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Section 4 Delineating and Prioritizing Colorado's Environmental and Recreational Resources and Needs The tabular information was then used to produce GIS layers for mapping purposes. First, the data produced from the database searches described above were combined and sorted by ID. Then these streams were denoted by band as "3 or more" or "headgate" and saved as a tabular file and imported into ArcMap. This information was joined to an existing ISF reach shapefile, with a condition on the join to keep only those records that have a match in the table. Finally, these data were then exported into a new sbapefile, which was used to produce the maps shown in Figure 4-5. Environmental Coverages Audubon Important Bird Areas Audubon Important Bird Area coverages were provided by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Audubon Colorado (Figure 4-6). An Important Bird Area is a site that provides habitat to one or more bird species during some portion of the year, including breeding season, migration, and/or winter. An Important Bird Area may be on private or public land, may or may not be currently protected, and may range in size from a few acres to hundreds of thousands of acres. The recognition of a site does not confer any legal or regulatory status, and is entirely voluntary on the part of landowners and land managers. A range of individuals, including local Audubon chapter members, public land managers, or local residents, may nominate sites. The sites were derived by the Audubon Colorado website: http:// www.audubon.org/chapter/co/ co/wildlife. htm. Water Quality The Clean Water Act (CWA) requires states to develop a list ("303(d) list") of impaired and threatened waters and then remediation strategies to restore the beneficial uses of water. The purpose of developing the 303(d) list is to identify which waters need to have total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) completed so that water quality standards can eventually be met for 303(d) listed segments. The Environment and Recreation TRT determined that 303(d) listings for aquatic life use based on biological data and sediment listings were most closely related to hydrology of the stream. Therefore, these two listings were mapped as a part of SWSI Phase 2. In other words these two listings could represent areas where flow or habitat could potentially be a factor in the listing of the stream segment. Other factors that could be involved in the listing are water quality or temperature impairments. Coverages are included from the Water Quality Control Divisions 2006 303(d) List and Monitoring and Evaluation List for aquatic life use and sediment impairments was obtained from the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment (CDPHE). These coverages (Figures 4-7 through 4-10) can also be viewed at the Water Quality Control Commissions website: http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/op/wgcc/ index.html and http://emaps.dphe.state.co.us/website/ 303dlisting/viewer.htm. Natural Heritage Program In order to protect native species and ecosystems, land and water managers must first know where they occur, how important they are, and what they need to remain viable. Over many years, TNC with its partner organizations, particularly the Colorado Natural Heritage Program (CNHP), has developed a system of identifying and tracking the conservational importance of plants and plant communities (roughly equivalent to habitat type) called Nature Heritage Methodology. CNHP data can assist planners in evaluating the conservation value of a river reach or a watershed by showing locations ofhigh-priority plants and plant communities that may be impacted by human activity. 4-8 FINAL DRAFT