Recreational Instream Flow Workshop Tanscription of Meeting Tape

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something to get the water. Rather than just go to water court make an application and put on some number. It's sort of a due diligence type of thing. The other thing in the engineering is that we take a basin wide approach. We know who's exchanging we know when they are exchanging, we know how much they are exchanging and we know why they are exchanging. That is important for us because we want to work within that s_Ystem. We don't try to come in and change anything dramatically. We try to go into a system that we already know a lot about and try to work within it. And try to make give some give and take so that the impact of what State Parks is trying to do is minimal to the basins. And yet we can shuck and jive through this process so that we get what we want out of the deal and that is increased flows. We also have to be very considerate of the existing instream flows that are already in place. Its no secret that recreational flows depending on how you define recreation may be in conflict with some the already existing piscatorial flows. That's why at State Parks we emphasize twelve month flow programs so that we understand the whole system all the way through. And we are not isolating any chunks of time to simply benefit state parks again it sort of this cooperative meld that we are working towards. So that we understand what is going to happen on the river system throughout the whole year. I think it's important too that we consider mechanical and biological considerations at the same time. You can't really, from our experience, distinguish the two separately. If you are going to have boating impacts to fishery or fishery impacts to boating you got a have a way to figure it out at the same time. So if you isolate one versus the other I think is a mistake. And we found through our process that as brain damaging as it is. Stick all the little problems on the table to begin with a start sifting you way through them. Another important aspect of knowing the basin wide hydrology and taking a basin wide approach. Is you can get intp the timing of use. Recreation, instream flows generally are seasonal some are weekly some are monthly some are daily. Pinpointing when you need the water, how you are going to get it there, and who's going to benefit is important. So I think from our standpoint we have to look at the timing of use issue just a critical as how much water we are going to have, who's going to be using, who's going to benefit and so on and so forth. We also at State Parks work very closely with reservoir operators. Storage is a key component to us to maintain flows. New appropriations new acquisitions not always the ticket for us. So we work within existing systems so we can utilize and better understand how reservoir releases are made. How can we optimize those reservoir releases to benefit State Parks? We also are very in tune with trying to maximize the maximum benefit for each water right. So we are not a really consumptive use so we look at a multiple use scenario. Can we float on that water and some one else pick it up downstream? We don't want our use to be the end use. We strive very hard with our management agreements to make sure once we are done with the water somebody else can use it. O.K. So, in conclusion, first of all I think these kinds of discussions are very helpful. I wish when I would have started at State Parks we would have had clearer indication like eve are trying to generate here. I think we need to take and develop a mechanism to address all the stakeholders and make it a basin wide issue. It would save us a lot of money and save us a lot of time, particular staff members may go brain damaged but I think in the long term the idea here is that you can't %vork in a vacuum when you are talking about instream flows. And finally I think out of those discussions we can come up with a solution. Now, my experience says that solution may be very well be one that no one likes. But as long as everyone equally dislikes it, it may be successful. Maybe maybe not. An%'Way, thank you for your time I '11 take any questions. EW Questions anyone. Thanks Paul.I appreciate it. Next Roy Smith with BLM. Roy Smith (BLM) — I guess I will stand here, it hot. For those of you who don't know me my name is Roy Smith. I'm the instream flow and water rights coordinator for the Bureau of Land Management in Colorado and for those of you who are familiar with the bureau. We manage about 8.5 million acres within Colorado about 13% of the state and we are in the enviable or often not enviable position of managing lands along the major river systems in Colorado as they leave the state. So right next to the state boundaries. Rivers like the Yampa, the `'White the lo« Colorado, the Rio Grande. We manage that 21