9351

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9351
• Author: Hobbs, G.
• Title: Water For Recreation, Water Quality, and Wetlands".
• USFW Year: 1990.
• USFW - Doc Type: \
• Copyright Material: NO

floatboating, is growing up on the Arkansas, the Colorado, the
Gunnison, the Yampa, and many other rivers in Colorado.
Because water is often not available in the streams of
the State, except from storage releases, during a very
significant user period -- July, August, and September after the
Spring runoff -- any program of recreational water use to benefit
the public interest will necessarily depend upon cooperative
water management with other water users and ownership of water
rights by the Parks Board.
In dry times there is no substitute for ownership of
water, particularly water in storage. If a stable recreational
economy is to be maintained as an enduring economic base for
Colorado to take its place with a strong agricultural, municipal,
and commercial economy, the State will need to invest in water
rights and additional water development for this purpose. It is
very difficult for private individuals to marshall the capital
for purchase of water rights and the development of storage
structures, or components of storage facilities, intended for
recreational water use. Since it is the public at large which
will benefit from recreational water use, it is logical that a
Statewide recreational waters program be established and funded
in the State Parks Board, in order to enhance the State's
interest in recreation on behalf of its citizens and visitors.
The public, through assessments and tax levies by
cities and special water districts, now pays for appropriation
and development of municipal water supply. This same
constituency ( four-fifths of our State population now exists in
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