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<br />t <br /> <br />f <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br /> <br />for both cold and warm water fisheries and for whole stream, lake, riparian, and wetlands <br />systems, in bolh small headwaters and larger order water bodies. <br /> <br />In coordination with other state-wide conservation entities like the Colorado Coalition of Land <br />Trusts, the Colorado Watershed Assembly, Trout Unlimited, Ducks Unlmited, and The Nature <br />Conservancy, the wec will work with the CWCB, with Colorado water users, and with local <br />land trusts and watershed groups to identify additional opportunities for establishing <br />conservation waler rights and to provide the technical and financial assistance necessary for their <br />establishment. The wee would not seek to appropriate water that is not diverted for out-of- <br />stream use or stored. It would not, for example, appropriate water for boat chutes. Specifically, <br />the WCC would pursue or support the following kinds of transactions nnder existing law: <br /> <br />)> Existing water rights could be placed under covenants at connnon law or easements to ensure <br />their continued use for conservation purposes withoul changing the type or location of water <br />use or point of diversion. Such voluntary and private restrictions would be analogous to land <br />conservation easements. <br /> <br />)> Existing water rights could be acquired throllgh donation or purchase, and offered to the <br />CWCB for changing their use in the waler courts to the preservalion of the natural <br />environment to a reasonable degree, so long as there is no injury to other existing water <br />rights. The WCC will seek to retain contractual and enforcement remedies under existing <br />law when it offers acquired water rights to the CWCB for conversion to instrelllu flow <br />protection. <br /> <br />)> Acquired water rights could be alternated between inslream flows and municipal, <br />agricultural, and other oul-of-slream water uses, in cooperation with the CWCB. The <br />agreement between Ihe CWCB and the City of Boulder is a good example, under which a <br />portfolio of the City's senior water rights are dedicated to instream flows, but can revert back <br />to municipal supply under set drought criteria <br /> <br />)> Exisling water rights could be acquired and used to maintain or restore wetlands. The crop <br />would be switched from pasture to wetland vegetation, in its simplest form, or the WCC <br />would seek a change of water rights in the water courts to divert water to irrigate wetland <br />vegetation. <br /> <br />The WCC's initial board of direclors will include people from a cross section of organizations <br />and interests connnitted to protecting Colorado's rich, water-dependent natural heritage and <br />environmental diversity. <br /> <br />2 <br /> <br /> <br />26 <br />