Home

More than 20,000 people and perhaps as many as 40,000 annually get their kicks on the town stretch of the Yampa River. On some days, they exceed the reasonable capacity of the river. However, the community of Steamboat Springs has begun taking steps to safeguard the river as well as the enjoyment of the people who play in it.

A series of "triggers" built into the new Yampa River Management Plan are intended to protect the health of the river and the quality of the recreational experience enjoyed on the Yampa for years to come. The triggers are meant to result in corrective action when monitoring of the river shows that either its health is declining, the people playing in it aren't enjoying it the way they used to, or both.

The Steamboat Springs City Council adopted the plan this week, concluding three years of work by a panel of residents and city staff. Seven members of the Denver office of the international consulting firm EDAW worked on the plan.

EDAW's Bruce Meighen thinks the Yampa River Management Plan will prove to be a working document because its creation involved the people who work and play in the river and because of the triggers.

"It was driven by the community itself," Meighen said. "It's a living document. The members of the Citizens Advisory Committee were able to put in a plan that has teeth. They also said they don't know it all, and there's still work to be done."

The management plan concludes that 75 percent of the user days on the river are generated by nonresidents and of those, roughly half have recreated on the Yampa more than once. And, by far, the majority engage in tubing.

The plan acknowledges that commercial operators play an important role in meeting the needs of tourists who will continue to come here to enjoy the river. Meighen said it's critical that the plan take into account the impact of visitors.

The plan says: "It's important for commercial tubing operations to provide an experience that results in high visitor satisfaction while also providing sufficient economic return. If commercial operations are not viable, private use may increase.

"An inevitable result of continued population growth in and around Steamboat Springs will be more river users and more demand for this finite resource."

The most powerful portion of the plan, Meighen said, calls for ongoing monitoring of the river to sample a series of indicators. When those indicators go above or below desirable levels, triggers will be pulled that call for corrective action.

For example, the plan requires commercial fishing guides operating within the city limits to submit weekly reports on the amount of time spent fishing the river, the number of trout caught and released, and the size of those fish. A trigger would kick in when the annual data indicate a decline in catches per hour and in fish of a certain size class. The resulting action, taken in consultation with the Division of Wildlife, might be an increase in fish stocking. Alternatively, it might be to decrease or increase fishing pressure, monitoring of water quality or habitat improvement.

Another trigger point is defined by the bugs in the river.

Aquatic insects are one of the best indicators of a river's health, and the plan calls on the city to engage a qualified consultant to take measurements of the different species of insects in the water. Different aquatic insects respond in different ways to the physical, chemical and biological conditions with a stream. Significant changes could trigger a thorough review of water quality with particular attention to possible sources of pollution.

Highlights of the river management plan include a series of policies:

n Swimming in the river would be prohibited at River Creek Park (under development at U.S. Highway 40 and Walton Creek road) and Rotary Park; discouraged at Fetcher Park and Emerald Park, and allowed at Dr. Rich Weiss Park, through downtown, at the Stock Bridge Transit Center and James Brown Bridge.

n Private tubers would be encouraged not to get started above Fetcher Park. Private tubing would be discouraged at River Creek and Rotary Park, allowed and monitored at Fetcher Park, Emerald Park, Weiss Park and downtown; and allowed at the Stock Bridge Transit Center and James Brown Bridge.

n The plan concurs with the steps recently taken by the city to secure a form of water rights called a "recreational in-channel diversion." But it goes beyond that to call on the city to pursue rights to stored water beyond the 350 acre-feet it owns in Stagecoach Reservoir. It also suggests looking into the acquisition of more senior water rights from willing sellers.

n The plan also calls on the city to provide greater protection of the river through restrictions on development in floodplains, with the caveat that all land-use policy statements in the river plan be consistent with the new community plan.

Meighen said one of the keys to the plan is the considerable amount of public land along the river corridor and the city's ownership of the key access points. The access points provide a real opportunity to manage the river.

It is atypical for a community the size of Steamboat to have generated a river management plan, Meighen added.

"It's actually pretty progressive," Meighen said, "to take it to the level that it consider all kind of recreation and is also sensitive to the environment -- that's pretty rare."

-- To reach Tom Ross call 871-4205

or e-mail tross@steamboatpilot.com