The five-year anniversary of the September 2013 Front Range flood is this fall, if you can believe it! In celebration and reflection, the Colorado
Riparian Association is devoting our first blog post series to the massive flood recovery effort spearheaded by the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) and undertaken by numerous watershed coalitions, local landowners, federal, state, and local government agencies, and a myriad of other stakeholders. Since the flood, more than 100 stream recovery projects have been completed or are underway across the Front Range. A single blog post isn’t nearly enough to capture all the different components involved in these efforts.
Instead, I would like to introduce CRA’s 2013 Flood Recovery Blog Series. We will use the Streamcrest project on Left Hand Creek in Boulder County as a case study to provide information about the flood recovery effort. The initial posts will provide more general information about the flood and the recovery effort across the Front Range. The majority of the posts will focus on various aspects of the Left Hand Creek Streamcrest project, from the immediate aftermath of the flood, to the early stages of master planning and project development, through design, construction, and post-project monitoring.
The series blog entries will be posted approximately once per month, and will be written by people who were directly involved in each aspect of the Streamcrest project. We hope you enjoy this blog series, and that you get valuable and/or interesting insights into the complexities, challenges, and successes associated with a typical flood recovery/restoration project.
The following is a rough schedule by topic (subject to change):
Post 1: Introduction to 2013 Flood Recovery Blog Series, Kim Lennberg (Alba Watershed Consulting)
Post 2: Big Picture Flood Recovery Effort, Chris Sturm (CWCB)
Post 3: Streamcrest Case Study – Flood Aftermath and Master Planning Effort, Luke Swan (Otak)
Post 4: Streamcrest Case Study – Funding, Landowners, Logistical Challenges, and Opportunities, Jessie Olson (Lefthand Watershed Oversight Group)
Post 5: Streamcrest Case Study – Project Design, Julie Ash (Otak)
Post 6: Streamcrest Case Study – Project Implementation, Corey Engen (Flywater)
Post 7: Streamcrest Case Study – Engaging Volunteers in Flood Recovery, Luke McNally (Wildlands Restoration Volunteers)
Post 8: Streamcrest Case Study – Long-Term Project Monitoring, TBD
