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<br />. <br /> <br />~DAILY <br />~NEWS <br /> <br />Water trust finalizes first sale <br /> <br />By BOB BERWYN <br />summit daily news <br />June 3, 2005 <br /> <br />Il!lo.Comments (0) ~Print B1Email <br /> <br />SUMMIT COUNTY - Tumbling <br />down from the craggy heights of the <br />Gore Range, Boulder Creek is a <br />typical Colorado mountain stream, all <br />mossy boulders and full of flashing <br />brook trout darting under shady <br />banks. <br /> <br /> <br />Howard (Scotty) <br />Moser clears an <br />irrigation ditch on his <br />Slate Creek Ranch <br />Friday morning. In a <br />groundbreaking deal <br />finalized last week, <br />the nonprofit <br />Colorado Water Trust <br />spent $130,000 to <br />buy 800 acre-feet of <br />water from Howard <br />and Jeanette Moser, owners of the Slate Creek Ranch. <br /> <br />Summit Daily/Brad Odekirk <br /> <br />,. <br />., <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />But the small creek, which pours into the Blue River a few miles north of Silverthorne, is <br />also a model for a new type of water rights transaction aimed at bolstering the <br />environment. <br /> <br />In a groundbreaking deal finalized last week, the nonprofit Colorado Water Trust spent <br />$130,000 to buy 800 acre-feet of water from Howard (Scotty) and Jeanette Moser, <br />owners of the Slate Creek Ranch. The water will be dedicated to meeting instream flow <br />requirements in Boulder Creek and the Lower Blue, instead of being diverted for <br />irrigation, Flows in Boulder Creek will now be significantly higher during the late <br />summer and early fall. <br /> <br />The trust will then resell the water to the Colorado River Water Conservation District for <br />use farther downstream. The deal still requires final approval from state water courts. It's <br />the first transaction of this kind in Colorado, and the first deal coming to fruition for the <br />trust, formed in 2002. <br /> <br />"We're happy it went so well in the end," said Jeanette Moser. <br /> <br />"Hopefully they'll get it through court. Now that that's done, we hope to live here <br />happily ever after," the longtime local rancher said with a laugh. <br /> <br />The water rights were associated with a 160-acre chunk of the Slate Creek Ranch that <br />was sold to the U.S. Forest Service several years ago, Moser said. The irrigation <br />diversion from Boulder Creek had a long history of typical water shenanigans, including <br />illegal diversions by neighbors. <br /> <br />. <br />