River Management Planning

INTRODUCTION/OVERVIEW OF PROJECT

  • There is a lot of concern about water-related issues in Colorado and the West and how we are going to deal with them in the future
  • The Colorado Water Plan talks about different issues and strategies related to this, and suggests that if water users started talking with each other more we could work together to figure out a better path forward – e.g. instead of irrigators only talking to irrigators, recreationists off doing their own thing, city water users doing their own perhaps watering lawns and washing cars in the middle of a drought, etc.
  • The Colorado Water Plan has set a goal of getting 80% of the rivers across the state to put together what they are calling a Stream Management Plan, which basically involves gathering all of the interested stakeholders from our watershed, finding out what everyone’s issues and needs and concerns are, making a big wish list of everything we would like to see happen on the river and in the watershed from all of these different perspectives, and then see how many of these things we might be able to get done if we are willing to work together a little better and maybe employ a little more creativity.
  • So, we thought we’d like to try this out for the Purgatoire River watershed, and see how it goes! We are just getting started, talking to all interested stakeholders to determine what everyone’s issues and needs are and what folks would ideally like to see happening across the watershed and along the river and on your own property – hence this interview!
  • This interview will focus on:
    • Things you want to see fixed, changed, or improved:
      • Around the watershed
      • In and along the river near where you live and work
      • On your own property
    • Related to the following topics:
      • Key topics of interest to you
      • Other topics we’ll walk through (some may not be relevant or of interest, but we need to address at least one of these, if not already addressed above):
        • Ecological health of river
        • Farming & Ranching
        • Municipal & Industrial
        • Recreation
        • Hunting
        • Forest Health
        • Drought Resiliency
        • Economic Sustainability
    • Also – Current Successful Efforts that You Want to See Continue - are there programs or activities or other good things that are already happening around the watershed that you want to make sure keep happening?
 
And remember – we are creating an ideal wish list here, so whatever you would ideally like to see happen we want to put that on the list, even if it might feel impossible at this point!