At a Glance
This project developed a strategic approach to strengthen the protection of valuable riparian and wetland habitat along Boulder’s greenways, now and into the future.
Project Description
The City of Boulder’s Greenways Program integrates management of riparian and wetland habitat into multiple other objectives–flood control, water quality, recreation–along the City’s stream corridors. Biohabitats was contracted to evaluate the effectiveness of the current habitat maintenance program as well as the City’s Greenways Design Guidelines. The information will be used to assist decision-makers in how to make the program most effective in the future.
Research for the evaluation included reviewing maintenance crew logs to identify locations and types of past weed control and small-scale restoration projects, reviewing relevant documents, and conducting interviews. Field work involved walking along more than 20 stream reaches to assess habitat conditions, evidence of improvements, and opportunities for restoration. Biohabitats collected relevant information on native vegetation, weeds, channel morphology, streambank condition, and riparian width. Current conditions were qualitatively compared to previously documented conditions to evaluate changes over time. As a follow-up project, Biohabitats prepared the 2007 Habitat Maintenance Work Plan that incorporated our recommendations for management improvements.