Dolores River Restoration Partnership

The Dolores River Restoration Partnership (DRRP) is a public-private collaboration of local, state, and federal agencies, universities, not-for-profit organizations, landowners, foundations, and citizen volunteers that share a common set of goals and principles for restoring the riparian habitat of the Dolores River. Created in 2009, the DRRP is working on over 200 miles of the Dolores River and its tributaries across two states to shift the riparian corridor towards a more self-sustaining, diverse, and resilient trajectory.     

As an informal network of individuals, organizations, and government agencies, the DRRP represents a broad and continuously growing collaborative partnership. Trust and good working relationships tie the collaboration together and provide the foundation in which we work. This work includes not only restoring the riparian habitat on the Dolores River to a more bio-diverse and functioning state, but educating the public, conducting monitoring and scientific research, and adapting management efforts based on new information, lessons learned, and emerging challenges. 

All of the embedded maps are interactive, meaning the user can use the tools within the map frame to zoom in and out, move around, and click on features to learn more about them and their associated data. Some maps are visible simply by scrolling down the page, and others function as a slideshow in which the user must click the arrows to see subsequent maps. If ever a map is not functioning properly, contact Montana Cohn at mcohn@riversedgewest.org.

The DRRP is comprised of over 20 partners including four Bureau of Land Management Field Offices, the Bureau of Reclamation, Colorado Department of Agriculture, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, County Governments including Dolores, San Miguel, Montrose, and Mesa in Colorado and Grand in Utah, Colorado Water Conservation Board and Southwest Basin Roundtable, Department of Energy, Dolores River Native Fish Monitoring and Recommendation Team, Dolores Water Conservancy, Canyon Country Youth Corps, Gateway Canyons Resort, Natural Resources Conservation Service, private landowners, Southwest Conservation Corps, RiversEdge West, The Nature Conservancy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, University of Utah - Rio Mesa Center, Walton Family Foundation, Western Colorado Conservation Corps, Wildland Restoration Volunteers and more!

The DRRP represents a set of stakeholders working to address the overall health of the Dolores River, including the invasion of tamarisk and other aggressive, invasive plants along the river that have significantly displaced native vegetation, impaired wildlife habitat and forage, lessened recreational opportunities, increased salinity, contributed to increased channelization, and impeded overall access.

In 2010, stakeholders completed the  Dolores River Riparian Action Plan  (DR-RAP) to articulate the science-driven vision, goals, and site selection criteria of the DRRP, as well as to facilitate increased collaboration, adaptive management, and information exchange across the Dolores River for the ultimate goal of achieving large-scale meaningful success.

Given the variety of public agencies and private landowners engaged in restoration work within the partnership, DR-RAP is still an important guiding tool that effectively established shared goals and a level of consistency for restoring riparian plant communities along the Dolores River across six counties, four Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Field Offices, and two states. This consistency was established through a set of prioritization criteria, dictating where restoration should occur, as well as with an outline of restoration methods that extended from initial treatments to short and long-term monitoring and maintenance

The overarching vision of the Dolores River Restoration Partnership is a thriving Dolores River system that is ecologically, socially, and economically sustainable in a multiuse context. Work towards this overarching vision is guided by four sets of partnership goals:

• Ecological: Increase the number of acres of sustainable, healthy riparian and floodplain plant communities in the watershed while reducing those dominated by tamarisk and other invasive, non-native plant species.
• Social: Increase opportunities for the next generation of stewards with regional conservation and youth corps programs that support young adults; improve aesthetic enjoyment; promote education; and increase public safety.
• Economic: Increase employment opportunities for contractors and youth in the Dolores River area; invest in the local economies of the Dolores River Area; improve effectiveness and financial efficiency of our riparian restoration; enhance visitor experience for recreation; and leverage funds from local, state, federal, and private sources to advance funding strategies.
• Management: Facilitate communications between land managers and partners to help coordinate treatments, share lessons learned and increase treatment effectiveness/efficiency; incorporate educational and interpretative practices to enhance public understanding and appreciation of riparian restoration actions.

Over the past decade, the DRRP has amassed a large amount of data from numerous years of invasive species treatments, re-vegetation activities, and monitoring efforts. The following interactive map series highlights invasive species inventory, tamarisk removal areas, Russian knapweed treatments, areas where re-vegetation has occurred, and detailed rapid monitoring data. The following interactive maps are as follows:

1. Treatments and Invasive Species Inventory: This first comprehensive dateset includes historical tamarisk inventory, data collected by monitoring and strike teams annually, and all of the physical treatments done. Most of these polygons overlap each other, so after clicking on a polygon feature, be sure to click the arrow in the bottom of the attribute table to see additional data for each site (Figure 1).
2. Active Re-vegetation: The DRRP has conducted active re-vegetation over the years in appropriate sites. Click on each feature to see what was planted, where, when , and how much.
3. Rapid Monitoring Data: The DRRP utilizes a special rapid monitoring protocol to assess the conditions of hundreds of sites throughout the watershed on sites that have had some restoration actions and sites that will in the future. 1/3 of the watershed from McPhee Dam to the confluence with the Colorado River is monitored by a two-person team every year. This data helps understand how sites respond to various treatments, what vegetation is present in each site, assess the presence of class A noxious weeds, inform subsequent treatments, and gauge passive recruitment.
4. Rapid Monitoring photo points: Each monitoring site has associated photo points that complement the data gathered.

Click through the arrow to the right of the map below to scroll, and click each polygon feature to learn about invasive species presence and see the associated attribute table, tamarisk and secondary weed treatments, re-vegetation, and view the DRRP's in-depth Rapid Monitoring data. A legend will appear in the bottom left corner when the user hoovers over the white icon.

The Dolores River is a modest River with headwaters in the San Juan Mountains near Telluride, Colorado. As the river flows west, it transitions from high-alpine Ponderosa pine, to high-desert ecosystems into Utah where it meets the Colorado River upstream of Moab. Regulated by McPhee Dam, complete in 1984 for irrigation and municipal use in Montezuma County, a large portion of the river is diverted into the San Juan River Basin. Development, in concert with climate change, have  altered the river's characteristics  over the past 30 years, with peak reduced spring peak flows and more consistent late-summer base flows (figure 2) leading to increased channelization, encroachment of vegetation, change in sediment movement, and others. Historically, peak flows have ranged from 17,400 cubic-feet-per-second (cfs) to 1,260 cfs, however, the largest release from McPhee Dam was 4,000 cfs in 2017. Average annual discharge of the Dolores River is approximately 361,306 acre-feet a year, depending heavily on the San Miguel, the major tributary to the Dolores River

Major tributaries of the Dolores include the San Miguel, Disappointment Creek, La Sal Creek, and other small ephemeral streams. Precipitation in the watershed spans from 9" - 13" below the confluence with the San Miguel, and 11" to 45" in the Upper Dolores between Paradox Valley and the headwaters ( NRCS .) Winter precipitation generally falls as snow. The canyons of the lower Dolores River span up from the older Cutler Formation, through Chinle Sandstone, Wingate Sandstone, Navajo and various Entrada Sandstones, to the Summerville and Morrison Formations. All together, the river corridor exposes rock layers over 250 million years old (DeVries and Maurer, 1997.)

The Dolores River serves many communities as a staple of agricultural development, a tourist destination in local communities, and simply a place for a weekend of camping among the red rock cliffs. The Dolores has served as home for Ute peoples, Ancestral Puebloans, and Fremont Peoples for thousands of years; ancestors of today's Hopi and Pueblo communities now living in Arizona and New Mexico. It is estimated that populations peaked around 840 to 1000 A.D. at 1,000-1,250 people in the Dolores Valley ( Voggesser, 2001 ). Myriad cultural resources are abundant throughout the Dolores River; in fact, the Anasazi Heritage Center was built to house the thousands of artifacts that would have otherwise been inundated by McPhee Reservoir.

More recently, Anglo settlers arrived and began to settle the area in the 1870's, logging, agriculture, and mining were major economic drivers. Lands around the Dolores River hold some of the  richest uranium deposits in the entire United States  and helped fuel the Cold War. Despite the short-lived economic benefits, uranium also caused dangerous levels of radiation poisoning to hundreds of people, and the town of Uravan was demolished as part of a major Superfund effort to clean up the area. Currently, agriculture, energy, natural resource management, and recreational tourism are the driving economic factors for towns along the Dolores River. The DRRP recognizes the importance of stimulating local economies and strives to hire local contractors and shop at local businesses.

Today, the river attracts many for its rich cultural history, world class river rafting, excellent fishing, and scenic recreation. Rafting, hiking, fishing, hunting, and bird watching are abundant along the Dolores River and provide a remote getaway from other popular areas. When flows allow, the Dolores River is a popular multi-day river trip, boasting some whitewater features as well as calm sections, with the potential of rafting from Bradfield Bridge outside of Dolores, Colorado all the way to the Colorado River.

The Dolores River watershed is home to many fish, birds, and wildlife species; the river providing much needed water and habitat in the high desert. Large mammals include bighorn sheep, mule deer, black bears, river otters, beavers and more. Hundreds of native and migratory birds utilize the riparian area as well.

Three native fish species in particular are the flannelmouth sucker, bluehead sucker, and roundtail chub that are considered BLM Sensitive Species and are a major management target of releases from McPhee Dam. Colorado Parks and Wildlife monitor these populations and control predators, namely the smallmouth bass that prey on juvenile native fish. The Dolores River Native Fish Monitoring and Recommendation Team is a multi-disciplinary committee that works with water managers to recommend flow opportunities within the possible range that best support fish, spearhead monitoring and research, and convene stakeholder meetings. A 2014 report:  Lower Dolores River Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Plan for Native Fish ; and 2011 study:  Status and trends of flannelmouth sucker Catostomus latipinnis, bluehead sucker Catostomus discobolus, and roundtail chub Gila robusta, in the Dolores River, Colorado, and opportunities for population improvement: Phase II Report ; are good resources for those interested in learning more.

• Bureau of Land Management
• Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
• Colorado Parks and Wildlife
• Colorado River Water Conservation District
• Colorado State Forest Service
• Colorado Water Conservation Board
• Commission for Environmental Cooperation
• Hendricks Charitable Foundation
• National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
• National Resource Conservation Service
• National Wild Turkey Federation
• North American Partnership for Environmental Community Action
• Partners for Fish and Wildlife
• Southwest Basin Roundtable
• Southwestern Water Conservation District
• Utah's Watershed Restoration Initiative
• Telluride Foundation
• Walton Family Foundation

•  2020: Dolores River Watershed Assessment 
•  2020: Riparian Vegetation Response to High-Magnitude Dam Releases on the Dolores River, SW Colorado. 
• 2018:  Monitoring the Effects of Restoration on Riparian Birds: 2017 Field Season Report 
• 2016:  Looking Ahead: DRRP Strategies for the Future 
• 2016:  DRRP Active Re-vegetation Guidance  
• 2015:  DRRP Transition Plan for Monitoring and Maintenance  
• 2014:  Monitoring the Birds of the Colorado and Dolores Rivers National Conservation Lands: 2013 Field Season Report 
• 2013:  LOWER DOLORES RIVER COTTONWOOD: ANALYSIS OF CHANGE OVER 70 YEARS.  The Nature Conservancy.
• 2010:  Dolores River Riparian Action Plan  (DR-RAP)

Contact us for additional or downloadable data, if you would like to  join the mailing list , or with any other questions and ways to get involved!

Montana Cohn: Restoration Coordinator, RiversEdge West | 970-256-7400;  mcohn@RiversEdgeWest.or g

Nate Peters: Watershed Program Coordinator, Southwest Conservation Corps | 970-903-0839;  npeters@conservationlegacy.org