Rio Grande - Manassa Conejos River & N Branch Stablization_Application

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Water Supply Reserve Account - Grant Application Form Fonn Revised May 2007 • It also enhances riparian habitat, enlarges the fishery, irnprove the natural stability of the stream bank, and increase capacity of the Conejos to transport sediment. • It improve function of the floodplain. • It helps to maintain property values, to decrease the danger involved in clearing the charniel, and avoids high maintenance costs. The Water Activity Addresses Issues of Statewide Value o. The water activity helps sustain agriculture and open space or meets environmental or recreational needs. The sediment loading at this bifiircation point is primarily caused by lateral movement of the channel, resulting in loss of stream bank stability, degradation of the riparian habitat, and by deposition of bed-load materials downstream. This sediment loading negatively affects the condition of the fisher-. Channel movement has resulted in deterioration of the riparian habitat and contributes woody debris to the system through the loss of large herbaceous plant materials. This Project helps sustain agriculture by improving water quality and reducing bed-load materials downstream. It enhances environmental needs by improving riparian habitat, enhancing the fisher-, improving the natural stability of the stream bank, and increasing capacity of the river to transport sediment. The Project plays a major role in improving the function of the floodplain. • This water activity helps sustain agriculture in one of Colorado's most productive regions by ensuring the delivery of irrigation water, in priority, for cash crops and for livestock industry forage. • MLI and all irrigators in this system have been entitled to this water since the late 1800s, but for the past 15 years, due to bank instability and erosion problems, have not been able to divert their full decreed water right, especially when water levels are low, later in the year. • This Project restores the stability of the chaimel so that it can optimize existing and future water supplies and sustainably meet the consumptive and nonconsumptive demands of the Conejos watershed. • By protecting from immediate loss of the channel in Phase I, by creating a stable streainflow in Phase II, and by constructing the Core and the Diversion Gates in Phase III, this Project protects and enhances riparian areas and helps to safeguard the valuable recreational assets which are valued by the public and which draw tourists and vacationers to Colorado from around the world. • This Project protects documented habitat of the southwestern willow flycatcher, the bald eagle, and the yellow-billed cuckoo by revegetating the site. • It eril-iances water quality for the Habitat Focus Area just below Antonito and improves the health of dense willow patches in riparian areas along the Conejos, where these birds, listed as endangered or threatened by the EPA, are found. p. The water activity- assists in the administration of compact-entitled waters or addresses problems related to compact entitled waters and compact compliance and the degree to which the activity promotes maximum utilization of state waters. • The flow of compact-entitled waters is directly managed at this bifurcation point on the Conejos. This water activity therefore directly affects the administration and fulfillment of Colorado's Rio Grande Compact by eliminating problems in the control strictures of the Core and the Diversion 13