The Big Thompson River Master Restoration Plan
The Takeaways
Leverage grass-roots organizations to expedite the recovery process.
Have a plan in place that focuses on fostering resilience after disaster events.
Invest in watershed resilience to have lasting, long-term positive impacts on the community.
The Case Study
The Big Thompson River and the North Fork of the Big Thompson River basins experienced extreme flooding in September 2013. This flood caused two deaths; severe erosion and sediment deposition; extensive damage to property and infrastructure; and loss of substantial ecological, scenic, and recreational resources in the affected river corridors. The river corridors' riparian and aquatic habitat was severely disrupted, impacting wildlife and devastating the recreational fishery. Flooding and erosion damaged or destroyed homes and businesses and large portions of US 34 and County Road 43 were also damaged.
Although the State Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration Central Federal Lands Highways Division (CFLHD) rebuilt US 34 and CR 43 using emergency construction methods in less than two months, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) supported the protection of private property and critical infrastructure at risk of being damaged or destroyed due to the 2014 high spring runoff, these were temporary measures. Resilience required recovery measures that were designed to address future risk.
While CDOT and CFLHD designed permanent roadway repairs to US 34 and CR 43, many non-profit and volunteer organizations supported the integration of disaster risk reduction and sustainability measures into recovery projects and programs. The Big Thompson River Restoration Coalition (BTRRC) was formed as a grass-roots organization soon after the flood to help property owners and other stakeholders with cleanup, debris removal, and to facilitate longer-term recovery of the river corridors. The BTRRC and its fiscal and project management partner, Wildlands Restoration Volunteers (WRV), received a grant from the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) in the spring of 2014. This grant and funding from other resources were dedicated to developing a Big Thompson River Restoration Master Plan (BTRRMP). The purpose of the BTRRMP was to define an overall recovery vision and to identify priority projects for restoring more than forty miles of the Big Thompson River and eleven miles of the North Fork of the Big Thompson River.
The Master Plan provided a holistic framework for restoration and recovery including an overall recovery vision identified by the BTRRC and its stakeholders. This vision was for restoration to create a more resilient river system. The specific restoration goals of the master plan were to:
Improve river function over a broad range of discharges, including flood events.
Reduce risk to lives and property (flooding, erosion, safe access).
Protect infrastructure,
Limit negative impacts to private property.
Rehabilitate ecological function.
The Colorado Department of Local Affairs’ Resilience Planning Program projects often created relationships that are vital to realizing resilience goals, and this project was no exception. Success in this instance was achieved using funds provided by the Watershed Resilience Pilot Program. Such projects also often result in positive reverberation impacts on overall community resilience. These projects were completed between 2017 and 2019.