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Functional Assessment of the Mancos River Watershed

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Functional Assessment of the Mancos River Watershed FUNCTIONAL ASSESSMENT OF THE MANCOS RIVER WATERSHED: MANCOS VALLEY AND ADJACENT AREAS PETER STACEY UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO FUNCTIONAL ASSESSMENT OF THE MANCOS RIVER WATERSHED: MANCOS VALLEY AND ADJACENT AREAS Peter B. Stacey Department of Biology University Of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM 87131 Prepared Under Contract with the Mancos Conservation District Mancos, Colorado April, 2007 Copies of this report can be obtained at: http://www.unm.edu/biology/stacey or by contacting the author at: [email protected]. © Peter Stacey 2007 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEGEMENTS .............................................................................................................................2 SUMMARY ....................................................................................................................................................3 INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................................................6 DESCRIPTION OF THE MANCOS RIVER WATERSHED ...............................................................................6 METHODS...................................................................................................................................................12 THE RAPID STREAM-RIPARIAN ASSESSMENT (RSRA) METHOD..........................................................12 RESULTS .....................................................................................................................................................17 INDIVIDUAL ASSESSMENT SITE DESCRIPTIONS .......................................................................17 Survey Site Selection.............................................................................................................................17 Site Descriptions and Narrative of Findings ......................................................................................18 A. Canyon and Plateau Sites................................................................................................................24 1. East Mancos River, Reddert Ranch Reach ...................................................................................24 2. Middle Mancos River, Weber Reservoir Inlet Diversion Reach...................................................27 3. West Mancos River, Above Mesa Verde Pipeline Diversion.........................................................30 4. West Mancos River, Jackson Gulch Reservoir Diversion Reach.................................................34 5. West Mancos River, Colyer Ranch Reach.....................................................................................37 B. Mancos Valley Sites .........................................................................................................................40 6. West Mancos River, Weber Diversion Reach................................................................................40 7. Mancos River, Root and Ratliff Ditch Diversion Reach...............................................................44 8. Mancos River, Redwood/Black Reach...........................................................................................47 9. Mancos River, Excelsior Plant Reach...........................................................................................51 10. Mancos River, Road J Bridge Reach...........................................................................................55 11. Mancos River, Lazy F/W Ranch Reach ......................................................................................58 12. Mancos River, Perry Ranch Reach .............................................................................................62 13. Mancos River, Soussanna Ranch Reach ....................................................................................65 14. Mancos River, Mitchell Ranch Reach.........................................................................................69 C. Mancos Canyon Sites.......................................................................................................................73 15. Mancos River, Mesa Verde National Park- Ute Mountain Ute Indian Reservation Border Reach ..................................................................................................................................................73 D. Tributaries of the Mancos River Sites ...........................................................................................77 16. Chicken Creek, Valley Inn Reach ...............................................................................................77 17. Mud Creek, Mud Creek Ranch Reach ........................................................................................80 TRENDS IN THE FUNCTIONAL CONDITION OF THE MANCOS RIVER THROUGH MANCOS VALLEY.................................................................................................................................85 Overall Mean Score for Functional Condition...................................................................................86 Water Quality (non-chemical) .............................................................................................................86 Hydrogeomorphology...........................................................................................................................88 Fish and Aquatic Habitat.....................................................................................................................94 Riparian Vegetation............................................................................................................................100 Terrestrial Wildlife Habitat...............................................................................................................113 CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................................................117 REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................................123 ACKNOWLEGEMENTS This report was prepared with the financial support of the Mancos Conservation District, Mancos, Colorado. I would like to thank Jack Burk, President of the Conservation District, Dick White, and the other members of the District Board for their cooperation and support. Felicity Broennan, Project Director of the Mancos Valley Watershed Project, was instrumental in every phase of the project, and this work could not have been completed without her help and constant good humor. Ronni Egan first suggested that the Rapid Stream-Riparian Assessment Protocol would be appropriate for the Mancos watershed surveys, and she provided assistance in many other ways. Richard Stacey and Taylor Jones put in long hours helping with the field work. Numerous landowners provided access to their properties. George San Miguel and Mesa Verde National Park allowed us to conduct a survey on a section of the Mancos River within the park boundaries. Holly Cruser, Bob and Nancy Marion, and Maureen Colyer from Mancos helped conduct some of the surveys. Marianna Young of the National Resource Conservation Service did a superb job in preparing the aerial photos of the survey reaches and the map of the Mancos River Watershed. Pete Cruser took additional aerial photos of some of the reaches, and Jim Patton piloted the initial aerial survey of the entire watershed. Allison Jones and Felicity Broennan made helpful comments on the manuscript. Finally, I would like to thank the many people who live in the town of Mancos, and who attended the RSRA workshop and public meetings about the watershed, for their support of this project, and for their interest in the present and future health of the Mancos River. All photographs are by the author unless otherwise noted. 2 SUMMARY This report examines the functional condition and ecological health of the Mancos River watershed, Montezuma County, in southwestern Colorado. The Mancos River originates in the western flanks of the La Plata Mountains, and flows south and west until it joins the San Juan River in northwestern New Mexico. The river can be divided on the basis of hydrogeomorphology and ecology into five general sections. First, the high elevation and high gradient reaches of the various tributaries that eventually combine to form the main Mancos River, including the East, Middle and West Mancos Rivers, and Chicken Creek. Second, the middle elevation reaches of the four main tributaries, which are lower gradient and which run through canyons that incise the plateaus at the base of the peaks. Third, the section of the river that flows through the Mancos Valley, which is relatively flat and used for irrigated agriculture. Fourth, the reaches in Mancos Canyon, where the river runs in a deep canyon between several large mesas, including Mesa Verde. And fifth, the lower section of the river from the mouth of Mancos Canyon to the confluence with the San Juan River, where the river is low gradient and flows through flat desert scrubland country. This report focuses primarily upon the reaches in the Mancos Valley (section 3), since this is where there have been the most human impacts upon the stream/riparian system. Additional surveys were taken for comparison upstream from Mancos Valley along the main tributaries (section 2), and also downstream, in Mancos Canyon at the Mesa Verde National Park/Ute Mountain Ute Indian Reservation border (section 4). Preliminary fieldwork and
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