DU crew oversees installation of new irrigation system on Deadman Creek
DU and USFWS make good San Luis Valley migration habitat even better CRESTONE, Colo., March 24, 2008 – The first birds migrating through Colorado’s San Luis Valley once again have a reliable water source. Ducks Unlimited and partners recently restored irrigation infrastructure on the Baca National Wildlife Refuge near Creston, Colorado. The new structures will help refuge staff control water flow from Deadman Creek and improve valuable wetlands for wildlife.
“Deadman Creek flows fast and early, so it is a dependable source of water and food for the area’s first migrating and breeding waterfowl in the spring,” said Richard Vail, DU regional engineer for Colorado. “The refuge needed help to more efficiently control the sometimes massive seasonal runoff.”
The US Fish and Wildlife Service recently acquired land for the almost 93,000-acre wildlife refuge and asked DU for help developing water control structures to manage water running off the Sangre de Cristo Mountains into the refuge’s Deadman Creek. Using a North American Wetlands Conservation Act grant, DU designed a new irrigation system that will bring water to several hundred acres of valuable wetlands that have not seen water in over a decade.
“The Deadman Creek project was the refuge’s highest priority,” said Ron Garcia, Baca refuge manager. “This project will allow us to make better use of runoff from the mountains. I’m really excited to see how much flexibility the new control structures give us in managing this year’s runoff, which is expected to be big.”
The Baca Refuge and the San Luis Valley have seasonal wetlands that fill during spring run-off from the surrounding mountains. In addition to being a waterfowl production area, thousands of birds like teal, mallard, wigeon and sand hill cranes rest and refuel in these wetlands as they migrate to their prairie nesting grounds. A variety of resident species such as elk, deer and pronghorn also benefit from the refuge’s restored wetlands.
Currently no public uses are allowed on the Baca refuge. The US Fish and Wildlife Service is gathering data and drafting a long-term comprehensive conservation plan that will address among other things, potential public uses for the refuge.
“This is DU’s first project on the new Baca refuge,” Vail said. “We look forward to helping build and protect this resource in the San Luis Valley, which is a priority area for DU in Colorado.”
With more than a million supporters, Ducks Unlimited is the world’s largest and most effective wetland and waterfowl conservation organization with almost 12 million acres conserved. The United States alone has lost more than half of its original wetlands - nature’s most productive ecosystem - and continues to lose more than 80,000 wetland acres each year.