Pikes Peak Watershed Erosion Control and Restoration Project

2015 Annual Report February 8, 2016

Report prepared by: Joe Lavorini, RMFI Program Director

 

 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  

 

 

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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. Pikes Peak is also one of the most important natural areas in the region. The mountain provides critical habitat for a wide range of native flora and fauna. This area is of significant local importance as the 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 the 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.

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 9 acres of restored forestland.

WORK NARRATIVE

Work in 2015 continued previous years’ efforts at two ongoing restoration sites—Severy Creek wetland and Mile 17 retention pond. A small amount of work was also completed on the W’s switchbacks. RMFI utilized youth corps crews and community volunteers to complete 14 workdays on 2015 project and stewardship objectives. Project plans for 2015 were evaluated by the Pikes Peak Fund members at a meeting in January of 2015 to ensure a cohesive work plan on the Peak. The following is a breakdown of the work completed on the Peak in 2015.

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Mile 17

The area referred to as Mile 17 is the location of a detention pond used to control stormwater discharge and alluvial deposition from the Pikes Peak Highway. RMFI worked in this area in 2010-11 to restore degraded tundra adjacent to the then-newly constructed sediment detention pond. During a site visit in 2014, RMFI staff noted the success of those restoration efforts. A single soft surface road has been defined to allow for maintenance access to the detention pond; consequently, RMFI spent the majority of its three weeks with a contracted Mile High Youth Corps restoring the surrounding area using methods already proven in the area. Approximately 33,233 square feet was decompacted, seeded, and raked. Crews transplanted 108 vegetation plugs and planted a native seed mix specifically created for the Pikes Peak alpine. Erosion control matting was installed on slopes with a gradient greater than 20%.

Mile 17.5

Just south of the Mile 17 retention pond, a breach occurred to a drainage channel that off-loads water from the highway into the pond. To keep the water in the channel, the Mile High Youth Corps crew built a rock retaining wall and installed 4 check dams and 2 step-fall structures in the drainage to help manage the flow of water. The tundra that was impacted from the breach was treated with 27 transplanted grass plugs and erosion control matting was installed above the retention pond at mile 17.5.

Severy Creek Wetland

Background The Severy Creek Wetland is the largest ongoing restoration site of the Pikes Peak Watershed and Erosion Control Project. The wetland covers approximately 14.6 acres of land at an elevation of 3,300 meters (10,827 feet) 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 147 cm (57.9 inches) 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, covering approximately 9.6 acres and originating from off-highway gullies, have buried the 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. RMFI completed high priority stream stabilization work with an AmeriCorps crew during 2012 and ran a 1-week long Volunteer Vacation program to revegetate and stabilize key areas of the wetland, alluvial fan, and stream channel in 2013. RMFI ran another 1-week Volunteer Vacation program to transplant approximately 630 native bunchgrasses and cinquefoil shrubs just west of the wetland. Restoration success in the wetland has been fairly impressive, though there was some willow casualty from over-winter and elk browse.

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2015 Work Accomplishments In partnership with the Friends of the Peak, 21 volunteers worked in Severy Creek to restore vegetation to the denuded alluvial fans in the wetland. Vegetation plugs were transplanted and seed collected on-site was distributed into an untreated area of the wetland. The propagated plant families were: cinquefoil (shrub form), willow, fescue, trisetum, and phlox. Approximately 76 bunch/clump grasses and 39 cinquefoils were added to the sediment plume. There remain significant bare sediment areas in which transplants can yet be added (at least 3 times the area we treated on this workday).

WORK ACCOMPLISHED

Mile 17

• 33,323 ft2 decompacted, seeded, raked • 108 vegetation plugs

Mile 17.5

• Re-connected drainage channel to retention pond • 4 check dams • 2 step-fall structures • 1 retaining wall • 27 vegetation plugs

Severy Creek Wetland

• 1 work day • 21 community volunteers engaged • 200 total on-the-ground hours worked

o 29 total hours of RMFI staff time o 171 total hours of volunteer time (= $3,945 value of volunteer labor)

• Sediment Plume Area - Transplants o 76 bunch grass transplants o 39 Potentilla shrubs transplanted

• Wetland Restored - Seeding o 8,000 ft2 treated with seed collected on-site

GROUPS ENGAGED

• Friends of the Peak • Mile High Youth Corps

CONTACT INFORMATION

Joe Lavorini, Program Director (719) 471-7736 joe@rmfi.org

Figure 1. Map depicting RMFI work sites on Pikes Peak Highway.

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Right:  Before  and  after  images  of  drainage  improvement  at  Mile  17.5  

Below:  Before  and  after  images  of  channel  breach  site  at  Mile  17.5  

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Below:  Before  and  after  (approximate)  images  of  transplants  in  Severy  Creek  Wetland  

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Images  of  volunteers  working  on  Pikes  Peak  in  2015