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Colorado Basin Roundtable Watershed Flow Evaluation Tool Study

Report published March 1, 2012
5/1/2013
link DOWNLOAD FILE: FINAL REPORT

Colorado river Watershed Flow Evaluation tool conservation nature conservancy

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Final Report - Sanderson et al. 2012 Colorado Basin Watershed Flow Evaluation Tool Final Report. Appendices not included

Appendices

Appendix A. Instream Flow Report

Appendix B. Stakeholder meeting summaries

Appendix C. Response to comments on draft report

Appendix D. Ecological Limits of Hydrologic Alteration (ELOHA)

Appendix E. Geomorphic Subclassification

Appendix F. Trout methods

Appendix G. Warmwater fish methods | Appendix H. Macroinvertebrate Methods

Appendix I. Riparian vegetation methods | Appendix J. Recreational flow needs

Appendix K. Miller. Site specific validation for WFET | Appendix L. Water District Mapping

Appendix M. Wilding and Sanderson. A pictorial guide to riparian changes following flow alteration 

Stakeholders in the Colorado River Watershed in Colorado expressed interest in quantifying the flows needed to sustain conservation and recreation values associated with streams and rivers.  Several long-standing methods exist for quantifying water needs, but these methods are typically focused on individual river segments, primarily oriented toward fish, and often expensive to implement, making it cost-prohibitive to apply them across all streams and rivers in a watershed.  The Watershed Flow Evaluation Tool (WFET) was developed to fill the need for a broadly applicable assessment of flow-related conservation and recreation attributes.  The WFET was developed using the Ecological Limits of Hydrologic Alteration (ELOHA) framework (Poff et al. 2010).  This study provides a regional framework for understanding flow-related ecological risk for environmental attributes and establishes a baseline for recreational flow needs in the Colorado River Watershed.
 
Contact: John Sanderson: jsanderson@tnc.org
 
Citation: Sanderson, J., B. Bledsoe, L. Poff, T. Wilding, B. Miller and N. Fey. 2012. Colorado Basin Roundtable Watershed Flow Evaluation Tool study. Prepared by CDM Smith for the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments.
 
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