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<br />Surface Creek has its headwaters in the Grand Mesa National Forest, <br />approximately 18 miles northeast of Orchard City. Surface Creek <br />flows from its origin near Leon Peak southwesterly to its confluence <br />with Tongue Creek, near the western corporate limits of Orchard <br />City. The area drained by Surface Creek, at the downstream limit <br />of study, is approximately 44.7 square miles. The drainage basin <br />of Surface Creek drops from an elevation of 11,100 feet at its <br />headwaters to 5,500 feet at Orchard City. The average slope through <br />Orchard City is approximately 120 feet per mile or 2.3 percent. <br /> <br />Cedar Run has a drainage area of approximately 4.7 square miles. <br />The basin is adjacent to the Surface Creek drainage basin on the <br />southeast, but begins at an elevation of 7160 feet, approximately <br />2.3 miles northeast of the Town of Cedaredge. It flows southwesterly <br />through Orchard City to North Fork Gunnison River near the southern <br />corporate limits. <br /> <br />Tongue Creek, has its headwaters in the Grand Mesa National Forest, <br />approximately 20 miles north of Orchard City. Tongue Creek drops <br />from an elevation of 11,100 feet at its headwaters to 4,040 feet <br />at the northern study limit. It has a drainage area of approxi- <br />mately 152 miles at the downstream study limit. <br /> <br />Orchard City lies on a sloping plateau which terminates at the <br />southern end of town. It is surrounded on three sides by large <br />mesas, notably Grand Mesa to the north and west and Cedar Mesa <br />to the east. The topography of the drainage area upstream of <br />the town is gently to moderately sloping valleys and mesas which <br />are highly dissected by drainageways with steeply sloping sides. <br /> <br />Soils in the Surface Creek basin are categorized into three general <br />zones. Zone One includes the upper elevation areas of Grand Mesa <br />and consists of three major, general soil groups: Gray Wooded, <br />Brown Podzolic, and Mountain Prairie. Approximately one-half <br />of the drainage basin is in these general soil groups. The soils <br />are rapidly permeable to very rapidly permeable. Winter snowfall <br />is heavy in this area, but runoff is slow because of the pervious <br />soil. Some rock peaks collect heavy snow, most of which melts <br />and runs off each season. The dominant vegetative cover consists <br />of aspen, pine, spruce, and alpine fir. <br /> <br />At somewhat lower elevations, Zone Two consists of two major, <br />general soil groups, the Chestnut and the Mountain Chernozem. <br />The ground cover ranges from fair to poor, with sagebrush and <br />oakbrush dominant (Reference 4). <br /> <br />A small portion of the drainage basin is in the Zone Three soil <br />group which includes the Brown and Chestnut soil types. The dominant <br />vegetation is sagebrush, pinon pine, and juniper. The ground <br />cover is fair to poor except along streams and irrigation ditches <br />where phreathophyte growth is heavy. Snowfall is light and remains <br />only a short time (Reference 4). <br /> <br />4 <br />