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..-l C') ('? ~ WATER AND RELATED LAND RESOURCES GUNNISON RIVER BASIN COLORADO SUMMARY This report presents information concerning water and related land resources of the Gunnison River Basin in Colorado. It is based on a cooperative study by the Colorado Water Conservation Board and the U, S. Department of Agriculture. The study and report is coordinated with a study and report of the Colorado Water Conservation Board relating to the several tributary basins of the Colorado River in western Colorado. Department of Agriculture participation was authorized under the provisions of Section 6 of P. L. 566, 83rd Congress, as amended. The Gunnison River Basin encompasses an area of 8,020 square miles, or about eight percent of the area of the State of Colorado. Elevations vary from 4,550 feet to 14,300 feet above sea level. Average annual precipitation ranges from less than 10 to more than 40 inches. Average annual frost~free period in the agricultural areas varies from 70 to 190 days. Settlement of the Basin began in 1873, with mining being the principal industry. Livestock raising and growing of crops followed the decline of the mining industry. Seventy-one percent of the land in the Gunnison Basin is in Federal ownership, 28 percent is privately owned, and approximately one percent is owned by the State of Colorado. Approxi- mately five percent of the lands of the Basin are used for crop production, with the remaining 95 percent being used for grazing and timber production, watershed and recreation purposes. The 1960popi11ation,of thel5asin is estimated at approximately 36,000. This is a report of a reconnaissance study. The information presented for the Gunnison River Basin is prepared for the Basin as a unit and for each of the five major subbasins. These subbasins were delineated because of the nature of their individual water and related land resources. The subbasins are shown on the attached map and are identified as follows: Upper Gunnison, Smith Fork-Crystal, North Fork, Uncompahgre and Whitewater. Soils of the Basin may be divided, on the basis of climatic influence on soil profile characteristics, into five major groupings as follows: (1) Desert-Sierozem, (2) Brown-Chestnut, (3) Mountain Prairie-Chestnut, (4) Gray Wooded-Mountain Prairie, and (5) Alpine Meadow-Alpine Bog. The majority of the irrigated land is located in the Desert-Sierozem and Brown-Chestnut groupings" with a lesser amount in the Mountain Prairie- Chestnut grouping. i