Powderhorn Riparian Restoration Project

HCCA is partnering with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS), Gunnison Conservation District (GCD), and the Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District (UGRWCD) to restore a degrading riparian system.

The goal of this project is to restore a degrading and incising system along the confluence of Cebolla and Powderhorn Creeks. By hand-building restoration structures, volunteers will help add complexity back to the stream while also encouraging natural meandering.

Volunteers will receive both an introduction to restoration ecology and practical experience building low-tech process-based restoration (LT-PBR) structures including beaver dam analogues, post assisted log structures, and other woody material structures. LT-PBR is the practice of using simple, low unit-cost, structural additions to mimic ecological functions and promote healthy riparian-specific processes.

When: Wednesday, July 26th (8:30AM to 4:00 PM) first day of back-to-back volunteer workdays.

Where: Powderhorn and Cebolla Creeks (Powderhorn, CO)

Parking: We will meet at 8:30am at the parking area on Highway 149 just south of the ‘Lake City’ bridge over Blue Mesa Reservoir. Coordinates are 38.486314, -107.059445 (copy andpaste coordinates straight to your search bar or to an online map).

What: Volunteers will use LT-PBR methods to strengthen the resiliency of riparian systems, thereby improving watershed health. By implementing small hand-built structures that mimic, promote, and sustain natural processes, volunteers will help attenuate water on the landscape and return complexity to this struggling and drying riverscape, restoring hydrologic function, promoting habitat diversity, and improving riparian vegetation.

Why: Process-based restoration projects have the potential to help us mitigate impacts from a loss of historic wetlands, drought, and wildfire while helping with late-season water supply and wildfire mitigation.