FLOOD08460

• County: Statewide
• Basin: Statewide
• Title: Stewardship of Colorado Stream Corridors
• Date: 1/1/1998
• Prepared For: CWCB
• Prepared By: McLaughlin Water Engineers, Ltd.
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Floodplain Report/Masterplan

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
FOR THE
STATEWIDE RIVER REHABILITATION AND FLOODPLAIN NEEDS
INVENTORY

The Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) inventory addresses issues regarding the preservation of
our nice rivers; destroyed habitat; lost land; a need for money; multi-objective approaches; and teamwork,
These are the focus of the CWCB's recent survey conducted in an effort to provide better guidance in the
management of Colorado's rivers and floodplains, The Board initiated a Needs Survey to inventory the
needs that Colorado landowners and communities see in dl:"ling with stream corridors, floodplains, and
watersheds and to determine the successes they are experiencing, The importance of determining these
needs cannot be underestimated since it is tied so directly to the better management of the State's stream
corridors, The attributes of living and working in Colorado, which include those stream corridors, continue
to attract new people whose presence in turn affects the State's w~tersheds and their components: the
floodplains and stream corridors,

The Board's contractor, McLaughlin Water Engineers, Ltd, (MWE), was contracted by the CWCB to
assist with the survey of the State's 321 communities (63 counties and 268 cities and towns), and of 110
flood and water related organizations having an interest in the State's stream corridors, The response rate
to the statewide assessment survey has been very high, with 141 survey questionnaires returned, MWE
also assisted the CWCB with the interpretation of the survey results and the development of
recommendations for responding to the needs identified,

The completed questionnaires provided a good overview of floodplain issues, planning and implementation
needs, and existing environmental and institutional concerns in Colorado, In addition, the needs survey has
provided direct communication from floodplain administrators, land use coordinators, government entities,
landowners, and the water and environmental communities who deal directly with water resources and
flood-related issues,

The survey yielded findings which provide an overview of statewide needs for the Board staff and the
Project Steering Committee, (See Table ESl for the Committee Membership list,) The survey findings
offer a basis for understanding needs and formulating recommendations for meeting those needs, The
statewide needs for floodplain and stream corridor management have been compiled by the CWCB's
contractor, At the January 14, 1998 Committee meeting, the CWCB and the committee agreed on the
following categories of needs: planning assistance, funding for project and planning implementation,
public information/technical assistance, and policy and criteria guidelines. The committee selected a
project title of "The Stewardship of Colorado Stream Corridors",

Planning Assistance. Many of the State's watersheds have an absence of an overall plan for addressing
the rehabilitation or restoration of the channels and floodplains that have been eroded or flood ravaged,
With the implementation of short-term, site specific projects, longer-term problems are created which might
have been avoided, or at least minimized, if the initial activities had been undertaken with a broader
perspective, In addition to taking a watershed approach, these plans need to consider the full range of
interests in the watershed through a multi-objective approach. Funding needs to be provided for multi-
objective watershed master plan activities and local floodplain mapping and mitigation planning, Planning
assistance is needed for technical evaluations and development of stream corridor management plans,