Kerber Creek Restoration Project
Click here to download the latest newsletter from the Kerber Creek Restoration Project. It has lots of great information on the project's progress, staff, volunteers and needs. Check it out!
ScSEED is proud to be a partner and fiscal agent for the Kerber Creek Restoration Project.
Also a partner, the WHWT is a coalition of community/watershed improvement groups, confronting the challenges that remain from historic mining in the West. We address environmental degradation and community impoverishment, providing rural mining communities with the skills and capacity they need to make their neighborhoods / watersheds better places to live and work.
Project Summary:
The Kerber Creek Restoration Project began in 2005 to continue restoration of the Kerber Creek watershed from historic mining impacts. Kerber Creek is located in northern Saguache County. Dozens of mines operated in the watershed from 1880 to the 1970s as part of the Bonanza Mining District. Mining activity left hundreds of tons of waste exposed in the watershed, much of which washed down the stream and were deposited as far as 17 miles below the mining district. Mining activity that ended decades ago continues to degrade the watershed.
In 2005, the Bureau of Land Management decided to continue some previous restoration work in the watershed with a collaborative approach, involving local landowners, government agencies and private interest groups. These partners formed the Bonanza Stakeholders Group in 2007, and have raised over $1.4 million dollars for physical restoration work, and donated over 9000 volunteer hours to the project since 2008. These contributions have supported the restoration of over 37 acres of riparian land since 2008, which benefits light agriculture, wildlife habitat and stream bank stability. The stream itself has also been restored. Project partners have installed 171 in-stream rock structures and reshaped over 3600 linear feet of stream bank since the Project began- a total improvement equivalent to two miles of stream. This benefits fish habitat, the health of floodplain vegetation and base flows in Kerber Creek.
Project Location:
The project is active along the 17 miles of Kerber Creek and over 60 acres of tailings between Bonanza and Villa Grove in Saguache County, CO. The Kerber Creek watershed is designated HUC 1301000302 and is located at 401587.04 N 4233921.32 E.
Other Kerber Creek Restoration Project downloads:
Project Summary- February 2011
Meeting Notes- February 24, 2011
Colorado Watershed Restoration Program - Grant Application
Kerber Creek Fall 2011 Newsletter
Kerber Creek Winter 2009 Newsletter
Kerber Creek Spring 2009 Newsletter