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SJWCD Builds Watershed Restoration Structures

San Juan Water Conservancy District has benefitted from the work of Monica Nigon, a graduate student at Western Colorado University and Americorps intern, since June, 2025. Water-saving Zeedyk structures are now in place in Turkey Springs on US Forest Service land thanks to Monica.

Monica helped SJWCD when they co-sponsored a viewing of the first episode of “Thinking Like Water” at the Liberty Theater. In early September, Chama Peak Land Alliance, Watershed Enhancement Partnership, SJWCD, and the Quivera Foundation brought the film and subsequent discussion to a full house of interested citizens.

Following the film screening of “Thinking Like Water,” a group of generous volunteers signed up for a day of building Zeedyk structures at Turkey Springs on Saturday, September 20. Zeedyk structures, named after the man who created them, Bill Zeedyk, are effective watershed and wet meadow restoration methods. Installing these structures involves low-tech process-based restoration practices, utilizing rocks and logs to slow down water in a drainage. This allows the water to be stored in the watershed while also preventing sediment runoff.

The volunteers worked incredibly hard until weather came in, building a Zuni Bowl and two One-Rock-Dams at a damaged watershed near Turkey Springs. This project was conducted as part of Monica Nigon’s Master of Environmental Management project.

We all learned a lot about watershed restoration processes. SJWCD intends that this be the first of many watershed restoration events to come. If you have further questions about Zeedyk structures or wet meadow restoration in the Upper San Juan River Basin, please contact Monica at mnigon.sjwcd@gmail.com. Monica now leads the San Juan Headwaters Forest Health Partnership.

Risks to Upper San Juan River and Compact Compliance

About 80 Archuleta County community members gathered on Tuesday, March 25, 2025, to learn about risks to our Upper San Juan River Basin that could result from future compliance with the 1922 Colorado River Compact. San Juan Water Conservancy District invited the community to the 2-hour presentation from Southwestern Water Conservation District, Wright Water Engineers, and Colorado Division of Water.

San Juan Water Conservancy District is an active leader in all issues affecting the water resources of the Upper San Juan River Basin. Watch the presentation here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMnUJhgleQU

San Juan Water Conservancy District also recommends this explanation of Colorado Compact issues. https://aspenjournalism.org/dwindling-water-supply-legal-questions-push-colorado-river-into-wildly-uncharted-territory/

Who Killed the Colorado River?

“What happened? We happened.”

Wildfire Risk in San Juan Water Conservancy District

The Colorado Wildfire Risk Map indicates that wildfire danger in Archuleta County is significant. The Colorado State Forest Service researches conditions on the ground and provides the public with an on-line Wildfire Risk Viewer. https://co-pub.coloradoforestatlas.org/#/

The cropped image above shows the SJWCD watershed in Archuleta, Hinsdale, and Mineral Counties. The lower left section of the map is the Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District watershed. This is where our municipal water comes from. The upper right section of the map includes Running Iron Ranch, the proposed location of a small water storage reservoir. (According to the State of Colorado and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, 11,000 acre feet is a small reservoir.) The mission of all legislated Colorado Conservancy Districts is to ensure water for all uses for the future.

2024 Climate Change Report by Colorado State University

San Juan Water Conservancy District follows relevant scientific studies and considers seriously data-driven reports, especially those generated in Colorado. SJWCD Directors use fact-based information to plan for the future of water in the Upper San Juan River drainage and Archuleta County.

Link here to read the Executive Summary of the most recent CSU Climate Change report. 2024 Climate Assessment Report Executive Summary

New Snow Science Site Comes to SJWCD

San Juan Headwaters Forest Health Partnership (SJHFHP) and Mountain Studies Institute (MSI) installed new snowtography measurement equipment on Jackson Mountain in San Juan Water Conservancy District. Snow data will be collected this winter. Alex Handloff, the newly hired coordinator for San Juan Headwaters Forest Health Partnership, described the project to San Juan Water Conservancy District at its Special Meeting on November 16, 2023.

According to Handloff, there’s an emerging snowtography network happening in Colorado and across the West. Snowtography will inform decisions on how to manage forests and answer questions such as how the amount and location of trees impacts snow accumulation, retention, and ablation (melting/sublimating). With a changing climate, measuring and modeling the amount of snow we receive can support decisions to ensure water resources and ecosystem health, and in turn, our health. Eventually, data gleaned from snowtography can help determine how we approach forest health, wildfire mitigation, and riparian restoration. Snow provides between 75 and 90 percent of our water supply, says Handloff.

Dr. Jake Kurzwell, Mountain Studies Institute, is quoted in a recent article by Handloff published in the Pagosa Springs Sun: “Snowtography is an approachable method to quantify how forest structure and forest management impacts snow accululation, retention, and subse1quent water yields.”

Other Snowtography sites in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado include Chicken Creek, Horse Creek, Lizard Head, and Red Mountain.

In addition to Snowtography, SJHFHP and MSI are involved in bringing two related scientific pursuits to Archuleta County: Adaptive Silvaculture for Climate Change and Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Projects.

Connect here to learn more: https://sanjuanheadwaters.org/forest-health-protection/snowtography/. Contact alex@mountainstudies.org to learn more and volunteer.

The Colorado Water Plan

Colorado’s Water Plan (CWP) results from years of work, since 2005, by Colorado’s nine Basin Roundtables, the Interbasin Compact Committee, the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB), and partners and stakeholders statewide. Foreseeing a warmer and drier future for Colorado, the CWP outlines how we can implement water supply planning solutions while supporting healthy watersheds and the environment; robust recreation and tourism economies; vibrant and sustainable communities; and viable and productive agriculture. Link to https://cwcb.colorado.gov/colorado-water-plan.