High Country Ducks
In Colorado's San Luis Valley, managed wetlands harbor spectacular numbers of waterfowl
By Matt Young Senior Writer
Believe it or not, some of the continent's most productive breeding habitat for ducks lies in a mountain valley in the heart of the southern Rockies. This remarkable place is Colorado's San Luis Valley, a broad expanse of high desert surrounded by majestic 14,000-foot mountains.
Managed wetlands in the valley support an average of 200 to 300 duck nests per square mile, with some areas boasting as many as 1,000 nests per square mile. In addition to their value to breeding ducks, the valley's highly productive wetlands also provide migration and wintering habitat for multitudes of other migratory birds.
As in many parts of the West, groundwater is the lifeblood of wetlands in the San Luis Valley. Beneath the valley floor lie two massive aquifers whose artesian springs, along with snowmelt from the surrounding mountains, historically supported a vast network of playa wetlands.
However, people have increasingly tapped the valley's groundwater for a variety of purposes, depleting the underlying aquifer and, in effect, draining many crucial wetland systems from below. Stream runoff also has been largely diverted into ditches for human use, robbing many more wetlands of their water supply.
Fortunately, state and federal agencies have established several large managed wetland complexes in the San Luis Valley that provide excellent habitat for breeding, migrating, and wintering waterbirds and a variety of other wildlife.
Protecting Privately Owned Wetlands The San Luis Valley annually produces between 80,000 and 100,000 ducks, largely raised on relatively small patches of managed habitat. Privately owned wetland habitats also support large numbers of migratory birds, especially waterfowl.
DU is actively protecting these important areas by securing conservation easements on lands that buffer state and federally owned wetland areas. DU works closely with the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program to restore wetlands on these protected acres by providing funding and technical assistance.
DU committee members in the San Luis Valley have been instrumental in helping DU staff to identify suitable areas and make the contacts necessary to establish conservation easements and initiate wetland restoration projects.
These efforts not only help maintain critical wetland habitats in the valley, but they also help landowners and the surrounding community maintain their way of life. In Colorado's San Luis Valley, managed wetlands harbor spectacular numbers of waterfowl |
The crown jewel of the valley's wildlife areas is the 14,100-acre Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge. Located nearby are several other highly productive managed wildlife areas, including the Alamosa National Wildlife Refuge, Blanca Waterfowl Management Area, and the Rio Grande State Wildlife Areas.
Ducks Unlimited has been an active partner in the San Luis Valley for many years and has worked closely with state and federal agencies to complete several wetland restoration projects on public lands in the region.
For example, at DU's recently completed Unit 7 project on the Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge, dikes and ditches were developed, and water control structures were installed to create a large wetland impoundment where water levels can be carefully managed at optimum depths for waterfowl and other wetland wildlife.
More than 30,000 pintails and 5,000 greater sandhill cranes were observed in Unit 7 this past spring, along with large numbers of nesting avocets, black-necked stilts, and Wilson's phalaropes. During the next several years, DU and its partners plan to protect and restore an additional 20,000 acres of wetlands in the valley.
