Rivers
Climate Adapted Restoration
We plan and implement on-the-ground projects that advance watershed restoration practices and incorporate climate change scenarios such as future flood, drought, and fire.
The river restoration project represented in this video is funded by Colorado Water Conservation Board, St. Vrain and Left Hand Water Conservancy District, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Boulder County Parks & Open Space, and Boulder County Climate Innovation Fund. ¡Haga clic aquí para ver la versíon en español!
Wildfire Ready Watersheds in the St. Vrain
Our vision is a resilient watershed that can endure wildfires and other natural disturbances, safeguarding communities, ensuring reliable water supplies, and supporting diverse ecosystems for future generations. Coupled with extensive forestry planning and projects, we are working with partners across the St. Vrain Basin, the Climate Resilient Rivers Working Group, to understand post-wildfire hazards like erosion, debris flows, and flooding to protect water supplies, lives, property, and ecosystems before wildfires strike. From there, we’ll prioritize projects that effectively mitigate these hazards using strategies the maximize natural river process and create connected floodplains and complexity.
Beavers in the Watershed
Beavers are nature’s engineers and key to climate resilient river restoration. Beavers are nature’s engineers and key to climate resilient river restoration. Through their unique ability to shape habitats, they foster biodiversity, improve water quality, and support ecosystems facing the challenges of climate change. By learning from their natural instincts, we can boost the resilience of rivers and landscapes in a way that works in harmony with nature, making our restoration efforts smarter and more sustainable. We support landscape-scale planning to better understand historic and current beaver populations and work on-the-grounds to identify opportunities for beaver relocation and advance practices of beaver mimicry in river and wetland restoration.
Apple Valley River Restoration
Our newest climate-adapted restoration project on North St. Vrain Creek will restore vital fish and wildlife habitat while safeguarding communities and critical water resources from future wildfires, floods, and other climate challenges. By creating innovative restoration features across the open floodplain we are making room for the river’s natural functions and creating new habitat for recovering fish and wildlife populations impacted by the 2021 tanker rollover. We’ll also be monitoring how the ecosystem responds to ensure this project and future projects build a healthier, safer, and more resilient watershed for everyone. Construction is planned for fall 2026 through winter 2027.
Climate Resilience on Old St. Vrain Road
Completed in 2025, this project has enhanced watershed resilience in the face of flood, fire, and drought. By creating climate-adapted features in an unconfined depositional reach of South St. Vrain Creek and pairing them with ecological monitoring, the project strengthened natural defenses while advancing watershed science. These efforts increased resilience to post-fire and other climate-driven impacts that threaten ecosystem function, community safety, and critical water resources. Monitoring has captured how the restoration improved habitat, water quality, and channel form—providing valuable insights that will guide future resilience projects across the watershed.
Building Headwaters Resilience at Camp St. Malo
Enhancing forest and river resilience in the headwaters, currently in the engineering design phase. The purpose of the project is to increase ecological and geomorphic complexity in a high-elevation unconfined river reach located adjacent to high-fire-risk forests. The project area is on a low-gradient portion of Cabin Creek, which flows into the North St. Vrain. The project area was impacted by excessive sediment deposition during the 2013 floods. The floodplain in this reach remains unproductive and unable to accommodate flows. The project area is also directly adjacent to high-fire-risk forests in the Rocky Mountain National Park boundary.
Left Hand Creek Adaptive Restoration
A first of its kind restoration project in the St. Vrain Basin. In 2019, we constructed a geomorphically and ecologically diverse “stage 0” restoration project in the foothills of Left Hand Creek Watershed. This project advanced river restoration practices to include diverse climate adapted features and watershed science through applied restoration. Since construction, our key research question is how does a stage zero site increase geomorphic complexity, ecological resilience, and attenuation of fluxes? We partnered with professors and students at CU Boulder and local agencies to answer this research question.
Working Rivers
Left Hand Creek Feasibility Study
Haldi and Left Hand Valley Diversion Projects
Passage Playbook
A guide to future passage projects that serves as a starting point for building collaboration and trust with ditch company partners and other community interest groups and important considerations for successful project development and implementation. This Playbook memorializes more than 40 years of professional water resource experience from Boulder County, City of Longmont, and St. Vrain and Left Hand Water Conservancy staff as well as lessons learned from The Watershed Center’s projects and Left Hand Creek Feasibility Study.
New Zealand Mudsnails
We work collaboratively with the New Zealand Mudsnail working group to monitor and manage New Zealand mudsnails across the St. Vrain Basin. These small but mighty snails are invasive to our watersheds and can have dramatic impacts to aquatic ecosystems. Click on the project page to learn more about these snails and how you can help!
Mine Reclamation
Captain Jack Superfund Site
We are working to help our community understand, analyze, interpret, communicate, and respond to information from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) related to the Captain Jack Superfund site.
Adaptive Management in River and Riparian Systems
We are collaborating with partners to develop and implement a shared adaptive management framework for assessing watershed health in the St. Vrain Basin (including Left Hand Creek and Boulder Creek). We will develop the shared framework collaboratively, with input from diverse entities that currently manage and monitor watershed health throughout the basin. Our goal is to create a framework that will help us make more informed management decisions as a basin and better track broad progress towards basin-wide watershed health goals.
Flood Recovery
We have designed and implemented more that 20 flood recovery and restoration project following the 2013 floods which devastated both our watershed and our community. High flows and sediment/debris inputs caused the creek to migrate and experience deposition, erosion, and loss of riparian vegetation and habitat. Agriculture, homes, and infrastructure were damaged or destroyed throughout the watershed. In response, we led design and implementation of flood recovery and restoration projects to jumpstart and maintain our watershed’s trajectory towards resilience. These projects aim to increase flood resilience, restore long-term stream health and stability, and improve aquatic and riparian habitat in out watershed. Projects spanned both private and public properties, and included extensive outreach and community engagement.
Community Science
We love working with our community members to collect data across our watershed! From catching Benthic Macroinvertebrates, to monitoring water quality, we provide multiple opportunities for community science. We can’t wait to connect with you!
Stream Stewardship and Recovery Handbook
Do you have problems with weeds, erosion, or other issues on your creekside property? This user-friendly handbook serves as a resource for you to learn about your streamside property, including appropriate stewardship solutions to address weeds, erosion, or other issues; information about how your property matters to the watershed, environment, and others living along the creek; and how-to guides for implementing stewardship projects. Contact us to learn more!
Stewardship Resources
streamhandbook.org
All educational information from the Handbook can be found here, as well as interactive questionnaires and stewardship strategies.
Outreach and Educational Resources
- Re-Vegetation Matrix Database (Access)
- City of Longmont’s Restoration efforts in Left Hand
- Mining History of Jamestown District
- The Story of Silver Mining in the West
- History of Ward
- River Watch
- Captain Jack Mill Superfund Site
- Colorado Watershed Assembly
- Maintenance & Monitoring Landowner Handout
- 2017 CU Boulder Left Hand Creek Field Project Report
- Lefthand Creek Master Plan (PDF)
- Master Plan Map Book (PDF)
- Boulder County’s Creek Recovery & Restoration Program
- Stream Mechanics’ Large Woody Debris Assessment Manual
- Resilient Crossing’s Handbook
- Boulder County Floodplain Remapping Project and Maps
Interested in Left Hand Creek flows?
DWR Stream Gage above the Haldi Intake
Flow Gages operated on James Creek and Left Hand Creek
James Creek and Left Hand Creek Rain Data
Interested in Left Hand watershed snow accumulation?
Funding for our river program provided by
Argosy Foundation, Boulder County, Boulder County Climate Innovation Fund, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, City of Longmont, Colorado Water Conservation Board, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Left Hand Water District, St. Vrain and Left Hand Water Conservancy District, City of Boulder, Keep it Clean Partnership, and Mile High Flood District. See a full list of funders here.