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

Western Slope of Colorado Projects

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The demographics of the western slope of Colorado is rapidly changing. Tele-commuting,
retirees, second homes, and related supporting businesses are displacing traditional lifestyles of
agriculture, lumber, and mining. Although this has caused the subdivision of ranches and farms,
these new landowners have a strong interest in maintaining or improving wildlife habitat on their
property, Since the need to extract a living from the land is no longer required, there is increased
t1exibility tor wildlife habitat management. Many projects on the western slope are with this type
of "new" landowner for whom wildlife is a key component of those factors that brought them to
the area in the tirst place.

The Western Slope encompasses the entire State west of the continental divide. During the grant
period, 17 wildliti~ habitat improvement projects were completed on the western slope of
Colorado. Four miles of riparian fencing, 98 wetland acres, and 1078 acres of upland were
covered under these habitat improvement
agreements. The projects usually involved the
development of small wetlands in irrigated areas.
Several wetland! riparian fencing projects were
completed. One of these, in Garfield County
near Glenwood Springs, fenced off 990 acres of
forest, wetland, and a small reservoir from
uncontrolled livestock grazing. The landowner
was very appreciative of the fence design and
wildlife management information provided to
him by the Colorado Division of Wildlife and the
Partners program, The Partners program
contributed $3,000 to the $90,000 project and in
return the landowner signed a 15,year agreement
to maintain the fence and control livestock
grazing, Other riparian fencing projects were in the
Gunnison area. The photograph in Figure 8 is of a
riparian fencing project on Ohio Creek near
Gunnison, Colorado,

Figure 8: Eagle Ridge Ranch Riparian
Fencing along Ohio Creek.

The wetland development projects on the western
slope tend to be smaller in comparison to other areas
of the State. Topography is the main limitation on
wetland project size. Available water rights are also
a major consideration, Most projects involve either
the construction of a small berm or dike to control
water, the excavation of a wetland basin or a
combination of both approaches. The project
pictured in Figure 9 is of the later type. This project

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Figure 9, Wetland Complex Project near
Montrose, Colorado