The Priority Mapping Project
Soon after it was formed, CWT identified a significant need in order to be effective: to focus and prioritize its efforts through identification of areas of critical water conservation needs in the state. With the assistance of a grant from the Colorado Division of Wildlife, CWT was able to produce maps that show water-short streams and produce streamlists identifying conservation-priority reaches. These maps and streamlists helped prioritize CWT’s water conservation efforts, allowing the Trust to identify the areas of maximum conservation benefit, including consideration of imperiled native fish, unique riparian communities, and valuable wetland resources, among other significant conservation values. Please note, however, that the Colorado Water Trust will always remain responsive to requests to address water conservation needs that are not identified on the maps or in our streamlists. If you are located in a place that is not prioritized on these maps, but have water conservation concerns, do not hesitate to contact us about how we can help.
The Process
CWT developed the maps after a rigorous analysis, which included a series of steps. The first step involved identifying partners and bringing together a working group consisting of representatives from state and federal agencies, land conservation organizations, engineering firms, water user groups, and water attorneys. The group included the US Forest Service, the Bureau of Reclamation, The Nature Conservancy, the Colorado Conservation Trust, and many others. The next steps involved soliciting, assembling, and processing technical data and information. Our sources included the Colorado Conservation Trust’s terrain mapping to the Bureau of Land Managements mapping of water-short systems to the CWCB’s instream flow stream reaches to known cutthroat trout areas. The final step involved creating the maps by incorporating the information collected.
The Maps and Streamlists
As you will see below, this rigorous process resulted in the creation of a map and streamlist identifying water-short or other conservation-priority stream. We created one for each of Colorado’s eight great river basins: