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OPEN SPACE AND TRAILS BOARD OF TRUSTEES April 23, 2015 Plaza One Meeting Room 530 E. Main St., Aspen

Newspaper Articles and Letters to Editor

North Star Management Plan North Star management plan aims to ‘rewet the wetlands’; 4/08/15 - Aspen Daily News Pitkin County commissioners get first gaze of North Star plan; 4/08/15 – Aspen Times

Rio Grande Trail and Aspen Mass Trail Gas pipeline project to close section of Rio Grande Trail; 4/09/15 – Aspen Daily News

Water City, PitCo spell out concerns at the headwaters; 4/08/15 – Aspen Daily News Ruedi water lease could affect levels, Fryingpan flow; 4/10/15 – Aspen Daily News Letter to Editor: We need to address our water issues before we become California; 4/13/15 – Aspen Daily News Climate study foresees fewer year-round streams; 4/19/15 – Glenwood Springs Post Independent

Forest Service Forest Service Oks Basalt to Gypsum dirt bike trail; 4/15/15 – Aspen Times Planned burn on Basalt Mountain scorched 1,100 acres, captured attention; 4/14/15 – Aspen Times Letter to Editor: Thanks to the F.S. for a successful prescribed fire; 4/18/15 – Aspen Daily News

Colorado Parks and Wildlife Aspen-area wildlife losing a prime advocate in Kevin Wright; 4/20/15 – Aspen Times Published on Aspen Daily News Online (http://www.aspendailynews.com) North Star management plan aims to ‘rewet the wetlands’

Writer: Collin Szewczyk Byline: Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

Heron numbers down at James H. Smith colony

An updated draft management plan for the North Star Nature Preserve east of Aspen aims to address the drying up of the wetland area as well as a huge increase in popularity for recreational use, both of which are having effects on the delicate ecosystem.

Pitkin County Open Space and Trails (OST) staff presented the draft at a joint meeting of the OST board and the county commissioners on Tuesday morning.

The plan proposes to potentially reconnect the Roaring Fork River to the floodplane, helping to reverse a drying trend in lowwater years. It also calls for a yeararound public access ban in a section of the James H. Smith Open Space that is now home to a heronry, which has seen its numbers decline in the last few years.

The draft, which will cover both North Star and the James H. Smith North Star Open Space under the same management plan, will also be brought before the city’s open space and trails and Healthy Rivers and Streams boards for review, prior to being released to the public on April 27.

The plan will also restore the streambanks to protect the existing cottonwood trees; study existing stream features to determine if they should be removed or altered; usher in a stronger message of “packin, packout”; and stabilize the groundwater supply.

The 175acre North Star Preserve’s wetland area, which is a fen, has diminished by as much as 30 percent according to ecologist Randy Mandel, of Golder Associates of Denver, through a combination of factors including a 38 percent reduction of water due to the Independence Pass transmountain diversion.

He called the area very unique for Colorado, noting that only about 2 percent of all wetlands are actually fens, which are typically fed by a combination of both ground and surfacewater.

Mandel said a goal of the plan is to “rewet the wetlands.”

Gary Tennenbaum, OST assistant director, showed historical photos of the Roaring Fork’s course through the preserve when it took a more serpentine path.

But the area has since been impacted by the transmountain diversion, as well as human activity including draining of the wetlands, removal of natural willows, and the straightening of the river to make the area better for agricultural purposes. This has caused a greater focus point for pressure against a terminal moraine, which could breach from erosion and rapidly drain the area of water.

Mandel likened the moraine, which is the hillside near the Stillwater Bridge, to a plug in a bathtub.

“If that plug is breached, the hydrology, and the natural wetting effect, if you look at this like a sponge, will change drastically,” he said. “That will cause a huge environmental alteration.”

The diminishing of the water in the area has also led to a shift in the types of vegetation that grows there, bringing in noxious weeds, and causing a “rapid dieoff” of aspen trees.

“This property is a gem. [I’ve worked] on properties all over the state and the West, and most of them are not nearly this nice,” Mandel said. “But [with the drying out] we’re seeing a change in the wetland vegetation going to more of an introduced and meadowtype vegetation that shouldn’t naturally be there. These things are working in concert to potentially threaten the gem that you have here in your community.”

Commissioner Rachel Richards asked that studies on the region’s fish be incorporated into the study, so it can be used to determine how much water needs to remain in the preserve.

“Given that there’s potential for future water diversions of up to 20 percent more from the Roaring Fork River, … having these baseline standards in place is very important for negotiating any mitigation measures,” she said. “We need to use this as a jumping off point for those efforts.”

Improvements to the access corridors and parking areas, soil moisture monitoring, as well as establishing educational programs similar to those at Filoha Meadows, are also included in the plan.

Wildlife flourishing

Wildlife Ecologist Jonathan Lowsky noted that wildlife in the preserve is doing very well, saying he counted 13 individual bears living there last year “doing what bears are supposed to do,” and has documented myriad birds, many mule deer, and smaller mammals on the property.

He said much of this has to do with the existing wilderness plan, which keeps limited recreation on the east side of the river, and only allows educational pursuits on the west.

“All of the species that we expect to occur out there, are there,” Lowsky said. “Most of them are flourishing, with the lone exception being the great blue heron.”

He said North Star is one of the three highest elevation heronries in Colorado. He noted the numbers have been declining since right around 2012, which is when recreation river use exploded, but added that it could be coincidental.

“It happened right around when that boom happened, so there may be a direct correlation,” Lowsky said. “So we need to look into that further.”

He added that lowerelevation wildlife areas need to be protected, since this is where most of the development occurs.

North Star, which was purchased in 1978, was the first open space property acquired by Pitkin County. At one time it was offlimits to all activity other than educational purposes. Various partners including the Aspen Valley Land Trust, which holds a conservation easement at North Star; the city of Aspen, which is a joint owner of James H. Smith; the U.S. Forest Service; the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies; and the East of Aspen Caucus, have offered input on the plan. Feedback from online public surveys was also included.

Following the public comment period, the plan will again go before the OST Board, City of Aspen, and the county commissioners for adoption. [email protected]

Add Image:

Photo Credit with Byline: Image courtesy of Golder Associates Photo Caption: In yellow, the Roaring Fork River’s channel in the North Star Nature Preserve as it would have been in 1898 is placed over a modern aerial photograph. archive_date: 1 day

Source URL: http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/166286 Rick Carroll [email protected]

April 8, 2015 Pitkin County commissioners get first gaze of North Star plan

A flourishing nature preserve on the outskirts of Aspen is tempered by a reduction in water and change in vegetation, ecologists and wildlife experts told Pitkin County commissioners Tuesday.

An updated management plan for the 175acre North Star Nature Preserve and the adjoining 70acreplus James H. Smith Open Space — located along the Roaring Fork River — was introduced to commissioners as part of a work session with the Open Space and Trails Board. The plan, in its draft form, also will get review from the city of Aspen, a partner in the project, and the Pitkin County Healthy Rivers and Stream Board. A sixweek public comment period opens April 27.

The area, located off Highway 82 east of Aspen, is becoming increasingly popular with recreational users. Kayakers, rafters and paddleboarders enjoy some of the river’s calmest waters. Walkers, runners, hikers, crosscountry skiers and bikers use the trail that ends at Difficult. And paragliders use a public portion of the preserve as a landing spot. Fishing is prohibited except by boat.

“It’s a huge nature preserve,” Gary Tennenbaum, assistant director of Open Space and Trails, told the commissioners and the open space board. “It’s beautiful wetlands, really pretty habitat, so overall it’s great.”

But the original management plan, created in 2000, needs to be updated, he said. “Overall, it’s great. The management plan is working. We just want to slowly tweak it and add some nuances to it.”

Human impacts to the river as well as the straightening of the river have resulted in less water, drying wetlands and such vegetational changes as an uptick in noxious weeds. “The aspens are suffering with what’s known as rapid dieoff,” said Randy Mandel, a senior restoration ecologist with Lakewoodbased Golder Associates, which worked on the draft of the management plan. “We’re also seeing a change in the vegetation.”

Mandel said the loss of aspens and other shifts at the preserve would be addressed by the management plan, which would include a study into reconnecting the floodplain to the existing river channel, according to a county memo.

“This is an attempt to reverse the drying of the wetlands from years of less water accessing the floodplain, due mainly to the straightening of the river and the transmountain diversion,” the memo says. “This action item is a novel idea that will take further exploring through a specific contract to look at all potential ideas and modeling before committing to a specific project.”

Despite the declining water supply, the area is thriving with wildlife, said Jonathan Lowsky, principal wildlife ecologist for Basaltbased Colorado Wildlife Science LLC.

“The net result is all of the species that we expect to be out there are there,” he said. “Many of them, most of them, are flourishing, with the lone exception being the great blue heron.”

One idea to boost the heron population is to create a “quiet zone” for the colony using signs and educational outreach to river users. The Aspen Center for Environmental Studies would partner with the effort.

Black bears, mule deer, weasels, 79 species of birds and other wildlife populate the area, Lowsky said. [email protected]

Writer: Collin Szewczyk Byline: Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

Temporary closure near Woody Creek could last a ‘couple of weeks,’ result in trail improvement

The installation of a new natural gas pipeline near Woody Creek will shut down a section of the Rio Grande Trail for a yet undetermined time this summer, giving the Pitkin County commissioners pause over its potential to push more bike traffic onto nearby roads.

But the county will also gain some needed trail improvements as part of the deal.

A damaged stretch of the Rio Grande in Woody Creek will be repaved, and a steep trail in the Aspen Mass Open Space will be realigned at a lower grade, making it more user friendly, as it attaches to the Brush Creek intercept lot, as part of the agreement.

An ordinance granting Rocky Mountain Natural Gas (RMNG) a rightofway to perform the pipeline work was approved unanimously at Tuesday’s meeting, but questions arose about the duration of the trail closure, as well as how to ensure the safety of recreationists who would have to find detours around the closure.

Mike Mohror, a land man for RMNG, said that if things go smoothly, work is slated for the first or second week in May. He said the duration for the closure is a “bit of a moving target,” and didn’t have a specific time frame.

“The trail will have some interruption to it,” Mohror said. “Not all summer, but we’ll get it done as quickly as we can. We will have proper signage up, and traffic control, so that people know the trail is under construction.”

According to a memo from Pitkin County Open Space and Trails, the pipeline will stretch from Aspen Valley Ranch Road to Brush Creek Road, and cross several countyowned properties managed by OST including the Rio Grande Trail, and W/J Ranch (Area E) and Aspen Mass open space properties.

The section of the Rio Grande that will be affected starts at its junction with Woody Creek Road and continues for about 700 feet upvalley.

Matt Adeletti, acquisition manager for OST, said the work will follow the trail, so riparian and vegetated areas won’t be disturbed.

He added that RMNG will be replacing the entire section of the trail, rather than simply doing a patch job. The other work at W/J begins at the crossing of McLain Flats Road and Raceway Drive, and runs along and adjacent to Raceway for approximately 2,000 feet to the northern border of the open space property.

A sixinch pipeline that travels across the pedestrian bridge over the Roaring Fork River at Smith Hill Way will also be replaced by 10inch pipe.

This is the final section of a project that began 10 years ago, when RMNG, which is a division of Source Gas, began installing a new 10inch gas pipeline from Wingo Junction upvalley to meet increased needs.

Gas company offers to repair damaged trail section

Mohror said that an 800foot stretch of the Rio Grande where the asphalt has been damaged south of the Woody Creek Post Office will also be replaced as part of the deal.

“There’s an area there that has been patched a number of times,” he said. “We’ve agreed to take all that patching up, and replace the trail for you.”

Commissioner Michael Owsley wanted a more specific idea of the length of the trail closure. He added that trail users need to know what to expect in the way of a closure as soon as possible.

“That portion of the trail is as heavily used as any portion, except for maybe in town,” Owsley said. “So is it a week? Two weeks? A month?”

Dale Will, OST director, said they are trying to schedule the work for the least amount of impact as possible.

“The goal is to make [the closure] as short as possible,” Will said. “I would hope that we would get the work done in a couple of weeks.”

He said a public notice about the trail closure will be going out prior to the start of the construction.

Mohror said the actual construction of the pipeline along the trail shouldn’t take longer than a week, but he couldn’t say how much time it would take for the paving part of the project.

“The distance that we will be impacting on this particular part of the trail will be so short, that we can probably put that trail back together immediately,” he said. “The part upstream that we’ve agreed to repair for you, that will be up to the paving contractor.”

Mohror noted that there may also be some impacts to Woody Creek Road, and at the intersection of McLain Flats and Smith Hill roads.

Commissioner Patti Clapper asked that OST come back before the board with a better outline of where and when the impacts from the project will be.

Commissioner Rachel Richards was particularly concerned for the safety of trail users who may leave the Rio Grande and get onto Smith Hill and Upper River roads to access the Woody Creek Tavern.

“If so, we need to coordinate a little more with the sheriff’s office to make sure there’s no speeding going on at that time,” she said. “It really could dump a lot of people onto the regular road, and those roads have no shoulders.”

She added that bicycle shops should be notified of the closures, so they don’t send groups of customers down that stretch while the work is under way.

Mohror said he could meet with local bike shops as well as get flyers handed out to help spread the word.

“Safety is our No. 1 concern here,” he said.

A public hearing on the matter is set before the BOCC on April 22.

New trail to come out of deal

Another perk of the deal is that RMNG plans to replace a steep trail on the Aspen Mass Open Space property with a realigned, paved trail that is more userfriendly.

Commissioner George Newman characterized the existing trail as being able to make the Italian cycling team “weep” because of its steep grade.

That trail, which lies on top of an existing gas pipeline, will either be reclaimed or remain as a soft trail for equestrian use.

“As soon as you get to the gorge on the Aspen Mass trail, there’s an old roadway that wrapped around over and up Smith Hill Road,” Will explained. “Source Gas has agreed to move our trail along the old road which will be a better descent. We did have a rollerblader mess [himself] up pretty well in that gorge one time. We look forward to having that trail [realigned].” [email protected] archive_date: 1 day active: active

Source URL: http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/166297 Published on Aspen Daily News Online (http://www.aspendailynews.com) City, PitCo spell out concerns at the headwaters

Writer: Collin Szewczyk Byline: Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

In letter on water plan, agencies state that new transmountain diversions are off the table

The city of Aspen and Pitkin County are taking steps to ensure a unified message is heard over on the Front Range concerning the planning process for the state water plan.

As water levels dwindle throughout the West, Colorado is engaging in its first ever state water plan this year, and comments are being taken through May 1.

Governor John Hickenlooper made an executive order in 2013 for the creation of a water plan, and a draft compiled by the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) was completed in December.

That document lists the state’s water values as ensuring “vibrant and sustainable cities, viable and productive agriculture, a robust skiing, recreation and tourism industry, and a thriving environment that includes healthy watersheds, rivers, and wildlife.”

Input was collected through the basin roundtable process, and from the Interbasin Compact Committee.

At a joint meeting between the city and county on Tuesday evening, Commissioner Rachel Richards said the idea behind the roundtable meetings was to facilitate communication between different parts of the state so each area’s water needs were better understood.

She noted that Colorado will have a gap between water availability and demands if the state’s population continues to grow at its current rate.

“Now the efforts have gone forward with each basin in the state preparing a [basin implementation plan] of how they will serve their communities’ water needs in the future,” Richards explained. “As individual partners in the headwaters region, I think we have unique comments that we should be able to make in the public comment to the state plan.”

Aspen Mayor Steve Skadron thanked Richards for her work on the subject, and noted that “no issue is as important as water.”

He stressed that local concerns must be addressed in “clear, decipherable terms that people can understand” in the letter.

County Attorney John Ely noted that another comment period is scheduled for Sept. 17, but said the earlier the city and county chime in the better.

“The dilemma we have of course, is although we are incredibly important as a community, our voice is relatively puny,” he said. “We are simply just not large water consumers. We just do not resonate as much with the rest of the state as Denver Water does … or any number of Front Range users, or even some of our fellow West Slope residents.”

He said the idea was to join forces between the city and county to amplify the message, and that of other headwaters communities, to stress concerns.

Assistant County Attorney Laura Makar noted that drought planning should be addressed and cover an adequate amount of time.

“If you’re doing drought planning you need to really look at a wide range of years to make sure that you’re capturing what you’re actually looking at and what you’re having to deal with,” she said.

Makar suggested pushing for a high level of conservation, and a focus on local landuse planning in the joint comment letter. She also stressed that there is no water available for another transmountain diversion.

“If you look at, specifically, research that John Currier [chief engineer] at the Colorado River District has done, if you look at the various numbers and what’s actually available, another transmountain diversion just doesn’t have the water to support it,” Makar said.

Richards added that Pitkin County has the second most water diverted from it in the state, behind Grand County.

Skadron directed the letter to address four points including drought planning; adopting a high conservation target for all basins in Colorado; noting that there is no water left for diversions; and having each community emphasize local water planning to help decrease use.

Aspen city council member Ann Mullins suggested adding the term “water efficiency” as well as conservation to the letter, and stressed the importance of stream health.

“[The letter should address] stream health and recreation versus consumptive needs on the Front Range,” she said. “I think some times stream health gets underplayed. In some ways I’ve heard this plan is somewhat setting the stage for another big grab by the Front Range. We might be a puny little town, but we are the beginning of the system.”

Council member Art daily concurred, saying that it’s time for the Front Range to learn that there isn’t any more water on the Western Slope for them to take.

But County Commissioner Steve Child warned that Front Range interests are very serious about squeezing more water from this side of the state.

“When you are sitting in meetings with people from the East Slope, or the ‘water buffaloes,’ they are bound and determined to get more water from this side,” he said.

To demonstrate how serious the water discussion has gotten, Child said there have been considerations about draining the Blue Mesa or Flaming Gorge reservoirs to send more water to Lake Powell so the Bureau of Reclamation can continue to generate revenue from the generation of electricity at the Glen Canyon Dam.

He also noted that the Colorado River is projected to drop by 10 to 15 percent in the future from climate change alone. “Things are extremely serious right now,” Child said. “Given all the climate change issues added on top of the doubling of the population of the state … we’re bordering on a crisis situation right now. Most people don’t realize where we are and how serious it is.” [email protected] archive_date: 1 day

Source URL: http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/166283 Published on Aspen Daily News Online (http://www.aspendailynews.com) Ruedi water lease could affect levels, Fryingpan flow

Writer: Collin Szewczyk Byline: Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

Proposal could lead to additional 12,000 acre feet release from reservoir north of Aspen

A proposed lease for up to 12,000 acre feet of water out of Ruedi Reservoir has local officials concerned over the purpose of the deal, as well as potential impacts it could have to flow levels in the Fryingpan River.

The proposal will go before the public on Tuesday in Carbondale when members of the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) Ted Kowalski, interstate and federal section chief, and Linda Bassi, stream and lake protection section chief, will answer questions at the Third Street Center at 7 p.m.

Bassi confirmed Thursday that the water, which is owned by the Ute Water Conservancy District, would be leased to the CWCB for instream water right flows.

A CWCB memo dated March 6 states that the lease will be “shortterm,” and “the leased water could be used by CWCB to supplement existing instream flow water rights and preserve/improve the natural environment of the four endangered fish species present in the 15mile reach of the Colorado River.”

Those fish were listed in the memo as the Colorado pikeminnow, the razorback sucker, the humpback chub, and the bonytail chub.

The lease is associated with the CWCB’s 15mile reach programmatic biological opinion (PBO), which, according to a 2008 technical report, “addresses impacts related to water depletions that occur above the confluence with the Gunnison River [in Grand Junction] and impact critical [fish] habitat from Rifle, Colo. to Lake Powell and the recovery actions designed to offset these impacts.”

But a statement from the Ruedi Water and Power Authority on Thursday noted that potential water releases could “result in significant changes to flows in the Fryingpan River and Ruedi Reservoir lake levels depending on their timing and amounts.”

The proposal was discussed at Tuesday’s joint meeting between Aspen City Council and the Pitkin County commissioners.

A unified comment letter about the planned Colorado Water Plan, which is slated for completion later this year, is being penned by the city and county, and outlines local water concerns that affect headwaters communities.

At that meeting, County Attorney John Ely suggested a second letter be written about the Ruedi proposal.

He said the letter should ask the CWCB to explain how this request fits into the overall administration of Western Slope water. Ely added that there is already a commitment of 10,825 acrefeet of water dedicated to protecting fish within the 15mile reach.

“That lease would be made by the Ute Water Conservancy District and the CWCB ostensibly for the protection of endangered fish within the 15mile reach of the Colorado River,” Ely said Tuesday. “It’s an interesting deal that’s proposed by those two entities. Of course our concerns have always focused on how that will affect reservoir levels, power generation at Ruedi, the utilization of the fishery by fishermen, and the protection of resource from an environmental standpoint.”

He added that the extra requested water would provide protection that “would be above and beyond what is certainly contemplated by the United States in the recovery program for endangered species, and could certainly impact how other systems are utilized on the West Slope for collecting water and distributing it east.”

City and county staff wanted to be clear on the proposal’s effects to the reservoir’s levels, stream flow in the Fryingpan, and exactly what the water is being leased for.

At a county commissioner meeting on March 24, Commissioner Rachel Richards said that the lease could potentially cause issues for Aspen’s power generation, and for fisherman if flows on the Fryingpan River increase too much.

“That raises a lot of concerns for the city of Aspen about the power generation, depending on when they call it and when they use it,” Richards said. “It also presents real concerns for us on the Fryingpan related to high flow levels that will make it impossible to fish in August or September if it gets much more above 300 [cubic feet per second].”

Taylor Creek Fly Shops guide Kirk Webb said that flows over 400 CFS can limit access for some fisherman, but he added that more water is always preferable to having too little. He said the highest flow he’s seen in the river is around 1,000 CFS.

According to the Water Conservancy District’s website, its mission is to “supply domestic water service to the rural areas of the Grand Valley under the ‘Water Conservancy Act’ of Colorado.”

Its service area covers about 260 square miles within Mesa County, from Cameo, Colorado to the ColoradoUtah border. [email protected]

Add Image: Photo Credit with Byline: Jordan Curet/Aspen Daily News Photo Caption: More water will be released from Ruedi Reservoir, shown here in a file photo from summer 2014, to benefit endangered fish in a reach of the Colorado River upstream from Grand Junction. archive_date: 1 day

Source URL: http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/166314 Published on Aspen Daily News Online (http://www.aspendailynews.com) We need to address our water issues before we become California

Editor:

California’s recent drought restrictions have been widely covered and brought much needed attention to the ongoing drought in California and the West, and while these restrictions are a big step in the right direction, they seem somewhat minor when considering the larger issue. We need to change our assumption that water is abundant and at our disposal and must realize, across all sectors, that it needs to be conserved and protected if we want it to last.

The Colorado River serves over 30 million people in seven states and Mexico. Six of those states, including Colorado, are among the seven driest states in the country. A number of tributaries and sections of the Colorado River itself are listed as some of the most endangered rivers in the country. This year, Colorado snowpack is at 69 percent of average and southwestern Colorado basins are dropping to 55 and 58 percent of average. In a state with a large farming community, we should be concerned by these numbers. Though we are high in the mountains, we are not in the clear, and if present weather conditions continue these shortages will be seen by millions of people in the region.

This is not a political issue, it is a human issue. Water is our most scarce resource; more than land, more than oil. Every person on this earth has a stake in the freshwater resources, and while Colorado is a small fraction of that, we can make a large impact and set an example for the rest of the West and the country. This is a major issue that we need to address before we’re in the same beached boat as California. In the next hundred years, the only complaint of having too much water will be that in the oceans. Too much fresh water does not exist. We need to face the stark realities affecting our state, country and world. Our current way of life is not sustainable and without change, this is only going to get worse.

Austin Owen Aspen archive_date: 1 day

Source URL: http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/lettereditor/166352 Will Grandbois Glenwood Springs Post Independent

April 19, 2015 Climate study foresees fewer yearround streams

The low elevation and small drainage of this arroyo in Jerome Park means that water flows down to North Thompson Creek only during snowmelt or after heavy rain. The upper reaches of Edgerton Creek are classified as "weakly intermittent", but the dry periods could become longer and more frequent with global climate change.

Central Garfield County, with perennial streams in red, weakly intermittent streams in blue, and strongly intermittent streams in green. A map of the study area showing shaded elevation, major rivers, and study gauge locations.

Some yearround streams could become intermittent as global climate change takes a toll on the Upper Colorado River Basin, according to a recent study.

“Modeled intermittency risk for small streams in the Upper Colorado River Basin under climate change,” written by Lindsay V. Reynolds, Patrick B. Shafroth, and LeRoy Poff of Colorado State University and the United States Geological Survey, analyzed data from 115 stream gauges across western Colorado and eastern Utah, with a handful of sites in Wyoming and New Mexico. Although they didn’t single out specific streams, the researchers suggested that those with already weak or erratic flows were at higher risk.

“What we found were that streams that currently have a variability or lower annual flows, those are the streams that are likely to be more threatened under climate change,” Reynolds said.

Streams categorized as “strongly perennial” were generally higher elevation, where snow lingers longer than those tagged as “strongly intermittent” or “weakly intermittent.” Perennial streams also trumped their strongly intermittent counterparts in drainage basin size, but weakly intermittent basin size varied considerably, suggesting that a large watershed may not be proof against dry spells.

Overall, the study indicated that most individual climate variables were poor predictors of stream intermittency compared with the Palmer Drought Severity Index, which incorporates numerous factors. It did, however, establish a relationship between minimum flows, which establish whether a stream will run dry, and mean flows, which are more commonly used in climate models.

“Many climatechange scenarios for this region involve decreases in mean annual streamflow, latesummer precipitation and latesummer streamflow in the coming decades,” the report summarizes. “Intermittent streams are already common in this region, and it is likely that minimum flows will decrease and some perennial streams will shift to intermittent flow under climatedriven changes in timing and magnitude of precipitation and runoff, combined with increases in temperature.”

That’s an unnerving forecast for a river basin that has repeatedly made American Rivers’ list of Most Endangered Rivers. This year, the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon is the subject of most concern. Last year, the Upper Colorado came in second, and in 2013, the whole drainage topped the list.

In addition to the environmental cost, a lot of people rely on water from the Colorado — and by extension, its tributaries.

“It’s a critical water source for a huge portion of the western United States, and the region is predicted to get drier in the future under climate change,” Reynolds said.

And demand is only likely to increase.

“You have the climatic variables and you have the variable of increased human use,” said Jim Pokrandt, communications director for the Colorado River District. “With warmer temperatures, we’ll use more water anyway. That puts more pressure on rivers and streams.”

Pokrandt held up the Crystal River as “the poster child” for the dual impacts of drought and human use. The Crystal made the most endangered list in 2012, before the potential for a dam project was averted.

Although Pokrandt doesn’t want to see any streams dry up, his biggest concern is how lowflow impacts will trickle down the watershed.

“The concern is for the whole river system,” he said. “You’ve got to look at the big picture.” For Reynolds, the challenge is quite the opposite — taking their broad statistical analysis and seeing what changes look like at ground level.

“We’re interested in looking at what stream drying looks like for streamdependent ecosystems,” Reynolds said. “In the future, we’d like to identify streams where that’s already happened.”

The researchers have already touched on the issue as part of an extensive report to the Bureau of Reclamation.

“Our driest category of streams, intermittent low streams, had the lowest total frequency of plants, which indicates low plant cover in general,” they wrote. Moreover, native plants seemed to take the hardest hit.

Reynolds hopes the data will help inform scientists and water managers about the potential tangible impacts of climate change on the West.

“It might help us focus in on places to target for conservation,” she said.

April 15, 2015 Forest Service OKs Basalt to Gypsum dirt bike trail

The U.S. Forest Service paved the way Wednesday for approval of two trails that will connect larger trail networks in Basalt and Gypsum for dirt bikers.

White River National Forest Supervisor Scott Fitzwilliams signed a draft decision notice and finding of no significant impact for creation of a singletrack trail between Basalt and Gypsum.

The significance of the decision is the Forest Service worked with environmental groups and dirt bikers to come up with a solution that satisfies them all.

Wilderness Workshop, the valley’s oldest homegrown environmental group, had a seat at the negotiating table along with the Colorado Backcountry Trail Riders Alliance, which represents local dirt bikers. The Audubon Society and Rocky Mountain Recreation Initiative also were part of the talks.

Mike Thuillier, treasurer in the dirt bikers’ club, said it was nice to see the agreement formalized after discussions for more than 10 years.

Will Roush, conservation director of Wilderness Workshop, said the Forest Service brokered a deal that features an “adaptive and proactive” management plan. It sets a goal of how it wants the trail system to work and how to achieve the goals. If they aren’t achieved, different management steps will be adopted, Roush said.

Wilderness Workshop appreciated that the agency isn’t approving a trail and hoping it works out.

Roush said Wilderness Workshop doesn’t anticipate filing an objection to the plan. This process was a model for bringing different groups together, he said.

“It makes the point that we’re not against all recreation,” Roush said of Wilderness Workshop. In practical terms, the proposed decision would legalize trails that have been in use for decades but not formally recognized in any past Travel Management Plans.

The 6.6mile Green Gate Trails and 1.6mile Milepost 1 Trail off of Red Mountain Road near Cottonwood Pass will be constructed for singletrack motorized uses. A parking area on Red Table Road would be relocated out of a wetlands and the area will be rehabilitated. A new parking area will be constructed to accommodate seven vehicles with dirt bike trailers. In addition, 27.4 miles of unofficial trails from the shoulder of Basalt Mountain onto the slopes of Red Table Mountain will be closed and rehabilitated.

Thuillier said the Trail Riders’ Alliance has worked with the Forest Service to identify the most desirable route to connect the trail networks. He said dirt bikers will welcome the addition of the Green Gate and Milepost 1 trails into the official network. A lot of riders feel the trails should have been legalized a long time ago, but the process takes time.

Fitzwilliams pledged that the Forest Service would look at a Basalt to Gypsum connector for dirt bikers shortly after the 2011 Travel Management Plan was released.

Thuillier said many of the trails targeted for rehabilitation are “kind of worthless spurs that go nowhere” though some connect back to Red Table Mountain Road. He said he felt most riders wouldn’t object to the closure of those routes.

Dave Hjerleid, a midvalley dirt biker, welcomed the formal addition of Green Gate and Milepost 1 trails because so few routes are open for dirt bikers. Conditions are becoming crowded, he said, and therefore unsafe at times.

The Forest Service’s draft decision said the trails were approved to create “two motorized ingress/egress points on the Red Table Road creating loop opportunities. This would allow access for riders of varying degrees of skill and travel management flexibility.”

Additional information on the project can be found on the White River National Forest website at www.fs.fed.us/nepa/fsusdapop.php/?project=41619.

A 45day objection period was triggered Wednesday. Objections can be sent to Reviewing Officer, Dan Jiron, Regional Forester, USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Region, 740 Simms, Golden, CO 80401; Fax: 3032755134, or email r02f15admin_ [email protected]. [email protected]

April 14, 2015 Planned burn on Basalt Mountain scorched 1,100 acres, captured attention

Smike billows up from the prescribed burn on Basalt Mountain Sunday. This view is looking north with Spring Park Reservoir in the foreground.

Spheres the size of pingpong calls were injected with chemicals and dropped from helicopters to ignite the dry terrain. A prescribed burn went so well Sunday that it charred almost the entire targeted acreage of national forest in the midvalley and sent so much smoke billowing into the air that some people assumed it was out of control, White River National Forest Supervisor Scott Fitzwilliams said Monday.

The fire was intentionally set on national forest and Bureau of Land Management property on the lower slopes of Basalt Mountain, above the populated areas of Missouri Heights. The goal was to burn 1,200 acres. The preliminary estimate is that it burned 1,100 acres, Fitzwilliams said.

“It accomplished everything and more,” he said. It created a nice, mosaic pattern where vegetation was burned on one clump of ground but the grasses, oak brush and juniper in an adjacent cluster were untouched. The fire also carried into higher elevations into stands of aspen trees.

Veteran federal firefighters with Upper Colorado River Interagency Fire Management were amazed that conditions were so dry, according to Fitzwilliams. They said they have rarely seen spring conditions where the fire intensity was similar to fall, when the ground and vegetation dries out.

The fire started pumping plumes of smoke into the air in the late morning. It was visible from throughout the Roaring Fork Valley. Dark smoke occasionally soared when the fire consumed oak brush, juniper trees and other heavier fuels. Other times, thick, white smoke arose when lighter fuels were consumed. Flames were visible from Missouri Heights and the valley floor Sunday night.

Curious onlookers checked out the fire from their vehicles at every pulloff along Upper Cattle Creek Road, and others drove to where fire fighters closed off Basalt Mountain Road to the public during the operation. Some nearby homeowners were nervous.

“They were convinced it was out of control,” Fitzwilliams said. About 35 firefighters from the federal agency and Basalt Fire Department were stationed on the mountain. They used natural firebreaks and scratched additional ones where needed. They prevented the fire from creeping below the management perimeter, Fitzwilliams said.

“We weren’t going to lose this fire in any way, shape or form,” he said.

Forest Service personnel used the event as a way of educating people about the benefits of prescribed burns. The fire removed fuels from the mountainside and improved wildlife habitat by removing decadent vegetation. New growth of trees will be spurred where the aspens burned, for example, and grasses will come in where brush burned out.

“We answered a million questions,” Fitzwilliams said. The firefighters used a helicopter to ignite the blaze. Spheres the size of a pingpong ball were filled with potassium permanganate and dropped from a dispenser on the side of the chopper. The spheres are stored in a hopper at the top of the dispenser. Before they drop, they move through a tube where a needle injects them with a waterglycol solution similar to antifreeze. The chemical mixture makes the sphere combustible, and the recipe can be altered to control the amount of time it takes for a sphere to ignite, according to the Forest Service.

It is more efficient but also more costly to use a helicopter, Fitzwilliams said. Crews felt that was the best option since they were working in steep terrain covered in thick vegetation in some areas.

The estimated cost of the operation was $40,000, Fitzwilliams said. The Forest Service, Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation paid for the operation.

Firefighters remain on the scene. The Forest Service issued a statement Monday assuring Missouri Heights residents that they are safe.

The statement read: “We will continue to have crews monitoring it every day until it is completely out. Residents in the Missouri Heights area will likely see smoke and possibly flames for the next couple days. There is some active fire burning slowly in the aspen stands. But the fire is progressing uphill where there is considerable snow and moist conditions. The fire remains in the management boundary — it is burning exactly where we want it to.” [email protected]

Editor:

This past weekend the Forest Service continued its restoration efforts in the valley with a successful prescribed fire on the flanks of Basalt Mountain above Missouri Heights. With support from the local fire departments they burnt over 1,000 acres of gambel oak, mountain shrub and even some aspen. Prescribed fire is one of the most efficient and ecologically important restoration techniques in the Forest Service’s toolbox. It’s far less expensive than other restoration treatments that require chainsaws and heavy machinery. Prescribed fire is also a great way to remove the buildup of hazardous fuels near communities in a controlled and safe manner.

Wildland fire can certainly pose risks to our communities and we should all be prepared and aware in the event of a fire. However, fire is a natural and inevitable part of living in the West and in Colorado. Our forests evolved with fire and many species are dependent on the effects of fire for food and habitat. Prescribed fire is a great way to achieve ecological goals in a controlled and safe manner. For westerners it’s not a question of if, but when fires will occur. Prescribed burns like the one on Basalt Mountain are much easier to manage than ones that come with little warning in the middle of a dry summer.

Thanks very much to all the folks at the Forest Service who made this weekend’s prescribed fire a success for both the forest and our communities.

Will Roush Conservation Director at the Wilderness Workshop Carbondale archive_date: 1 day

Source URL: http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/lettereditor/166423 Scott Condon [email protected]

April 20, 2015 Aspenarea wildlife losing a prime advocate in Kevin Wright

Aspen District Wildlife Manager Kevin Wright holds a moose calf that was separated from its mother in the Vail area. Wright is retiring this month after 31 years as a wildlife officer with the state of Colorado. Kevin Wright and Bobby on a trip to Sioux Lake. Wright said his work with Colorado Parks and Wildlife was much more than a job. It was a way of life.

Wildlife in the Roaring Fork Valley is losing one of its top advocates from over the past three decades.

Kevin Wright will leave his post as district wildlife manager for the Aspen District at the end of April. He worked for 31 years with the Division of Wildlife and Colorado Parks and Wildlife, as the agency is now known. He worked 15 years as the wildlife manager in the Carbondale district and 16 years in the Aspen district.

Wright crawled into bear dens to help place collars on hibernating bruins. He schlepped fingerling trout in a backpack up incredibly steep slopes to stock high mountain ponds. He once hopped out of a helicopter when only the skid was touching the top of a cliff so he could help a coworker wrestle a collar on a struggling bighorn ram. He got kicked and bashed by any number of elk while helping place collars on them.

“It’s been a good run. I couldn’t ask for anything better,” Wright said. “It’s been a dream job.”

Unfortunately, that dream job has an occasional nightmare. With increasing frequency over the years, Wright has been required to put down a bear. It has never gotten any easier, he said, and it’s something he deplores. It particularly irks him that human behavior almost always got the bear in trouble.

“The bear conflicts have skyrocketed over the years,” Wright said.

There are more bears and more people, so some conflicts are inevitable, Wright said, but lack of effort to secure trash and other food sources that attract bears is an ongoing problem.

“To be honest, there are people not caring, community leaders not caring,” he said.

Aspen has had a bear ordinance on the books for 15 years, but the rules are “not being followed,” he said.

“There are plenty of communities that take a more aggressive stance,” he said.

Aspen doesn’t do enough to make sure commercial dumpsters, residential trash cans and constructionwaste containers are secured, he contended. The only reason a bear will hangout in downtown Aspen is because it can get trash, he said.

Wright has been blunt with his criticism of part of the city’s own inventory of trashcans in the downtown core. The manufacturer billed them as bearresistant. Wright said they are inadequate. The city is relenting and replacing them. A bear study commissioned by Colorado Parks and Wildlife on bear conflicts in the Upper Roaring Fork Valley concluded that education doesn’t work. Enforcement of rules is the only way to gain compliance, according to Wright.

Bears are highly intelligent animals and provided one of the highlights of his career. There is nothing like popping into a den and finding a hibernating mother with new cubs — “4 to 6 pound little fur balls” that cuddle up to a person because they haven’t developed a fear of humans yet.

Wright grew up in corn country in north central Iowa. He hunted, fished, canoed and participated in Boy Scouts. The outdoors were important to him, and Wright realized he wanted to be a wildlife officer.

“I had my mind made up halfway through high school,” he said.

He got his undergraduate degree at Iowa State University and his master’s degree at Colorado State University. He trained with the Colorado Division of Wildlife in Carbondale and got stationed there when he was hired after college.

It’s kept him in the outdoors that he loves so much.

“The job — it’s a way of life. It’s not just a job,” he said.

He had a chance to move from the Carbondale district to the Aspen district when longtime wildlife officer Randy Cote retired. He jumped at the opportunity.

“I just loved the backcountry up there a lot. It’s something I live for,” he said.

The positive part of the job was working with all types of big game and trying to help them thrive through education of humans or intervention with the animals. But working with big game is a doubleedged sword. He also has a frontrow seat to the pressures they face.

“Relentless recreation pressure” has fragmented habitat, he said. People are skiing, hiking with dogs and riding superfattired bikes into winter range — placing undue stress on elk and deer that need to conserve fat to survive the winter. Reproduction rates aren’t at the level they should be. He believes human activity plays into that.

“To me, what I’ve seen in the valley, it’s recreation at all costs,” Wright said.

He understands the desire to get into the backcountry. What he doesn’t understand is the insatiable demand for more trails. Wright is extremely proud of being the voice that always spoke up for the needs of wildlife. Wright, 57, doesn’t have any plans for the future, other than a trip to Kodiak, Alaska, in August. He is uncertain if he will remain in the Roaring Fork Valley, though he has deep roots here.

“When you live in the valley this long, you develop a lot of relationships,” Wright said. And few are stronger than his bonds with wildlife. [email protected]