Colorado - Flood Reduction

Cal Campbell, a fourth generation Colorado rancher, raises 300 mother cows, grass, alfalfa hay, and pasture on his 500-acre cattle ranch on the North Fork of the Gunnison River. The North Fork runs low through most of the summer and winter months, he says, but during spring, snowmelt becomes a torrent. Campbell explains, "There's a period of 10 days to two weeks per year when it causes problems. It's not just like a flash flood, it's just that the river itself is out of balance and can't handle the water it carries."

Campbell installed a buffer area with an average width of 60 to 100 feet along nearly 1.5 miles on both sides of the North Fork, protected by temporary electric fence (permanent fences have been lost to spring floods). Like many of his neighbors, over the years Campbell has tried to protect his land from the river--he's put in rock veins along the bank, and he's taken advantage of trees washed out upstream and deposited on his place. Once anchored in the streambank, sediment gets deposited behind them, Campbell says, and "if they have sediment and silt to grow in, 'volunteer' cottonwoods and willows will start the very next year." But, single-handed efforts don't tend to succeed, he says. "People up and down the river have tried to fix it themselves. Not only have they not protected their own banks, they've tended to cause problems across the river or downstream. When the channel of the stream changes--as it can do overnight--the river will make a new course, and it doesn't matter what vegetation is there." Vulnerable areas will be eroded--even areas with willows, cottonwood, and "reed canary grass so thick you can't walk in it" still erode.

In 1995 Campbell enlisted the help of the local conservation district and asked, "is it possible for everyone to get together and take the same approach?" The resulting North Fork River Improvement Association (NFRIA) is a citizen organization of riverfront landowners, water users, and concerned citizens along a 16-mile stretch of the North Fork. Campbell is amazed how well it's going. "It's a large group of different interests--landowners, fishermen, recreationists, gravel companies, and irrigation companies. There are nine different irrigation diversions taking water from the river in this area, and outside of landowners, they're probably the biggest interest." A host of government agencies also is involved, a group not always appreciated Campbell says. "They came to enforce and that didn't sit well."

NFRIA began by educating itself. "We're all learning more and more all the time. When you understand what the river wants to do and begin to understand the entire system, you see different angles." NFRIA hired a project manager, Jeff Crane, and conducted an intensive morphological study of the structure of the North Fork, with financial help from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Colorado State Soil Conservation Board. A summary of the report in NFRIA's spring 1998 newsletter, "North Fork Current," said:

No one type of disturbance is responsible for the existing condition of the North Fork today. Instead, it is a combination of factors relating to the development of the land within the valley. The various types of disturbances found throughout this study have one common denominator--channelization. It began as a means to develop more agricultural land and evolved into a method to protect that land from the destructive and erosive characteristics the river has developed. Destabilization of the river bottom has created a cycle of continual and increasing maintenance and repair.

NFRIA has used the information to identify priority areas and is undertaking a demonstration project to restore two miles along the river in the town of Hotchkiss. Crane says, "Careful planning and design--and monitoring to assess results--are critical to reaching our goals." Equally important is the expertise and assistance of the participating agencies: the Delta Soil Conservation District, Colorado Division of Wildlife, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Geological Survey, Forest Service, Army Corps of Engineers, Fish and Wildlife Service, and EPA, as well as many individuals and groups.

Campbell was named the 1997 Landowner of the Year by the Colorado Riparian Association in recognition of his efforts in organizing NFRIA and on his own place. The local newspaper, the North Fork Current, quoted Campbell: "The river is what this valley was built on. The river is just as important to those who do not live on it as those who do, and we have to work together as a community to manage it. Humans are a part of this equation. The river will not be like it was in 1860, but there are a lot of things we can do to have a more stable river system, and we owe it to our kids to get started now."

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