By: Richard Van Gytenbeek-Project Mgr. TU and Environmental Representative-CBRT   

Elk Creek and Canyon Creeks both begin on the south side of the Flat Tops mountain range in north central Colorado and flow southward to confluence with the Colorado River main stem downstream from Glenwood Springs, CO. Agricultural irrigators have diverted flows from these creeks for over a hundred years. Unfortunately, many of these irrigation diversion structures are fish barriers preventing spawning fish from the Colorado River from moving upstream. In 2015 Trout Unlimited (TU) and Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) began working with the Ware and Hinds Ditch Company to build a fish passage channel around the company’s diversion dam. Completed in 2018, the project would become the catalyst for additional projects in Elk Creek and neighboring upstream Canyon Creek.

In 2021, again working with CPW, TU completed a retrofit of the I-70 culvert system that conveys Canyon Creek under the interstate. Like the Ware and Hinds project this enabled thousands of Colorado River fish to move upstream and successfully spawn.

During this time period, both of these projects were taking place against the backdrop of an important planning effort, the Middle Colorado Integrated Water Management Plan (MCIWMP). The plan was spearheaded by the Middle Colorado Watershed Council (MCWC) and completed in 2021. One of the most important goals of this plan is to work with agricultural irrigators to upgrade diversion infrastructure thereby improving diversion efficiency and enabling fish passage. With two successful fish passage projects completed in each Elk and Canyon Creeks fulfilling the goals of the IWMP, TU began to move upstream in each basin, partnering with irrigators to upgrade their diversions and return spawning fish to the creeks.

Called the Middle Colorado Agricultural Collaborative (MCAC), this multiple-phase project began in 2022. The first phase sought to find and partner with willing irrigators to create conceptual plans to improve their diversion dams and headgates. By the end of Phase 1, TU was partnering with three owners to complete five diversion upgrade projects. These projects, if built would conservatively open 7 miles of Elk Creek and 3 miles of Canyon Creek.

The second phase of the MCAC took the Phase 1 conceptual plans and developed full construction plans for each of the five projects. Phase 2 began in the late summer of 2023 and is now complete with construction-ready plans (spring of 2024).

The third phase of the MCAC project, scheduled for fall of 2024, will construct three of the five projects having secured ~4.6 million dollars in grant funding. The remaining two projects will be constructed in the next phase(s) with funding currently being pursued.

The MCAC, while driven by TU, is the product of incredible array of partners: Roseman Ditch Company, Meadow Creek Ranch, J-Wolverton Ditch Company, CPW, Middle Colorado Watershed Council, Wright Water Engineers and by our generous funders: Bureau of Reclamation, CWCB, Colorado River District and the Colorado Basin Roundtable. By working together, TU and agricultural producers continue to demonstrate that productive agriculture and a healthy environment can coexist and complement one another.