C153699 Feasibility Study - Laserfiche WebLink

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. . 80 acres are owned by the State of Colorado, approximately 149 acres are managed by the BW. and approximately 161 acres are privately owned. This includes 210 acres of wet meadow, 135 acres of willow riparian, 19 acres of cottonwood/willow riparian and 26 acres of temporarily flooded oxbow ponds (Table 5). The remaining 455 acres are parts of the three privately owned blocks of land that will have to be purchased or otherwise controlled in order to obtain management rights on the acres of interest. These 455 acres are mainly comprised of sagebrush uplands adjacent to the Muddy Creek bonomrands. Existing wetlands on the proposed mitigation site are generally in poor condition due to overgrazjng of wetland vegetation and stream channel degradation which has lowered the level of the water table throughout a large portion of the bonomlands surrounding Muddy Creek. Most of the sagebrush uplands surrounding Muddy Creek will also be used as big game winter range mitigation sites. t Table 5. Summary of wetland types and acreages present on the mitigation area. t Wetland type Acres Percent of Area Wet meadow 210 51 Willow riparian 135 33 t Cottonwood/willOW riparian 19 5 Temporarily flood oxbow ponds 26 6 Stream 20 5 Total 410 100 . Wetlands Adlacent to the Reservoir Perimeter , The lower Muddy Creek mitigation site will fulty mitigate all wetland wildlife habitat impacts with the exception of 23 habitat units associated with the wet meadow habitat type based on the GWH model. Assuming that the lands used to mitigate these 23 habitat units will be in similar or worse condition to wet meadow in the reservoir basin (i.e., HSI = 0.470), approximately 43 additional acres will be needed. This additional land will be acquired from one or a combination of the following areas in order of preference: 1) wetlands occupying tributary drainages on the perimeter of tl1e proposed reservoir; 2) wetlands within the lower Muddy Creek drainage south of the present mitigation area; and 3) offsite wetlands. This land will be acquired during the purchase of tl1e land necessary for tl1e operation of the reservoir prior to construction. WETlAND HABITAT MANAGEMENT ACTIONS Six management actions are needed to mitigate impacts to wetland habitat within the project area These wetland habitat management actions, including details on implementation and costs, are presented in the next section. This is followed by a section that presents each impact, identifies which management actions apply to that impact, and presents the results that are expected by implementation of the management actions. 9