003 and the problems and challenges within the watershed. <br /> <br />The 1997 watershed document provides information on the watershed problems as they <br />existed in 1995-1997. In many respects, the problems really have not changed much in <br />the past several years. Many problems have become more pronounced due to the <br />drought conditions that have been experience in the San Luis Valley. It is recommended <br />that the future watershed restoration plan take full advantage of the watershed insights <br />and natural resource information compiled by Jeff Stern. <br /> <br />The 1997 watershed study identified fourteen key issues of concern during the <br />development of the document: <br /> <br />. River restoration <br />. Water quality <br />. Spring flooding <br />. Irrigation diversion structures <br />. Plant quality <br />. Wildlife habitat <br />. Riparian areas <br /> <br />. Economics <br />· Noxious weeds <br />. Water storage <br />. Bank erosion <br />· Roads and traffic <br />. Fisheries <br />· Dewatering of spring (for livestock) <br /> <br />3.3 Watershed Public Involvement <br /> <br />The Alamosa River Watershed contains several organizations that are interested in the <br />management of the watershed and improving the water quality of the river. These <br /> <br />3-2 <br />
The URL can be used to link to this page
Your browser does not support the video tag.