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Survey of Critical Wetlands and Riparian Areas in Mesa County

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Survey of Critical Wetlands and Riparian Areas in Mesa County Survey of Critical Wetlands and Riparian Areas in Mesa County Colorado Natural Heritage Program College of Natural Resources, 254 General Services Building Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado 80523 Survey of Critical Wetlands and Riparian Areas in Mesa County Prepared for: Colorado Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife, Wetlands Program 6060 Broadway Denver, Colorado 80203 Prepared by: Joe Rocchio, Georgia Doyle, Peggy Lyon and Denise Culver May 29, 2003 Colorado Natural Heritage Program College of Natural Resources 254 General Services Building Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado 80523 Copyright © 2002 by Colorado Natural Heritage Program Cover photograph: Rio Grande cottonwood riparian forest (Populus deltoides ssp. wislizenii/Rhus trilobata) along the Colorado River near the Mesa/Garfield county line (CNHP photo). ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Financial support for this study was provided by the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife Program. We greatly appreciate the support and assistance of Alex Chappell, Coordinator of the Division of Wildlife's Wetlands Program and John Toolen, Habitat Biologist with the Division of Wildlife and the Western Colorado Five Rivers Wetland Focus Area Committee Coordinator. This project would not have been possible without the help of many dedicated individuals. We appreciate the support of the members of the Western Colorado Five Rivers Wetland Focus Area Committee for providing their local knowledge of important wetlands in Mesa County. Rob Bleiberg and James Ferriday of Mesa Land Trust provided maps of conservation easements to aid in assessing threats. We thank Dave Soker, Bob Burdick, Doug Osmundson, and Terry Ireland of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Grand Junction for invaluable assistance with information on conservation easements, endangered fish, and Southwest Willow Flycatchers. Pat Arbeiter provided much assistance with maps and access to Bureau of Reclamation Wildlife Areas. Coen Dexter and Brenda Wright provided their time, rafts, and knowledge of the avian populations along the Colorado River. We received much help and good advice from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), especially Ron Lambeth and David Smith in the Grand Junction Resource Area. The BLM and Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory (Doug Faulkner and Tony Leukering) supplied data on bird densities along the Colorado, Gunnison, and Dolores rivers (another nod to Coen as he collected these data). Michael Warren, Senior Planner with Mesa County Long Range Planning Division, kindly supplied numerous GIS layers for the county. Judith Sirota with the Tamarisk Coalition provided information of current and past tamarisk eradication projects. We are also grateful to the landowners who gave us permission to survey their property. We enjoyed meeting them, and in some cases hiking with them on their property. Finally, special thanks to John Toolen whose time in the field, coordinating efforts, and willingness to assist this project at any time was extremely beneficial. Our staff in Fort Collins, including Kathy Carsey, Jodie Bell, Jill Handwerk, Jeremy Siemers, Amy Lavender, Alison Loar, Barbara Brayfield, and Katie Newhaus all worked with us patiently. A special thanks to Peggy Lyon et al., whose Natural Heritage Inventory of Mesa County in 1996 provided an invaluable baseline from which this report was built upon. Without their effort, this report would be much smaller in scope. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................................................ i LIST OF TABLES...................................................................................................................................................... v LIST OF FIGURES................................................................................................................................................. viii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................................ 1 CONSERVATION STRATEGIES ........................................................................................................................... 4 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................................... 9 WETLAND DEFINITIONS, REGULATIONS, AND FUNCTIONAL ASSESSMENTS ................................. 12 WETLAND DEFINITIONS........................................................................................................................................... 12 WETLAND REGULATION IN COLORADO................................................................................................................... 12 WETLAND FUNCTIONS AND VALUES ....................................................................................................................... 13 WETLAND FUNCTIONAL ASSESSMENT..................................................................................................................... 14 Overall Functional Integrity................................................................................................................................ 15 Flood Attenuation and Storage ........................................................................................................................... 15 Sediment/Shoreline Stabilization........................................................................................................................ 15 Groundwater Discharge/Recharge ...................................................................................................................... 16 Dynamic Surface Water Storage......................................................................................................................... 16 Elemental Cycling .............................................................................................................................................. 16 Removal of Imported Nutrients, Toxicants, and Sediments ............................................................................... 16 Habitat diversity.................................................................................................................................................. 17 General Wildlife and Fish Habitat ...................................................................................................................... 17 Production Export/Food Chain Support.............................................................................................................. 17 Uniqueness.......................................................................................................................................................... 18 HYDROGEOMORPHIC (HGM) APPROACH TO WETLAND FUNCTIONAL ASSESSMENT............................................... 18 PROJECT BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................................... 20 LOCATION AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF STUDY AREA .............................................................................. 20 HYDROLOGY ........................................................................................................................................................... 23 UPLAND VEGETATION ............................................................................................................................................. 26 WETLAND AND RIPARIAN VEGETATION .................................................................................................................. 32 OBSERVATIONS ON MAJOR THREATS TO WETLAND BIODIVERSITY ........................................................................ 33 Hydrological Modifications................................................................................................................................ 34 Development....................................................................................................................................................... 35 Gravel Mining..................................................................................................................................................... 35 Oil and Gas Development................................................................................................................................... 36 Livestock Grazing............................................................................................................................................... 36 Logging............................................................................................................................................................... 36 Recreation........................................................................................................................................................... 36 Roads .................................................................................................................................................................. 37 Non-native Species ............................................................................................................................................. 37 Fragmentation and Edge Effects......................................................................................................................... 39 THE NATURAL HERITAGE NETWORK AND
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