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Executive Summary <br />For <br />The Mancos Rapid Watershed Assessment <br />Submitted By Felicit~~ Broeuuau, Project Coordinator <br />~/ ~ 0/08 <br />The Rapid Watershed Assessment process that we have just completed was the perfect <br />way to begin educating ourselves and our community on watershed issues. <br />With fielding from NRCS and the Colorado Watershed Protection Fund, the Mancos <br />Conservation District underwent a 20 month assessment process that produced many <br />accomplishments. <br />First, we hired Dr. Pete Stacey to complete 17 riparian corridor assessments that measure <br />the health and functionality of the corridor against five criteria. Dr. Stacey completed his <br />report in January of 2007 and concluded that the Mancos River and its tributaries are in <br />fairly healthy shape. His leading concerns were around channelization of the corridor <br />from the town of Mancos to the Mesa Verde Border. He also expressed concern of <br />overgrazing by ungulates, and also about the ditch piping project robbing the riparian <br />area of necessary back flow moisture that keeps much if it alive due to disconnected <br />flood plains. <br />Dr. Stacey also trained 15 volunteers over atwo- day period to use the protocol, thus <br />ensuring that we continue to assess the same reaches annually to build a database of <br />changes. <br />Our assessment included some excellent techiucal maps that were put together by an <br />MRCS team. These maps and graphs help us understand some of the larger contexts of <br />the watershed such as soil types, vegetative matrixes, acreages, current conservation <br />applications, lists of threatened and endangered species, etc.. . <br />It also includes a painstakingly accurate history of the Mancos River Corridor by Marilyn <br />Colyer from Mesa Verde National Park. This 80+ page document is the only one of its <br />kind and is a thorough inventory of resources, property ownership changes, <br />herbicide/pesticide use, bird/reptile/mammal inventories and histories, vegetation <br />inventories, and much more. <br />The Ute Mountain Ute Environment Department submitted a resource assessment of their <br />portion of the watershed as well. Also in the report is a document submitted by the <br />hydrologist at the San Juan National Forest regarding the studies done on the East Fork of <br />the Mancos River, our 303-d listed river. <br />Three public meetings were held throughout the 20 months in the town of Mancos. <br />These gatherings allowed us to collect valuable information from landowners, and gave <br />us a medium to share our findings and progress as we went along. We used these <br />meetings as a forum and as a way to ensure some resource education too! We also <br />