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Watershed Stewardship Program
The RGHRP plays a significant role in regional efforts to safeguard the Upper Rio Grande Watershed as a source of water, habitat, and extraordinary natural and cultural resources. We've worked with stakeholders and partners to complete wildfire restoration, hazard mitigation, recreation impact mitigation, and process-based restoration projects. Projects in this program strive to improve water security through efforts to improve forest and watershed health and reduce the risk of and impact from severe wildfire.
This program was created in response to the West Fork Complex fire that burned in the summer of 2013 and severely damaged over 110,000 acres of critical natural resources in the upper watershed. To help lessen the impacts of the fire to the communities, cultural heritage, and natural resources, the Rio Grande Watershed Emergency Action Coordination Team (RWEACT) was formed with the cooperation of over 40 entities. The RGHRP has taken the lead on coordinating RWEACT's natural resources team.
Descriptions of the past projects completed as part of this program can be found below. Our current watershed stewardship project involves improving wet meadow habitat through process-based restoration and beaver translocation. Learn more about this project by clicking here.
Park Creek Watershed Improvement Project
Located in the Divide District of the Rio Grande National Forest, the Park Creek Watershed was identified by the Upper Rio Grande Watershed Assessment as a priority location for restoration. We partnered with the Forest Service to formulate solutions to the negative effects of heavy recreational usage in the area around Park Creek. Natural barriers such as boulders and split rail fences will be placed to limit motor vehicle access to damaged areas. Along with this, a designated OHV-unloading zone and hardening of other high use areas will also prevent further habitat degradation. The end result is improved water quality and riparian habitat, reduced erosion, and stabilized streambanks and roads.
Upper Rio Grande Watershed Assessment
The RGHRP partnered with a vast group of entities including RWEACT, Trout Unlimited, CPW, USFS, San Luis Valley Irrigation District, and Willow Creek Reclamation Committee on the Upper Rio Grande Assessment.
The Assessment, which was completed in 2018, provides a comprehensive document of the ecological condition of the mainstem of the Rio Grande and its major tributaries from the headwaters to the town of South Fork, identified causes of concern and developed a list of prioritized projects that improve the function of uplands, and riparian and aquatic ecosystems. Projects identified in the Upper Rio Grande Assessment address environmental, recreational, agricultural, and municipal/industrial water needs. The Assessment concurrently identifies projects that involve instream infrastructure as related to recreational, environmental, agricultural, and municipal/industrial needs in the basin. The RGHRP and other organizations use the assessment as a guidebook for future projects affecting the Rio Grande watershed.
WFCF Weed Management Project
When forest fires eliminate growth in a region, noxious species have an opportunity to spread with limited competition. In 2015, the RGHRP partnered with the US Forest Service to map and treat weeds in the West Fork Complex Fire burn area. The project focused specifically on musk thistle, oxeye daisy, Canada thistle, and yellow toadflax, which are all non-native, noxious weeds. 85 miles of trails and road were mapped, and 40 acres were treated to eliminate the weeds.
Ptarmigan Meadows Defensible Space Project
In 2014, the RGHRP received funding through the Colorado Wildfire Risk Reduction Program to create a Fire-Adapted Community through the creation of a fuelbreak surrounding Ptarmigan Meadows subdivision. The project objective was to improve forest health and to reduce fire risk through reduced fuel loading. The project treated 24 acres of private land through intensive thinning with a focus on aspen regeneration. The fuelbreak was designed to reduce the severity, intensity, and duration of a fire burning into it.
WFCF Test Plot Project
in 2013, the RGHRP designed 10 experimental plots within the burned area of the West Fork Complex Fire to investigate different methods that provide ground cover and increase soil water holding capacity in order to improve vegetative cover and reduce hillslope erosion. Five treatments were used at two different sites; the sites had different gradient slopes, and one site had livestock grazing. Long-term data is being collected from these plots, and the results will influence the methods used in future wildfire restoration projects. The implementation of this project was made possible through the donation of several mulch materials and the help of volunteers.
Water Quality Monitoring
The RGHRP has worked in collaboration with RWEACT and Colorado School of Mines to deploy 6 water quality monitoring probes throughout the watershed. Data from the water quality monitoring probes and supplemental sampling will be used to study the impact of the West Fork Complex Fire on water quality. This date will also help examine the opportunity to protect fish and wildlife habitat through strategic releases from reservoirs located upstream of the burned area. Probes were deployed in Spring 2014.
