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Summary The information contained in this report and the associated appendix forms the basis for staff's instream flow recommendation to be considered by the Board. It is staff's opinion that the information contained in this report is sufficient to support the findings required in Rule Si. Colorado's Instream Flow Program was created in 1973 when the Colorado State Legislature recognized "the need to correlate the activities of mankind with some reasonable preservation of the natural environment" (see 37-92-102 (3) C.R.S.). The statute vests the CWCB with the exclusive authority to appropriate and acquire instream flow and natural lake level water rights. In order to encourage other entities to participate in Colorado's Instream Flow Program, the statute directs the CWCB to request instream flow recommendations from other state and federal agencies. The Bureau of Land Management recommended this segment of Badger Creek to the CWCB for an enlarged water right under the Instream Flow Program. Badger Creek is being considered for an enlargement because it has a natural environment that can be preserved to a reasonable degree with an enlarged instream flow water right. The BLM is very interested in protecting stream flows for multiple reasons. First, Badger Creek is the subject of ongoing partnership efforts between BLM, U.S. Forest Service, and private landowners to improve watershed, aquatic, and riparian conditions. Second, Badger Creek provides important brown trout spawning habitat for the Arkansas River brown trout population because of its very stable flow rates and good water quality. Badger Creek is 29.8 miles long. The portion of the creek with perennial flow begins at a series of very large springs near Antelope Gulch at an elevation of approximately 8850 feet. Although maps show the stream extending upstream from this location, the stream has an ephemeral flow pattern above the springs. Badger Creek terminates at the confluence with the Arkansas River near Wellsville at an elevation of approximately 6,750 feet. Of the 16.4 mile segment addressed by this report, 90 percent is located on public lands. Bader Creek is located within Fremont County. The total drainage area of the creek is approximately 211 square miles. Badger Creek generally flows in a southerly direction. The subject of this report is a segment of Badger Creek beginning at a large spring complex in SE/4 SE/4, Section 13, TS 1N R10E, and extending downstream to the confluence with the Arkansas River (see Figures 2 and 3). The proposed segment is located east of the City of Salida. The staff has received only one recommendation for this segment, from the BLM. The recommendation for this segment is discussed below. Justification for Enlargement BLM has determined the existing Instream Flow regime, a single year-round discharge value, is inadequate to protect the natural environment to a reasonable degree. This determination results from an assessment of the importance of a snowmelt-dominated flow regime to, among other things, the geomorphology of Badger Creek. The single discharge value fails to provide for the periodic higher flows needed to remove accumulated sediment, provide spawning trigger flows, ameliorate high solar radiation loading, and provide adequate suitable habitat in the absence of bank vegetation and overhanging banks. As a result, BLM completed additional field data collection and concluded all three of the flow factors considered (wetted perimeter, depth and velocity) had to be protected in the Instream Flow Water Right. With the existing year-round flow only two of the target values for these factors were regularly achieved. Only by increasing the ISF values could the three factors, and the resulting geomorphic and biologic functions, be protected to a reasonable degree.