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Pikes Peak Watershed Erosion Control and Restoration Project

2017 Annual Report December 21, 2017

Report prepared by Andy Riter, RMFI Program Manager

Rocky Mountain Field Institute

815 South 25th Street, Suite 101

Colorado Springs, CO 80904

www.rmfi.org

Dedicated to the conservation and stewardship of public lands in Southern Colorado

Cover page photo: Viewed from the Elk Park Knoll, the Severy Creek Basin and its wetland fen have been threatened by mass

sedimentation for decades. Efforts over the past several seasons have helped stabilize the alluvial plume in place (visible as tan

areas in center of photo) and to restore it towards natural conditions found prior to impacts from the Pikes Peak Highway,

before its renovations in the past decade.


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BACKGROUND

Pikes Peak, renowned as ‘America’s Mountain,’ is located west of Colorado Springs (Lat. 38° 50' 51" N,

Long. 105° 03' 31" W) and reaches a height of 14,115 feet. The Peak is one of the principal landmarks in

the western United States and provided inspiration for the song ‘America the Beautiful.’ The Peak is

presently the second most visited mountain in the world after Japan’s Mount Fuji. Over 20,000 hikers climb

the Peak each year and approximately 300,000 visitors arrive at the summit via the Pikes Peak Highway, a

19-mile toll road, operated year-round by the City of Colorado Springs. As a third option, thousands more

visitors arrive at the summit by the Pikes Peak Cog Railway. Pikes Peak is one of the most important natural

areas in the region. Informally called an "island in the sky," the massif hosts sub-alpine and alpine lifezones,

which are isolated by at least 60 miles from others. The mountain provides critical habitat for a wide range

of native flora and fauna. This area is of significant local importance as a principal water source for the

communities of Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs.

Runoff from the Pikes Peak Highway (prior to paving operations) exacerbated natural erosion processes on

the Peak. Gullies on steep slopes in the watershed transported many tons of sediment into a number of

fragile wetlands on the Peak. Under a court settlement initiated by the Sierra Club, the City of Colorado

Springs and the U.S. Forest Service were instructed to address the erosion and sedimentation problems of

the highway and to bring the road into compliance with the Clean Water Act within 10 years of the

settlement. Funds were awarded to the Sierra Club for remediation and restoration work outside the

highway corridor to address sedimentation in the wetlands. These monies were placed into a fund (the Pikes

Peak Fund), with the Sierra Club, the City of Colorado Springs, and the U.S. Forest Service acting as

partners to ensure the best use of these monies for erosion control and restoration work. In 2003, the Rocky

Mountain Field Institute (RMFI) was contracted by the Pikes Peak Fund to assess the environmental

damage outside the highway corridor and begin implementing project work in the watershed. Since 2005,

RMFI has spearheaded the Pikes Peak Watershed Erosion Control and Restoration Project, a large-scale,

multi-year collaborative restoration effort undertaken by the Pikes Peak Chapter of the Sierra Club, the City

of Colorado Springs, the U.S. Forest Service – Pike National Forest, and RMFI.

To date, RMFI and partners have completed six major projects within the watershed including work within

the North Crystal Creek, Ski Creek, Glen Cove Creek, Severy Creek, and West Fork of Beaver Creek

Basins.These projects have resulted in more than 2 miles of stream channel restoration and stabilization

and over 11 acres of restored forestland, wetland, and alpine tundra.

The project objectives planned for the 2015 to 2017 seasons were documented in a 3-year proposed scope

of work (RMFI, 2015). In March, 2017 project stakeholders from the Pikes Peak Ranger District, the City

of Colorado Springs, University of Colorado - Colorado Springs, The Sierra Club, Colorado Parks and

Wildlife, and RMFI met to discuss past work and to confirm objectives for the 2017 season, anticipating

enough funding remaining for 2 weeks of work in 2017 and another 2 weeks in 2018. Ranger District, Mile

High Youth Corps (MHYC) and RMFI representatives made an on-site visit in June to confirm 2017 work

and logistical plans.


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2017 OBJECTIVES

This year’s objectives included:

1. Completing work in the Severy Creek Basin to stabilize the sedimentation plume in place and to

restore it with native wetland species.

2. Continuing restoration work at the "Mile 17" drainage retention pond to delineate the access road

and to establish native flora to stabilize slopes

3. Removing non-natural restoration materials that were no longer needed at worksites between mile

17 and mile 18 markers.

WORK NARRATIVE

Work objective on Pikes Peak were completed between June 26 and July 7, 2017 with RMFI staff and a

MHYC crew, averaging a total of 10 personnel. Over the course of 9 workdays, the crews logged a total of

935 hours (750 hours by the MHYC crew) on the project. To decrease daily travel time, the workforce

spike-camped near the Half-way Picnic area most of this period. The following is a description of work

completed on Pikes Peak in 2017 with locations indicated in Appendix A.

Severy Creek Basin

Background

The Severy Creek Wetland has been the largest ongoing restoration site of the Pikes Peak Watershed and

Erosion Control Project. This unique wetland covers approximately 14.6 acres of land at an elevation of

10,827 feet (3,300 meters) within the Severy Creek Basin on the northeastern flank of Pikes Peak. The

eastern-most portion of the wetland is a fen supported by upward seepage from mineral soil, groundwater

through flow from spring fed streams, and groundwater recharge from adjacent slopes. Some areas contain

as much as 57.9 inches (147 cm) of peat under a wide diversity of wetland species. The western portion of

the fen has been heavily impacted by recent and historic alluvial deposition. Like other wetlands along the

Pikes Peak Highway, many tons of sediment originating from off-highway gullies have buried

approximately 9.6 acres of fragile peat soils and their associated plant species. Under the Severy Creek

Basin Erosion Control and Restoration Proposal (RMFI, 2012), restoring the areas of the Severy Creek

Wetland affected by the growing alluvial fan and mitigating the potential threat of additional sedimentation

into un-impacted areas was deemed the highest priority goal. In support of this, RMFI completed high

priority streambank stabilization work with an AmeriCorps crew during 2012. In succeeding years, RMFI

ran 1-week long Volunteer Vacation programs to revegetate and stabilize key areas of the impacted wetland,

alluvial fan, and stream channel in 2013 and 2014. In those 2 years, volunteers planted well over 1,000

local sedge, bunchgrass, and cinquefoil shrub plugs into barren alluvial areas, placed numerous log erosion

barriers and similar erosion control structures, and strategically planted hundreds of willow stakes where

the water table permitted. In 2015, RMFI partnered with Friends of the Peak to run a volunteer workday of

native seed collection and planting in the same area, which has helped to fill bare areas in-between earlier

transplant plugs. Work in 2016 reinforced areas of the 2012 streambank stabilization, including planting

willow stakes with a new vertical bundle method for streambank engineering, and to continue to plant more

native transplant plugs working westward on the remaining bare alluvial plume (Figure 1).


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2017 Work

The crew worked most of its first week in the Severy Creek Basin, splitting time between adding native

transplant plugs to the west end of the bare alluvial plume and arranging micro-climates higher along the

plume to foster riparian and forested habitat in areas of the plume well above the original extent of the

wetland.

The crew transplanted approximately 2,000 bunch grass and cinquefoil plugs to essentially complete re-

vegetation efforts on the bare alluvial plume, including areas of the plume above the extent of the original

wetland. Over the 2013-2017 seasons, the entire area was transplanted at a density of approximately 1 plug

per 4 square feet, and native grasses and forbes are beginning to fill-in between the plugs of previous years

by natural seed dispersal (Figure 2).

With time remaining in this week, the crew worked higher up in the basin, along the active stream as it cuts

through the plume. Here, assemblies of fallen tree trunks, rocks, and brush were arranged to provide micro-

climate protection for 109 transplanted conifers and shrubs. As this area is well west (upland) of the original

fen/wetland extents, the goal here was to begin reforestation of this area where spruce trees had succumbed

to the plume decades ago. During the work, crews made observations about the success of the willow

vertical bundles that were installed in 2016. This technique is detailed in National Resources Conservation

Service (NRCS) Technical Note - Plant Materials Number 53 (Hoag, 2009). Nearly all of the 25 vertical

bundles exhibited modest early-season leafy growth and their bases remain buried at water-level in the

sandy aggregate of the steep stream banks (Figure 3). At the conclusion of this work in Severy Basin, there

Figure 1. Viewed from the Elk Park Trail, one-half mile away and 1,000 feet above, vegetation transplants on bare

alluvium are distinct dots of green surrounded by willow and cinquefoil shrub. Plantings completed in 2013-2014

are visible on the right (east) closest to the surviving fen with later year plantings stretching to the left (west). The

plantings in 2017 are further west and upland of this view. (Photo credit: Dean Waits).


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remained a small number of patches of bare plume in the upper reaches of the plume (not in the original

wetland area) with a total area of approximately ¼ acre.

Figure 3. Vertical willow bundle staking technique may provide the best chance for significant willow

establishment along the steep banks in the plume above and west of the original wetland area. Individual bundles

from 2016 are indicated by yellow arrows. 2/3 of each bundle is buried, staked and extend down to the water table.

The ellipse in the background indicates one of three micro-climate areas arranged in 2014 with spruce transplants

gaining a foothold there. More micro-climate areas were added in 2017.

Figure 2. 2017 bunchgrass and cinquefoil transplant plantings in one of the few remaining bare

alluvial stretches upland of the original wetland/fen area. At a density of approximately 1 plant

every 4 square feet, this area should fill-in with other native plants over the next few years.


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Mile 17

Background

The area referred to as Mile 17 (approximately 13,000 feet altitude) is the location of a Pikes Peak Highway-

maintained detention pond used to control storm water discharge and alluvial deposition from the highway.

RMFI previously worked in this area in 2010, 2011, 2015, and briefly in 2016 to restore degraded tundra

adjacent to the then newly-constructed sediment detention pond. Since 2011, the Pikes Peak Highway

Department, a restoration partner, has employed a single route in and out of this site to allow maintenance

access to the detention pond. Once this route was determined, further restoration of the bare soil areas to

each side of the route became possible and revegetation efforts could proceed.

2017 Work

In the second week of 2017 work, the crew turned attention to the Mile-17 worksite, where snow remained

on about half of the site. The crew removed 4,628 square feet of heavy black plastic matrix remaining from

specialty restoration matting used prior to 2012 re-vegetation of the earthen detention pond dam. As modest

quantities of alpine grasses and other vegetation were growing through this matrix and the matting had been

well-anchored, removal took considerable time and detailed cutting to avoid pulling many plants out. Any

remaining wooden stakes on this dam were removed and re-used in newly-installed erosion control matting

at another section of this worksite (Figure 4). Approximately 5,000 square feet of matting remnants remain

in place on the back of the dam and more such material remains on the embankments at the Mile 17.5 site.

While part of the crew was removing old matting remnants, others focused on adding to the restoration

begun in earlier years along the slope off to the side of the designated detention pond maintenance route. A

total of 1,656 square feet of this slope was decompacted, seeded and matted with fully bio-degradable coir

erosion control matting, where snow allowed (Figure 5). Seeding was accomplished using an approved

alpine mix and wooden stakes recovered from the detention pond dam were re-used to pin the new matting.

There remains a few thousand square feet of untreated sloped area at this site that would merit similar

restoration work.


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WORK ACCOMPLISHED

Severy Creek Basin

4 workdays.

Lower Sediment Plume Area (wetland area):

o 1,000 bunchgrass and cinquefoil transplants.

o Planting of lower plume completed with transplants at a density of 1 plant per 4 square

feet.

Upper Sediment Plume Area and Drainage (upland of wetland area):

o 1,000 bunchgrass and cinquefoil transplants.

Figure 5. Before and after photos of restoration work on the slope along the north side of the detention pond

maintenance route. Significant snow remaining on July 3-7 forced crews to work on the upper exposed areas of

slopes. Care was taken to work seeding and matting around any significant existing vegetation.

Figure 4. Before and after photos of removal of 4,628 square feet of specialty restoration matting on the Mile 17

detention pond dam. Care was taken to avoid pulling out alpine grasses, which had established through the black

matrix. This task was time-intensive and another 5,000 square feet of matting remnants remain in place (pictured

on photo right).


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o 109 conifer saplings (spruce) transplanted within constructed micro-climates of dead-fall

materials and rocks.

o Remaining: small patches (approximately ¼ acre total) of bare upper plume available for

re-vegetation by arrangement of dead-fall materials for micro-climate. Potential to install

more vertical willow stake bundles higher along the stream.

Mile 17

5 workdays (4 of these at 10-hr days).

1,656 ft2 decompacted, seeded, raked, and matted with bio-degradable coir matting.

Removed 4,628 ft2 of degraded plastic restoration matting matrix on detention pond dam.

Removed and re-used several hundred wooden stakes from same area.

Remaining: at least 3,000 ft2 of bare slope remaining for stabilization/restoration.

Remaining: 5,000 ft2 of degraded plastic restoration matrix and wooden stakes remaining on

detention pond. Approximately 5,000 ft2 of matrix at Mile-17.5 site earthworks.

FUTURE WORK

RMFI has scheduled a meeting of Pikes Peak Fund stakeholders on January 24, 2018 to review work

status and 2018 project objectives in what is expected to be the last season of restoration work under the

fund. Options for 2018 work may include:

Continuing slope stabilization/restoration at the Mile-17 site.

Removing existing degraded plastic restoration matting matrix and wooden stakes at Mile-17 and

Mile17.5 sites (very time-consuming task).

Small-scale restoration work on the few remaining bare patches of upper plume of Severy Creek

Basin site.

Planting more willow vertical bundles along upper reaches of the perennial stream, where it

snakes through the upper plume in Severy Creek Basin.

Monitoring earlier Severy Creek Basin restoration efforts.

Restoration and providing assistance (to Pikes Peak Highway Department) with defining the

Devil’s Playground parking area.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Joe Lavorini

RMFI Program Director

719-471-7736

[email protected]


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Appendix A. Overview of Pikes Peak Highway and Major 2017 Restoration Sites


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REFERENCES

Rocky Mountain Field Institute, 2015, Pikes Peak Watershed Erosion Control and Restoration Program

Proposed Scope of Work 2015-2017. Available upon request.

Rocky Mountain Field Institute, 2012, Severy Creek Basin Erosion Control and Restoration Proposal.

Available upon request.

J. Chris Hoag, 2009, NRCS Technical Note- Plant Materials No. 53– Vertical Bundles: a streambank

bioengineering treatment to establish willows and dogwoods on streambanks.

https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_PLANTMATERIALS/publications/idpmctn9299.pdf

https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_PLANTMATERIALS/publications/idpmctn9299.pdf

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