SPDSS_Task70_Collect Data and Estimate Wildlife Area Use

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Ducks Unlimited Ducks Unlimited is involved with many projects throughout Colorado that focus on protecting and restoring habitat for water fowl species. A maj ority of these projects are in the South Platte and North Platte River Basins and in the San Luis Valley because these regions provide most of the state's habitat for these birds. Similarly to the USDA Wetland Reserve Program, Ducks Unlimited's restoration and management efforts are focused on conservation easements agreed upon by the landowner and Ducks Unlimited. The USFWS is often involved in the easement process, as is the CDOW. Under the conservation easement, the landowner continues to own the land and water rights, but agrees not to develop the land in the future. The diversion records and water rights continue to be kept under the specific ditch company and are reported to the State Engineer as they were prior to signing of the easement. Ducks Unlimited operates these easements to facilitate the production of desirable plant species and habitat for migrating water fowl. In the spring, fields or meadows are flooded to trigger seed bank production and provide habitat for birds during their spring migration. The land is allowed to dry up, or partially dry through the summer. This enables the plants that rooted in the spring to complete their life cycle and prevents undesirable plant species from taking hold with continued land inundation. In some cases, grazing and mowing is also utilized to maintain desirable species composition. The land is flooded once more in the fall to provide habitat for the autumn migration. This cycle is characteristic of management and restoration projects operated by Ducks Unlimited. The organization is concerned with providing efficient water use and focuses on these shallow, flow-through systems, rather than deeper, pond-based systems because the former provides better, more productive habitat for water fowl species, and the later tends to require more water as a result of evaporative losses. No special consideration needs to be given to easements that are operated by Ducks Unlimited, since the water diversions associated with these easements are still recorded under the ditch system that serves the land and there has been no increase in irrigated land of water use. Therefore, acreage is accounted for in the irrigated acreage assessment and the associated consumptive use is accounted for in crop consumptive use analysis. Recommendations No specific action needs to be taken to address the consumptive use of water on wildlife areas in the South Platte and North Platte River Basins for the following reasons: 1) No additional irrigated acreage or increased use of water is involved with the creation of wildlife areas. The creation of these areas often results in a decrease in irrigated acreage, which is reflected in the SPDSS irrigated acreage assessment. 2) The irrigation to these areas occurs similarly to the historic irrigation of the lands. 3) The total acreage and crop type will be accounted for in the SPDSS irrigated acreage assessment, and the acreage will be assigned to the ditch that provides the water. 4) Crop consumptive use will be accounted for in the historical crop analysis. Page 4 of 8