Upper Colorado Headwaters Wildfire/Watershed Assessment
Photo: Patricia Henschen, Flickr
Project Summary
Completion Date:
Initial Assessment - 2009
Revisions - 2013
The watershed assessment and prioritization for the Upper Colorado Headwaters Watershed was one of the first completed. The assessment followed a procedure prescribed by the Watershed Wildfire Protection Group titled “Protecting Critical Watersheds in Colorado from Wildfire: A Technical Approach to Watershed Assessment and Prioritization”.
The report and related documents can be found below in the Documents section. A slide show of the maps from the report can be viewed below in the Maps section.
Project Update
Since the completion of the initial assessment in September 2009, the Bark Beetle Incident assessments were completed. Those assessments provided updated assessment analysis that has changed the priorities from those displayed in the 2009 report.
The stakeholder group was reconvened in 2013 to revise and update the assessment.
Project Actions
Identification & prioritization of zones of concern
Identification of potential hazards to water supply in zones of concern
Watershed ranking based on hazard analysis
Completed an opportunities & constraints analysis of next steps to protect critical watersheds
Benefits
Protect critical water supplies and natural resources from adverse effects of post-wildfire hydrologic changes, including:
Flooding
Erosion
Debris flows
Deposition
Mitigate negative effects of wildfire through targeted projects
Maps
The maps in the slide show below are from the Upper Colorado Headwaters Wildfire/Watershed Assessment. Click on the slide show to view the priority maps. The legend text identifies the ranking item. Descriptions of the maps and how they were created are contained in the report located in the Documents section.
