Forests and Rangelands Success Story
Grand Junction Watershed Project
Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests, Grand Valley Ranger District, Colorado
National Fire Plan - Fuels Reduction
2008
In 2004 the City of Grand Junction entered into Memorandums of Understanding with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in an effort to ensure that resource management of the federal agencies consider and include key objectives for the protection of the municipal watershed, known as the Grand Junction Watershed (GJW), or Kannah Creek Basin (KCB). The area of interest covers a total of 55,735 acres of National Forest System (NFS) Lands, BLM lands, the City of Grand Junction and other private lands. The watershed consists of 26,569 acres above the rim of the Grand Mesa and 29,166 acres below the rim. The proposed action relates to those acres below the rim known as the Kannah Creek basin.
| Property Owner | Acres |
|---|---|
| City Property | 2,780 |
| Private Property | 1,060 |
| Bureau of Land Management | 2,560 |
| U.S. Forest Service | 52,540 |
A prescribed burn is ignited.
Helicopter flying over a burn area.
Assessing weather conditions prior to a prescribed burn.
The Grand Valley Ranger District has proposed a series of treatments within the City of Grand Junction’s municipal watershed. These treatments are aimed at restoring pre-suppression ecosystem functions, and modifying fuels profiles to reduce natural fuels accumulations while providing key points on the landscape where fire behavior may be modified due to these treatments. Additionally, this overall effort will result in improving vegetative structural stages and diversity of wildlife habitat within the Kannah Creek Basin, which is an important winter range seclusion area for both deer and elk on the Grand Mesa.
The project involves treating approximately 8000 acres of NFS and City of Grand Junction lands within the Kannah Creek Basin; approximately 240 acres of which are City owned lands. In addition, the BLM is concurrently completing an assessment on approximately 600 acres of their adjacent lands within the watershed in order to have continuous and effective treatment areas across the landscape rather than by ownership.
Treatment activities include the use of prescribed fire on approximately 5,300 acres of NFS lands and hand thinning or using a hydro axe on approximately 3,000 acres of NFS lands and 240 acres of City lands. In addition, spraying undesirable plant species as well as seeding areas at risk from weed invasion on approximately 2,450 acres, primarily within the Pinyon-Juniper cover type, will be included as concurrent or post harvest activity.
Analysis of past fire histories and projections of "future modeled fire events" provided scenarios and evidence of the current threat and risks from fire within the analysis area. These modeled future events as well as input from other functional resource specialists on the District, provided the basis for the No Action Alternative.
Funding to complete project requirements, to this point, has been obtained through a variety of grants, agreements and Forest Service hazardous fuels (WFHF) dollars.
The City of Grand Junction provided $50,000 to the District for the watershed health assessment and NEPA analysis. The City also applied for and received $52,000 from the Stephens Grant through the Colorado State Forest Service and matched the grant for a total of $104,000, a minimum of which $52,000 must be spent on City property. Agreements have been established with the City to collect the $104,000. In addition, the Grand Valley Ranger District will add approximately $25,000 (WFHF) to implement, administer and monitor projects (under Wyden agreement) on City property. These projects will be all mechanical.
The City also received a grant (HB1130) from the State for $140,000 and was able to add an additional $56,000 to this grant for a total of $196,000. An agreement for HB1130 has been set up for Forest Service use. The Grand Valley Ranger District will also add approximately $32,000 (WFHF) to implement, administer and monitor projects. Unlike the Stephens Grant which can only be used on City property, the HB1130 grant can be used in its entirety on adjacent Federal property.
Finally, an agreement has been established between the Forest Service and the City for a commitment of $60,000 per year ($30,000 from the City and $30,000 from the Forest Service) for work associated with watershed protection and restoration. This will focus on projects such as fuels, trail work, public information, spraying weeds, seeding, etc. This commitment will begin in FY 2009 due to current project commitments. Plans for FY08 included completion of the mechanical work slated for the City and burning approximately 1600 acres.
Contact: Connie Clementson, Mike Surber, or Craig Warren at the Grand Valley Ranger District, (970) 242-8211.