Spring Creek Trout Habitat Creation at
the Roaring Fork Club, Basalt, CO

 
Before . . . Spring Creek  in Basalt, Colorado did not really exist.  The Roaring Fork Club presented Aquatic and Wetland Company (AWC) with the challenge of creating a pristine, expert fly-fishing stream from an historic irrigation ditch.  The “empty canvas” presented to AWC had a few advantageous elements including existing water rights of 25 cubic feet per second, an overall gradient of 1.0 percent, and a narrow corridor, largely vegetated with a riparian forest dominated by narrow leaf cottonwood, alder, river birch and ponderosa pine.  In addition, short reaches of an historic dry overflow side channel extended for several hundred feet parallel to the river.
 
Now.  .  . Spring Creek was created.  AWC knew that their client required a product that was environmentally acceptable, aesthetically pleasing, highly functional, productive and provide a maximum holding water capacity for large trout.
Final design, construction, and planting demanded the expertise of engineers, biologists, horticulturists, and experienced construction craftsman.  The final product included creation of 32 habitat units consisting of 9 different types.  Each unit included a deep pool, tailout, grade control, riffle and spawning habitat.  Additional habitat included creation of 4 fish nursery areas, 1 log jam, 1 pond, 2 cascade chutes and a number of cover logs and log spurs.  Although 1.3 acres of wetland was to be impacted by golf course construction, over three times that much was created as mitigation.
 
 Over 17,000 willow stems and 50,000 sedges, rushes, shrubs and trees (17 species) were contract grown by AWC and planted at the wetland mitigation sites and other strategic locations to prevent streambank erosion.

Native seed from the Roaring Fork Valley was applied to all land disturbed by construction.  An ambitious maintenance plan is in place including watering and weed control.

 
Constructed at a cost of $500,000, the newly created stream, riparian and wetland corridor offers superb small stream trout fishing, hiking, birding, and educational opportunities and makes an outstanding visual statement.  The project exemplifies a state of the art accomplishment by a multidisciplinary design/build/grow approach to habitat creation and restoration.

 

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Aquatic and Wetland Company
9999 Weld County Road 25,   Ft. Lupton, CO 80621, 303.442.4766, 303.857.2455 fax
jay@aquaticandwetland.com