Farmers and ranchers in the Roaring Fork Valley are coping with the effects of prolonged drought. Reduced access to water can potentially impact operational sustainability and profitability. This, coupled with skyrocketing land values and a decline in interest in ranching among younger generations, places pressure on some producers to sell land and/ or shift productive fields to other uses. The residents of the Roaring Fork Valley and Western Colorado collectively benefit from the existence of irrigated agriculture. Irrigated fields are aesthetically pleasing, contribute to local food supplies, and maintain open spaces for wildlife habitat and migration. Lost irrigated lands may be followed by a proliferation of dry, weed-infested fields or by a rapid transition of large acreages to hardened urban and sub-urban development.

Implementation of water conservation programs across the state is one strategy proposed to reduce risks that persistent drought, growing populations, and changing climate place on a finite water supply. Voluntary, temporary, and compensated water conservation programs and policies are gaining traction as the most acceptable and viable means for achieving consumptive use reduction goals, but no reliable data is available on how to characterize likelihood of participation in conservation programs among diverse groups of water users and how successful different water conservation practices are in different geographies and soil types. This limits our understanding of water conservation outcomes for people and streams in the places where programs may be implemented in the coming years.

RFC along with scientists at Lotic Hydrological and four local ranch owners have formed a multiyear partnership to pilot water conservation efforts by modelling different crops in different locations and exploring on-the-ground soil amendments in an effort to enhance understanding of innovative ways to maintain a way of life so integral to western communities past, present, and future…when that future holds a water supply that cannot meet the growing demands.

PROJECT PARTNERS:
Sarah Willeman Doran and Brendan Doran, Turnabout Ranch
Lynn Nichols and Carson Gilchrist, Jouflas Property
Alison and Mike Spayd, Spradley Farms
Drew Walters, Pitkin County Open Space and Trails, Shippee Property
Lotic Hydrological
Colorado State University


PROJECT FUNDERS:
American Rivers
Atlantic Aviation
Colorado Ag Water Alliance
Colorado River Water Conservation District
Colorado Water Conservation Board
Conscience Bay Research
Eagle County
Pitkin County Healthy Rivers Board
Pitkin County Open Space and Trails