Laserfiche WebLink
environmental preservation program could develop or utilize <br />different methodologies, or develop site selection criteria, <br />findings, and determinations, which -- as a byproduct -- would <br />benefit recreational uses, such as canoeing, kayaking or rafting, <br />more than does a fish flow quantification technique. Conflicts <br />between boating flows and productive fisheries would have to be <br />resolved. Some of the greatest, perhaps irresolvable conflicts, <br />occur between recreational users themselves -- flows optimum for <br />cold water fisheries are not necessarily the optimal rafting <br />flows. <br />Under its own enabling statutes the State Parks Board <br />has authority to purchase, acquire, and appropriate water rights <br />for "recreation purposes" and for the "preservation and <br />conservation of sites, scenes, open space, and vistas of public <br />interest." See C.R.S. § 33-10-107(1)(a). Through this <br />authority, the Parks Board may appropriate, purchase, or lease <br />quantities of water and water rights, and acquire and change <br />existing water rights, for the purpose of flat water recreation <br />and augmentation of stream flows by reservoir releases. The <br />Board may also enter into operational agreements with holders of <br />other water rights to time the delivery of water, into or from <br />storage, in a manner which provides recreational benefits. A <br />number of such arrangements have been made on a spot basis during <br />the past few years as the importance of recreational water use to <br />the public and to the tourist industry has gained significance. <br />An important economy catering to water sports, particularly <br />-22- <br />