BOARD00970

• Board Meeting Date: 7/22/1993
• Description: Agenda or Table of Contents, Minutes, Memos. Partial.
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

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STATE OF COLORADO
Roy Romer, Governor
DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES

DIVISION OF WILDLIFE

AN EQUAl.. OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

Perry D. Olson, Director
6060 Broadway
Denver, Colorado 80216
Telephone: [phone]

REFER TO

October 21, 1992

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As I stated above, the upper reaches of Little Dry Creek are
essentially intact in their natural state. The stream has
extensive riparian areas with willows, mature cottonwoods, and
numerous species of shrubs, grasses, and forbs. The riparian zone
also has associated wetlands areas that are presumably tied
hydrologically to the streamflow. The city of Greenwood Village
has retained the services of Dr. David Cooper, a well known
wetlands expert to address the riparian and wetlands issues as well
as the groundwater-surface water interactions. The results of
these studies will be presented to the CWCB during the _

a DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES. Kenneth Salazar, Executive Director .,
WE COMMISSION, William R. Hegberg, Member' Eldon W. Cooper, Chairman. Felix Chavez, Member' Rebecca L Frank, Member
louis F. Swilt, Secretary' George VanDenBerg, Chairman' Arnold Salazar, Member. Thomas M. Eve, Vice Chairman

Dan Merriman, Chief
Water Rights Investigations Section
Colorado Water Conservation Board
1313 Sherman Street, suite 721
Denver, Colorado 80203

RE: Little Dry Creek Instream Flow Studies, Quantification, and
Recommendations

Dear Dan:

. As you are aware, the Division of Wildlife has been conducting
instream flow studies on Little Dry Creek through the City of
Greenwood village and Cherry Hills Village for the last 9 months.
The purpose of this letter is to initiate the process of
quantifying the natural envirolllllent and the flows necessary to
preserve the natural environment to a reasonable degree. I will
use this letter as both a progress report and a document which
details the natural environment of Little Dry Creek.

Little Dry Creek is a small creek which originates in the
Denver Tech Center area and flows in a northwesterly direction
through Greenwood Village, Cherry Hills Village, and Englewood
before entering the South Platte River. Much of Little Dry Creek
in Englewood has been channelized and/or redirected into concrete
channels or culverts; therefore it is my feeling that the natural
environment in the lower reaches of Little Dry Creek has been so
altered that it does not warrant instream flow protection. The
upper reaches of Little Dry Creek are still for the most part in
their natural state. These sections of the creek are, in my
opinion, worthy of protection by the CWCB's program. In the past
we have used the existence of a coldwater fishery as a yardstick of
the "natural environment," in this case we will need to break some
new ground and be creative in our quantification of the instream
flow needs of this unique urban natural environment.