BOARD02052

• Board Meeting Date: 8/15/1995
• Description: Notice of Board Meeting
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

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~ i A' ~ \.Jr ~UL.un,",LJV
Roy Ro,"er. Governor
DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES

DIVISION OF WILDLIFE
AN ECUAt. oPPOmuNITv EMPlOYER

REFER TO

Perry D. Oleon, Dlleclcr
606 Broadway
Denver. Colorado 80216
Telephone: [phone]

May 24, 1994

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ONOF~

For Wildlife-
For People

Mr. Skip Underwood
Arapaho--Roosevelt National Forest
240 West Prospect Avenue
Fort COllins, COlorado 80521

Dear Mr. Underwood:

Recently, staff of the COlorado Oivision of Wildlife have
participated in a process facilitated by the Colorado Department of
Natural Resources to review and evaluate alternatives for
management of river flow in the Cache La Poudre River basin. The
process has specifically sought to aompare, on the one hand, by-
pass flows t.'1at may be required of water storage facilities located
on the Forest land as a condition of renewal for Forest Service
special use permits, and on the other hand, a Joint operations Plan
submitted as an alternative by the cities of Ft. Collins and
Greeley, and the Water Supply and storage Company.

As described to CDOW staff by the facility owners, this Joint
Operations Plan (Plan) would entail a constant release of 10 cubic
feet per second (cts) from Barnes Meadow and Chambers .Lake
reservoirs from November through March to enhance flows in Joe
Wright Creek and in the mainstem of the Poudre River below Joe
Wright Creek to poudre Park. CDOW further understands this steady
10 cfs release will be available in approximately nine years out of
ten, and that the facility owners are willing to adjust the Plan to
maximize aquatic habitat and recreation benefits consistent with'
their ability to make use of or store released water. In an
average year, we understand that the facility owners can make use
of or store through a crediting system about 3000 acre-feet of
....ater over and above'direet diversion rights. CDOW intends to work
with the facility owners to refine this operations plan over time.

In the course of the facilitated process, five hydrologic
scenarios, including Joint operations and t....o variants on the by-
pass flow requirements, were developed for each of nine stream
segments on the'Poudre River and its tributaries. ~rout habitat
analysis was then conducted using these hydrologic scenarios, and
then summed by stream segments the total poudre Basin above Poudre
Park.

DEPARTMENT OF NATURAl. RESOURCES, Jarnos S. ~ochhead. exeeutlve Director
WILO~IFE COMMISSION, Thomas M. Eve. Chairmen 'LoIlJa F. Swift, VlcB-Chalrman' Amold SllllUar. SoClIltary
J.GS. Lang.ton Doyd. Jr., Member' Eldon W. Coop.r. Membar' Rabecca L. Frank, Member
William R. Hogberg, Member. Mark ~eV.II.y. Member