Rio Grande - Rio Grande Initiative_Application_2008

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. Individual donors Additional funds must also be raised to cover the implementation of this project. To date, RiGHT has secured project planning and implementation funding from sources including: . CDOW: Colorado Wildlife Conservation Grant . CDOW: Habitat Partnership Program . CDOW: Wetlands Initiative Program . Kodak American Greenways Award Program . Rio Grande Headwaters Restoration Project . Ruth H. Brown Foundation . Colorado Conservation Trust . SLY Regional Committee of the EI Pomar Foundation . SL V GIS/GPS Authority . USFWS h. The applicant has a demonstrated need for financial assistance based on the inability or difficulty obtaining funding elsewhere. The substantial funding necessary for an effort of this large scale is clearly a challenge for any organization. However, the opportunity to protect a substantial portion of the headwaters of an important Colorado water course and its senior water rights is exceptionally rare -and it exists now on the Rio Grande. Our organizations are committed to raising the maximum funds possible for this project-the more funds we raise, the more land and water we conserve, and the greater contribution we make to our community's shared objective of water sustainability. Thus, our need for financial support is both timely and urgent, as GOCO Legacy Grants are made available only every few years and we have received such a substantial award in 2007. We have landowners ready and interested in participating now; creating a demand that must be met in a reasonable time frame, or it simply may not exist in the future. The commitment of the Rio Grande Basin's $200,000 in Basin funds, along with the request for $1.3 million of Statewide funds for this application demonstrates further the importance of this project for the immediate future. Meeting Water Management Goals and Obiectives and Identified Water Needs i. The water activity helps complete a needs assessment, including consumptive and/or non-consumptive needs, that was not fully funded from other sources. While the Rio Grande Basin's (and all basins') consumptive and nonconsumptive needs assessment processes are still in progress, clearly the conservation of river corridor land and senior water rights is a high priority and will emerge as a primary need from both needs assessments processes for the Rio Grande Basin. This is demonstrated by the SWSI reports, studies done by RiGHT and our partner organizations and by the broad based local and statewide support for the Rio Grande Initiative. j. The water activity meets one or more of the water management objectives identified in the Statewide Water Supply Initiative, helps implement projects and processes identified as helping meet Colorado's future water needs, and/or addresses the gap areas between available water supply and future need as identified in the Statewide Water Supply Initiative or a roundtable's basin-wide water needs assessment done in accordance with the Colorado Water for the 21 Century Act. Page 18 of 32 Rio Grande Initiative Janual'Y 2008