For Friends of The Poudre, the commitment to keep the river flowing free will soon take on levels of intensity we have not seen for decades. Northern Colorado is approaching its fourth winter of below-normal precipitation.

In 1999 and 2001, the Poudre watershed was at about 70% of normal snow pack and rainfall. This year so far we are at about 30% of normal, making this the driest year in the last 68.

Dr. William Gray, CSU’s Atmospheric Sciences professor known for his accuracy in predicting hurricanes, has predicted that drought conditions may persist for as many as six more years.

While there is a legitimate and growing need for increased water storage to get us through dry years and to better manage increasing urban demands as well as to preserve agriculture, this does not mean that we need to condemn the free flowing Poudre River to a large main-stem dam.

As the drought deepens the idea of building a large dam on or near the Poudre River is understandably gaining popularity. It would take a minimum of 10 years to process environmental impact statements and construct such a dam.

Friends of The Poudre and other groups in northern Colorado would surely resist it, resulting in a considerably longer time frame. By then, this drought would be over and many other smarter and more cost-effective water-conserving measures mentioned below would have been implemented.

The Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District (NCWCD and also known as the Northern District) holds a senior water storage decree to build Grey Mountain Reservoir just upstream from the mouth of the canyon. But, largely as a result of the efforts of Friends of The Poudre, the City of Fort Collins has been on record since 1983 as being opposed to any main-stem dam.

Without Fort Collins as a partner, the building of Grey Mountain Reservoir is unlikely. Next in seniority for water storage rights is the City of Fort Collins with a decree to enlarge Halligan Reservoir on the north fork of the Poudre. Next in line, the City of Greeley proposes to enlarge Seaman Reservoir close to the confluence with the main stem at Gateway Park. After this, comes the City of Thornton that has purchased land and accompanying water rights within the watershed.

NCWCD continues to promote these various mega-dam options, but, without Fort Collins as a partner, the district is not likely to be successful.

If, however the Northern District fails to exercise its storage rights, the City of Thornton may be able to claim them and the prospect of a main-stem mega dam will again rear its ugly head.

NCWCD could be exercising the required due diligence in the opinion of the Water Court by studying whether to expand Seaman’s Reservoir. This will depend on the ruling of the Court.

To address opposition to a main-stem dam, the Northern District has developed two alternative plans that would leave the Poudre Canyon intact, but divert most of the river, especially during spring run off, using massive pumping plants, into a reservoir close to the river.

One of these alternatives is the enlargement of Seaman’s Reservoir mentioned above. The other is a project called Glade Reservoir that would inundate the valley between two hogbacks east of the canyon’s mouth a mile or so north of Ted’s Place.

No technical information, need requirements or impact information have been provided to the public beyond the fact that the Northern District wants to pursue one of the alternatives. As the situation stands now, neither of these options is acceptable to Friends of The Poudre, and most likely not to the City of Fort Collins.

In her recently published book, Virtual Rivers, Dr. Ellen E. Wohl of CSU cites a study of rivers below 17 reservoirs in the Colorado Rockies, including four along the Front Range. Her study found:

"…that daily and seasonal fluctuations in water temperature were reduced, and that the seasonal maximum temperature was delayed downstream of reservoirs that release water from the base of the dam. These changes caused a reduction in microinvertebrate diversity and in the number of taxa. Dams may also release waters low in oxygen, impacting the ability of microinverterates and fish to live in the channel until the water becomes re-oxygenated as it flows downstream. Finally, upstream riffle habitats may be lost when they are covered by water behind the new impoundment."

The potential damage of a mega-dam to the river and the habitat it provides for microinvertebrate and invertebrate cultures, which in turn support mammalian, fish and avian wildlife, is too great a risk.

We feel that any high-altitude dam project that would store more than about 15,000 acre-feet could be too damaging to the river and its ecosystems over the long term.

The Poudre is one of the last free flowing rivers in the Rocky Mountain west and we aim to keep it that way.

Some people think the best way to ensure this important goal is to support smaller, more environmentally friendly water storage projects throughout the watershed.

There are several water conservation and storage strategies being proposed, in various stages of study or implementation. Among them are:

• better demand management, including incentive programs to decrease residential and commercial water use, requiring home-owners associations to not only allow, but promote xeriscaping;

• incentives for the installation of low-flow showers and toilets, and more efficient lawn sprinkling systems, water heaters, air conditioning units, dish washers and clothes washing machines; and

• a tiered water rate structure that will reward conservation while penalizing heavy water users;

• gravel pit storage upstream of Fort Collins;

• dredging to increase and to recapture capacity lost to silting of existing reservoirs; and

• aquifer regeneration in northeastern Colorado along the Platte River.

The most promising water storage option available to the City of Fort Collins (and other potential partners) is the enlargement of Halligan Reservoir on the north fork of the Poudre River. Halligan currently has a capacity of about 6,400 acre-feet. Although the North Poudre Irrigation Company owns Halligan, the City of Fort Collins for many years has held an option to buy the land around and under Halligan Reservoir. The City’s intention is to enlarge it in anticipation of future needs.

If Fort Collins acts on this option and builds a larger dam in this relatively remote part of the watershed, it will considerably reduce, but not completely remove, the threat of a major water storage project.

If a required environmental impact study finds that the endangered Prebble’s Meadow Jumping Mouse habitat and other environmental concerns can be successfully mitigated, Friends of The Poudre may look at considering the possibility of supporting an enlargement of Halligan Reservoir up to about 15,000 acre feet.

The City of Fort Collins has no legal obligation to seek the cooperation of NCWCD to enlarge Halligan reservoir. But making Halligan’s enlargement a part of the NCWCD’s integrated water supply effort would be a smart thing to do. Friends of The Poudre and the City of Fort Collins need to work with NCWCD, the cities of Greeley, Loveland and Windsor, and others to ensure that water rights and water storage decrees related to northern Colorado water remain in local hands. Losing these rights to Metro Denver municipalities is a real possibility, and we need to make sure it doesn’t happen.

After 16 years of effort by Friends of the Poudre and other groups, Gateway Mountain Park was opened this summer in the lower Poudre Canyon.

The 277-acre park is on a horseshoe bend at the confluence of the Poudre and the North Fork of the Poudre. The entry is 5 miles west of Ted’s Place.

The front area of the park is designed for picnicking and people who want to lounge on manicured grass under shade trees. There’s a bridge over the Poudre that leads to an old dirt road that goes to Seaman Reservoir, a 10- to 15-minute stroll.

The back side of the park—on the far side of the hogback that runs down the middle of the horseshoe bend—will be left as it is for a while, with old settling ponds that were part of the city of Fort Collins water filtration process. The plan is to restore the backside to natural vegetation and have it as a quiet area.

Gateway has many opportunities for recreation—fishing, hiking, wildlife watching—and is a site perfect environmental education opportunities and public education about water in the West. The city’s Water Filtration Plan No. 1, built in the early part of last century and now closed, is located on the site.

"We should consider ourselves lucky to have such a wonderful place," said FOP board member and Fort Collins city council member Bill Bertschy during a dedication ceremony. "Gateway is a park that we can all be very proud of."

Bertschy is a board member of Friends of the Poudre, which along with Poudre Paddlers and other local groups and government agencies, had worked since 1986 to raise a million dollars to open the park. Most of the expense went into redeveloping the entry off Colorado Highway 14.

Because the park has parking, it’s a good place to get off busy Highway 14 and put in for boating. There’s a good spot for launching. The run will take you down to Picnic Rock.

Gateway isn’t a good place to take out, though, because there’s a large water diversion upstream that boaters should not float over or portage around.

The city charges for parking for two reasons: to help pay for improvements that will be made in Gateway and to keep crowds down. The parking fee is $4 per vehicle and $8 for vehicles with a larger passenger capacity. But it’s well-worth the price to be able to get off the highway and into a safe area where you can unload and launch.

At this time of the year, the park is open from 8 a.m. to dusk; in the summer, 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Bette Sears, a long-time environmental enthusiast, has volunteered to do one of the most important tasks facing a citizens organization: finding volunteers to help out.

Bette’s proactive support of environmental issues dates back to 1969 when she worked on a citizens petition to get the Fort Collins city council to put bike lanes on streets. She collected citizen signatures on a long roll of paper and presented it to the city council on the front steps of city hall, a story that made the front page of the Coloradoan. As her husband Bill remembers, "The city came up with a few blocks of bike lanes back then, mostly to appease her. Eventually the effort from back then grew into the system of bike lanes that we have now."

In 1976, she circulated petitions door-to-door as part of a major citizens initiative to stop the Olympics slated for Colorado, an event that would have been environmentally disastrous for the state.

She was also active in Preserve Our Poudre, FOP’s predecessor. POP was the citizens group that stopped plans to dam the river almost all of the way up the Poudre Canyon.

FOP always has a great need for volunteers. Activities range from cleanups of two FOP-sponsored 2-mile stretches of the Poudre Canyon highway in the areas of Gateway Park and Mishawaka Inn.

Volunteers are also needed to staff festivals and events to pass out information and talk with people.

Now that building a dam within the Poudre watershed has again become an issue, volunteers are needed to help with research, publicity, strategy, and other important items.

So, please volunteer when Bette calls you. She can be reached at 224-1190 if you’d like to take the initiative and call her first.

Chuck Wanner, who was FOP’s first executive director, recently made a lifestyle change and moved to Durango to become the director of the San Juan River Alliance.

This happened late in the summer when he and Margaret moved from their Mountain Avenue home, a site of many meetings aimed at preserving the Poudre River, and settled on a lovely spread outside of Durango.

Chuck has had a long and involved career in Poudre issues. He was the president of Preserve Our Poudre, a citizens group that put up enough flat-out public resistance to stop the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District’s plan in the late 1970s and early 1980s to build a series of dams with reservoirs that would flood almost all of the Poudre Canyon.

Thanks to Chuck’s efforts and those of POP, a compromise was struck where most of the canyon became protected under the federal wild and scenic law, leaving only the lower 8 miles of the canyon unprotected. The 8 miles were left unprotected for possible water storage, although that is not a guaranteed right. The Northern District would still have to meet all regulations and somehow survive public disapproval if it tries to dam those 8 miles.

POP went out of business on purpose after it accomplished its goal of gaining wild and scenic status for the river, and was replaced by Friends Of The Poudre

Chuck remained active in Poudre issues and became an FOP member and, in his role as a Fort Collins city council member in recent years, was the chair of a citizens governing board set up to oversee a Poudre heritage area that was approved by congress but has yet to be officially set in motion.

Thanks to a grant from River Network, a national river protection group based in Portland, FOP was able to hire Chuck as executive director. That was in 1999.

Chuck focused on increasing FOP’s membership, lobbying with state officials, networking with other environmental groups locally and statewide, and helping FOP to continue with its reputation as a citizens organization dedicated to the river.

Chuck will be missed, but, as the saying goes, life goes on.

For now, FOP will return to being an all volunteer organization, although we are working on strategies to acquire funding to support a much-needed full-time position. FOP’s board members have divided up Chuck’s duties and each is responsible for such things as this newsletter, publicity, maintaining the membership list, fundraising, and even such seemingly minor but very important activities as placing newsletters and brochures in FOP donation boxes around Fort Collins.

In addition, members may be called up more to help with activities. Please help out by volunteering.

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