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The Gore Creek watershed has undergone rapid land-use changes since the 1960's as the Vail area shifted from traditional mountain ranchlands to a four-season resort community. Land use/land cover in the Gore Creek watershed is 63 percent forested land. 14 percent shrub-brushland or mixed rangeland. 14 percent tundra and exposed rock areas. 8 percent urban. and I percent other land-uselland- cover classifications (fig. 4). Forested lands. which include deciduous. evergreen. and mixed forests. dominate the area below timberline (about 12.000 ft) and above the valley floor. The north-facing slopes contain a greater percentage of aspen and evergreen forests than the south-facing slopes. which contain sparser vegetation dominated more by shrubs and grasses. The U.S. Forest Service manages approxi- mately 96 mi2 of Federal land in the Gore Creek watershed. including about 6 mi2 of the Vail Mountain ski area. The urban classification includes residential. transportation. commercial. and other urban catego- ries. Residential. recreational. commercial. and trans- portation development occurs near Gore Creek and its tributaries to support the increasing permanent and tourist population of the area. The Town of Vail (which is about 6 mi2 along a narrow corridor adjacent to Gore Creek). the Vail Mountain ski area. and Interstate 70 comprise the major land develop- ments in the watershed. Interstate 70 extends 18 miles from Vail Pass along Black Gore and Gore Creeks through the Town of Vail. About one-half of the urban classification is the Vail Mountain ski area. Nearly all development is confined by terrain to the narrow Gore Creek valley floor. which is about 3.000 ft wide. All land-us eiland-cover classifications were determined during the late 1970's (Fegeas and others. 1983) and redefined with 1990 population data (Hin. 1995). The population of Eagle County has increased about 192 percent between 1970 (7.498 people) and 1990 (21.928 people) (U.S. Bureau of the Census. 1970.1990). An increase of about 158 percent from the 1990 population is projected for Eagle County by the year 2020 (56.668 people). The population of the Town of Vail. about 17 percent of the Eagle County population. has increased about 20 percent from 1990 (3.716 people) to 1997 (4.454 people) (Russell Forrest, Director of Community Develop- ment, Town of Vail, oral commun., 1998). Vail is about 85 percent developed; therefore. population growth is limited by availability of land for develop- ment (Russell Forrest, Director of Community Development, Town of Vail. oral commun.. 1998). However, these population numbers only represent the permanent population, and unincorporated towns are not included in the census. Also. many tourists add significantly to the population of the watershed primarily during the winter and summer months. Therefore. the population census does not reflect the full demand on the water resources in the area. . ....... --- "" "l."..- Town of Vail. Photograph by Ken Neubecker. DATA SOURCES AND COMPILATION Data describing water, sediment, and tissue chemistry; water quantity; and macroinvertebrate. algal. and fish communities were obtained from many local. State. and Federal agencies and individuals. Electroni- cally available data were merged into a relational data- base to facilitate analysis of the historical and current (I 998) water-quantity. water-quality. and ecological conditions for the Gore Creek watershed. The type of data and its sources are summarized in table I. Data for many of the sampling sites listed in table I were collected by more than one agency. and each agency had its own site-numbering and naming con- ventions. If a sampling site had several identification numbers. the USGS site name and site identification number. if available, were used and are listed in table I. DATA SOURCES AND COMPILATION 7