Left Hand Canyon Restoration Project

In 2013, a severe storm along Colorado’s northern Front Range caused devastating flooding that resulted in the loss of life, displacement of thousands of people, and nearly $4 billion in damage across 24 counties. The flooding also damaged roadways and culverts and severely degraded the habitat, stability, and function of the creek corridors. When the nonprofit Left Hand Watershed Center (LHWC) received grant funding to restore nine sites in Left Hand Canyon, they turned to a collaborative design-build team led by Left Hand Excavating, Biohabitats, and Wright Water Engineers.

With the goal of aligning watershed restoration, risk mitigation, and community and economic development, the team applied an adaptive approach to increase long-term flood resilience within, upstream, and downstream of each project reach while restoring aquatic and riparian habitat. Thanks to the foresight of the LHWC, the project included adaptive restoration and adaptive management components. As part of the adaptive restoration, Biohabitats designed and installed three different types of beaver dam analogs. The LHWC will monitor the structures to see how they maintain hydrologic conditions for wetlands and hold-up to high flows over time.

Recognizing that landowner participation was essential to project success, the team integrated community members throughout the restoration process. Rather than relying on technical design plans, the team used communication tools such as photo simulations, jargon-free material, and deep listening to ensure that landowners remained engaged and supportive of this important project and fostered stewardship of the restored sites.

TAGS

• Design-Build
• Ecological Restoration