If a river running through your town is overused and underloved, it might be in line for a first-of-its kind statewide restoration program, designed to assess and improve a river鈥檚 health, its recreational assets and its safety.
In March, Great Outdoors Colorado and the Colorado Water Conservation Board approved a combined $417,000 in seed money to launch the program, according to Emily Olsen, regional vice president of Trout Unlimited. The fish advocacy group is helping lead the initiative, known as Colorado Rivermap, along with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
The project will launch this year with the selection of a technical team to identify the river segments that are most in need of help, according to Doug Vilsack, Colorado state director for the BLM.
鈥淭his is getting the big thinkers together and using the seed funding to see which reaches of rivers need our attention and how much funding we will need,鈥� Vilsack said.
They鈥檒l be looking for parks and river access points that are rundown and in need of repair and restoration. They鈥檙e on the hunt for stretches of river that have no access points, and those that have been used so heavily that streambanks are eroding.
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