The State of Colorado's Watersheds Report 2005

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statewide update The Colorado Water Trust (CWT) continues working across the state to acquire water rights for conservation benefits. CWT uses transactions with willing water rights owners to purchase water rights (including interests in water rights), accepts donations of water rights, and assists other conservation groups with acquiring water rights. CWT also provides technical assistance to land trusts, watershed groups, and other conservation organizations that protect or manage water rights. CWT finalized the acquisition of nearly 800 acre -feet of senior water rights in May 2005. CWT will donate the water rights to the Colorado Water Conservation Board Instream Flow program which formally agreed to accept the donation. The water rights will be used to meet instream flow requirements in Summit County's Boulder Creek and the Blue River. The increased flows will benefit brook trout populations along with general stream health in one of Colorado's most used and visible stream systems. The transaction marks an important milestone for CWT and the Conservation Board. It is CWT'S first transaction and the first donation accepted by the Conservation Board under new rules that allow the State to acquire water rights in order to improve stream flows for the benefit of the environment. Badly needed technical assistance will arrive this fall when CWT releases the Water Rights Handbook for Colorado Conservation Easements. Conservation easements are one of the most widely used tools for land protection in Colorado and water rights are the cause of much concern and uncertainty when addressed as part of conservation easements. The Handbook was funded by Great Outdoors Colorado and provides critical information about the relationship between conservation easements and water rights. Land trusts, open space programs, watershed groups, and landowners will now have a resource that thoroughly addresses the most critical components that unite water and land protection. CWT is actively working on projects around the state. The most promising projects involve our strongest collaborators. For example, CWT is working with the Roaring Fork Conservancy and the Nature Conservancy on projects in the Roaring Fork River basin including the Crystal River. In the San Miguel watershed CWT is working with the San Miguel Watershed Coalition, the Nature Conservancy and Trout Unlimited on the San Miguel River Restoration Project. CWT will provide technical assistance that aids the efforts to preserve existing water uses while improving navigability and reconnecting fish habitat along specific stretches of the San Miguel River. Brook trout