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others. The project along with Heyborne, and adjacent landowner Kross will compliment the Tamarack <br />Ranch, a significant component of the Platte River Recovery Program. Recharge credits are expected to be <br />in the range of 160-350 acre-feet/month over an annual range. The property will also be open to public <br />hunting through a CDOW lease over the next five years. <br />DT Ranch (Total Costs: $1,001,009; Grant Request: $316,500) <br />The DT Ranch is duck club located near Weldona, CO in Morgan County and has been operated as such for <br />nearly 90 years, covering most of 2,000 acres in the riverbottom south of the South Platte River. The ranch <br />will use new infrastructure to recapture and retime excess credits from the river and put the credits back to <br />beneficial use. DU and the ranch are working to change the Fort Morgan Irrigation District shares to <br />recharge use so as to further optimize water rights for the benefit of both agriculture and wildlife. The bulk <br />of cost is derived from the pipeline work associated with the project. Remaining match will be provided by <br />the DT Ranch, DU, and NAWCA. The annual yield is expected to be approximately 400 acre-feet. <br />Drake Land Farms (Total Costs: $361,145; Grant Requests: $172,172) <br />The project is located at the South Platte River near Goodrich, CO in Morgan, County. It is comprised of <br />similar habitats as mentioned for other properties in this application including riparian, warm-water sloughs. <br />The property does exhibit a retired gravel pit used to supply the county with pit run gavel for roads. The pit <br />was retired in 2007 in anticipation of a conservation easement to be held with Ducks Unlimited. A <br />conservation easement was purchased by DU in June 2008 and the property is protected in perpetuity. <br />The application is seeking funds to assist with the construction of a large wetland recharge project and <br />restored wetlands on the property and adjacent property. This project will place a well at the river and pump <br />the water about one mile into the sandhills owned by Central Colorado Water Conservation District. Two <br />existing ponds will impound recharge water while it infiltrates back into the aquifer. Models show a 110 day <br />return time to the river. <br />Threshold and Evaluation Criteria <br />The applicant did an excellent job articulating how this application meets the threshold and evaluation <br />criteria. The wetland recharge projects proposed will provide for a wide range of non-consumptive uses but <br />also allow retiming of the river flows from times of surplus to be used as an augmentation source so that <br />water users may divert in months they would otherwise be prohibited from doing so. <br />Discussion: <br />One of DU's stated goals is to work in such a manner allows for maximum efficiency of water use for <br />multiple benefits while assuring that the land will maintain its natural beauty and productive enterprises for <br />agriculture, wildlife, recreation, and municipal and industrial uses. The CWCB has funded two other WSRA <br />grant requests prior and staff is pleased with DU's efforts with these projects to date. <br />The application was originally submitted for $1,118,552 to help fund six separate wetland projects. While <br />staff agrees that each of these six projects should be constructed based on their merits, staff inquired whether <br />it would be possible to request finding for the highest priority projects at the September 2008 CWCB <br />meeting to conserve Statewide Account funds for consideration at the March 2009 CWCB meeting. DU was <br />agreeable to this approach and has removed three of the projects listed in the original application. The <br />projects removed are the Heyborne Conservation Easement, Bridge Farm Project and the Hawk Springs <br />2