Watershed & Environmental Planning
Watershed Planning
JW Associates has been active in watershed protection planning in Colorado since the Buffalo Creek Fire in 1996. We have helped many of the water supply and management agencies throughout Colorado, Utah and Wyoming prioritize and plan watershed protection in their forested watersheds. Our background in forest management, wildland hydrology and wildfire hazard assessments provides us with a strong skill set to provide our clients with effective solutions to large- and small-scale watershed problems.
Project Actions
Watershed hazard and value assessments
Watershed prioritization and targeting watersheds with specific projects
Organize plans and strategies to protect and support critical watersheds
Inform stakeholder groups of the complexities of watershed health and resiliency
Identify specific actions for implementation with stakeholder groups
Benefits
Increased watershed resilience
Identification of hazards present from environmental events and human actions
Ability to identify targeted actions based on hazards
Knowledge of hazards helps agencies prepare for disturbances
Current & Completed Watershed Planning Projects
Colorado - Big Thompson Headwaters Partnership
The Colorado-Big Thompson (C-BT) Project collects water on the West Slope and delivers it through a 13-mile tunnel beneath Rocky Mountain National Park to portions of eight Northeastern Colorado counties. The CB-T Project includes portions of the Upper Colorado Headwaters, Big Thompson and Cache La Poudre watersheds covering 654,476 acres.
Upper Cucharas Watershed Pre-fire Assessment
This project identifies watershed hazards, uses hazards to prioritize, and recommends measures to protect those watersheds that provide or convey critical community water supplies from the adverse effects of post-wildfire hydrologic changes, including flooding, erosion, debris flows, and deposition.
Colorado Springs Utilities & US Forest Service Partnership
The Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) & US Forest Service (USFS) Partnership is a collaboration with the goal of reducing the impacts of wildfires on water supply watersheds. The partnership is currently revising it's 5-Year Plan that identifies priorities for forest management treatments throughout CSU's large water supply drainage areas.
City of Boulder Watershed Planning
JWA provided technical studies and direction that supported Pre- and Post-fire Planning for the City of Boulder’s public water supply watersheds. This plan was used to target forest management projects and support grant applications for on the ground forest and watershed management projects.
Environmental Planning & NEPA
JW Associates has extensive planning experience, particularly with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for federal agencies. As a company we have completed more than 15 NEPA projects. Our senior staff have completed more than 50 NEPA projects, including projects for the US Forest Service, BLM, National Park Service, and GSA. Partners on these projects have included many other agencies and stakeholders.
Project Actions
Utilize experience with NEPA to identify process difficulties and create solutions especially as applied to US Forest Service Projects
Develop solutions to roadblocks in NEPA process especially with forest and watershed management projects
Benefits
A proactive approach to potential issues regarding natural resource management
Planning Details and Qualifications
Mr. Piehl, JW’s Watershed Planner, has completed 25 NEPA projects himself including many EAs. In 2002, he participated as a subject matter expert in a modeling exercise designed to identify process difficulties with the NEPA as applied to USDA Forest Service projects. This project (Reflecting Complexity & Impact of Laws on a USDA Forest Service Project) was used as support to Process Predicament – How Statutory, Regulatory and Administrative Factors Affect National Forest Management, a policy document that the Chief of the USDA Forest Service issued.
Past Environmental Plans
Catamount Forest Health & Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project
The Catamount Forest Health and Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project will create more sustainable forest conditions that are more resilient to fire, and insects and diseases while providing for diverse wildlife habitat, recreational opportunities, sustainable watershed conditions and increased fire fighter safety.
Sage Steppe Ecosystem Restoration Strategy & EA Statement
This project analyzed options for reducing the density of juniper stands within the sage steppe ecosystem on 6.5 million acres of Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands in northeastern California. This project was a programmatic approach to landscape-scale restoration of the sage steppe ecosystem.
Crossons-Longview Forest Restoration EA
The goal of the Crossons-Longview Forest Restoration Environmental Assessment was to improve the health of the forest and increase its resiliency to catastrophic, high intensity wildfire, insect epidemics and disease.