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/ 2192 TASK 3B - Ft. Lvon Service Area and SurroundinS?: Communities The primary study area impacted by the Ft. Lyon Canal system includes Otero, Bent, and Prowers Counties and the southern portions of Crowley and Kiowa Counties. The area includes the Towns of Rocky Ford, Swink, LaJunta, Las Animas, Lamar, and several smaller communities. A larger secondary impact area includes the stockraising areas that depend on winter feed grown by Ft. Lyon farmers. Agriculture (primarily irrigated agriculture) and agribusiness are the main economic activities in the primary study area. There also is retail and some wholesale trade, some recreation-based tourism, a service sector and a government sector serving the study area's communities and farms. The Arkansas Valley provides about one-twelfth of Colorado's agricultural production, and is the driving force in the economy of southeastern Colorado. Its service sector supplies a somewhat larger region including rural of the adjacent states. TASK 3B involves gathering existing economic, demographic/sociological, and environmental data from numerous existing sources and preparing a comprehensive description of the Ft. Lyon study area. Profiles of Ft. Lyon water users and of the study area communities will be developed. Demographic and economic profiles will be forecast for the foreseeable future, based on a continuation of existing trends. An estimate will be made of population levels necessary to stabilize the present economy of the area and its present institutions (e.g., schools, hospitals, public services). The significance of the Ft. Lyon Canal system to the economic and physical environment of the study area will be assessed. The environmental elements of the Ft. Lyon service area are likely to be impacted by change of company operations. Other data, such as the economic impacts of wildlife propagation, goose, dove, and pheasant hunting developed in the Great Plains Reservoirs Study, will be included. Endangered species and the North American Flyway forage are additional considerations. These data are available from studies sponsored by the Colorado Division of Wildlife and conducted by the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. The Ft. Lyon and Fort Lyon Storage canals, and associated off channel reservoirs (Horse Creek Reservoir, Adobe Creek Reservoir, and Thurston of the Fort Lyon system, and the Great Plains Reservoirs of the Amity system) significantly impact the environment of southeastern Colorado. The Great Plains Study previously conducted by Kiowa County, the ongoing study of Boyle Engineering of the Great Plains Reservoirs and John Martin Reservoir, and DOW and FWS environmental studies associated with John Martin Reservoir operations would be reviewed. 6