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Douglas Basin Ecosystem Management Area Craig District White River Resource Area M August, 1994 Setting and scope The Douglas Creek basin, a tributary to the White River, includes Main Douglas Creek, East and West Douglas Creek, Cathedral Creek and their tributaries. There are six grazing allotments within the basin, totaling 271,000 acres of public land and 32,000 acre of private land. Issues/problems being The goal for management of the area is to maintain the social and economic addressed livelihood of the area while improving the condition of natural resources. This includes resolving conflicts between oil and gas development, livestock grazing, wildlife populations, wild horse populations, and paleontological values. Many of the management actions implemented in the area have focused on improving riparian condition. The basin contains approximately 120 miles of perennial streams. The basin also contains two Areas of Critical Environmental Concern - Coal Draw (paleontological resources) and Cathedral Creek (candidate populations of Colorado River Cutthroat Trout). Participants Participants in the development of management actions for the area have included: BLM, county commissioners, EPA, SCS, grazing permittees, Conoco, Public Service of Colorado, Chandler and Associates, The Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club and Friends of the Mustangs. Sources of technical input USF&WS' and US Biological Survey - willow distribution studies, beaver suitability indexes, grazing system comparisons, inventory/monitoring of neotropical birds Nature Conservancy - riparian inventories CO DOW - beaver census CSU - range management practices Brief history and present Discussions with affected interests began in 1986. A formal group was convened status in March of 1990 to formulate a coordinated resource management plan. The group was made up of BLM, County commissioners, CSU Coop. Extension, Ranchers, CSU Extension specialist, E.P.A., S.C.S., Conoco, Public Service CO. of Colorado., Sierra Club. The group met several times to address and correct several land use problems. Since then most of the attention has been focused on riparian and upland objectives. Several tours have been held to demonstrate and educate about the values of riparian areas and uplands. In addition, several publications have featured articles about riparian condition improvements on East Douglas and Cathedral Creeks which came about from improved livestock management. SFunding sources BLM provides cooperative funding to U.S. Biological Survey for studies on Douglas Creek.