FLOOD06149

• County: Statewide
• Community: State of Colorado
• Basin: Statewide
• Title: Colorado Wetlands Initiative
• Date: 5/1/1997
• Prepared For: State of Colorado
• Prepared By: Colorado DNR
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Educational/Technical/Reference Information

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6) How does the project provide envi~onmental or wildJ.if1~ educational opportunities?

By conserving wetlands many environmental and wildlife ,educational opportunities will be
provided. A few examples are the opportunity to:

, learn taxonomy or simple identification of plants lmd anima 1~;
, use an outdoor and natural laboratory;
, view and study biological community relationships:;
, view and study biological divm:sity; and
, study and research relatively lmdisturbed wetland sites - reference research sites are
critical to the long term prote,::tion and evaluation of wetlands. Protecting examples of all
wetland types will best assure that these reference, sites will be available for study in the
future.

The WI will greatly expand the numb er of educational opportunities av,ailable to existing
educational projects and/or programs that include wetlands, e.g" the RilVer Watch Program,
Project Wild, and Project WET.

7) IdentifY local, regional or state defliciencies in trails, parks, open spal:e, wildlife habitat, outdoor
recreation facilities, urban open space, and/or environmental education opportunities that will be
addressed by the project or project el'lIIlents.

The following are examples of deficiencies that have been identified by the WI and how it will
address the deficiencies:

, through the WI the DOW has greatly expanded th,l: scope of its wetlands conservation
efforts thus addressing, as diTf:cted by the Long Range Plan, an identified deficiency in
habitat protection;
. many educational opportunitie,s exist around wetlal1ds but there is a deficiency in
conserving these opportunities, especially in terms of proximity and accessibility. By
conserving wetlands, the WI will keep options open for educators that want to use
wetlands for educational pruposes; and
, a well documented deficiency is the conservation of the wetlands resource in the state. In
the absence of a "plan" to conserve wetlands - regionally or lo(:ally - wetlands are being
destroyed or damaged. The WI will begin addressing this deficiency by implementing a
plan of action that conserves significant wetlands in the state. This approach, or that of
the WP, may be adopted by others, thus, chipping away at this deficiency.

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