Ahead of another possible drought summer and mounting climate change impacts, the Yampa River Environmental Release Program has become increasingly essential to environmental conservation of the river.

The Yampa River Environmental Release Program is a collaboration between several local and state entities to ensure the Yampa River remains at a healthy flow and water temperature. Three of the main partners are the Colorado Water Trust, the city of Steamboat Springs and Friends of the Yampa. 

Friends of the Yampa is essentially the managing body for the finances of the Yampa River Fund, which provides necessary money for ideal water flow into the Yampa. Mike Robertson, the Yampa River Fund manager, explained the fund is a committee made up of groups throughout the Yampa Valley that help allocate and provide a sustainable funding source for flow releases. 

The money is held with Yampa Valley Community Foundation, which doles out the grants, while Friends of the Yampa acts as the managing entity. Each year, the Yampa River Fund provides about half of the money Colorado Water Trust needs to lease water from Stagecoach and Elkhead reservoirs. 

According to Blake Mamich, programs director at the Colorado Water Trust, the other half of the funding comes from the Colorado Water Conservation Board. The financial support of these two groups is crucial to the success of the release program in keeping the Yampa River at a safe temperature and flow rate for its ecosystem. 

The Colorado Water Trust is a nonprofit water rights transaction organization that operates within the preexisting legal framework of water rights. The organization facilitates these purchases to acquire water rights for solely environmental purposes. “It’s sort of like the environment is our client,” Mamich said. 

The Colorado Water Trust is set to release 5,100 acre feet from Stagecoach Reservoir in addition to 2,000 acre feet from Elkhead Reservoir over the course of this summer. This water will be released during times when the river is considered to be at a low flow. 

“I like to think about (1 acre foot) as if you took a football field that is 1-foot deep with water,” described Mamich. An acre-foot is equivalent to 326,000 gallons, meaning 5,100 acre feet amounts to over 1 billion gallons of water. 

This water is not released all at once but must be stretched out and conserved to ensure that there is enough to sustain the Yampa during its critical period in late summer and early fall. Mamich noted that during this time, about half the water that runs through downtown Steamboat originates from Stagecoach. 

Factors that determine low-flow status are measured by the city. These criteria are primarily water temperature and water flow. According to city municipal code, recreational activity is closed if any or all of these conditions are met: the Yampa River flow drops below 85 cubic feet per second, the dissolved oxygen level average is less than 6 milligrams per liter and/or the water exceeds 75 degrees Fahrenheit for two or more consecutive days. 

Julie Baxter, city water resources manager, explained that these conditions are measured by flow and temperature gauges at the Fifth Street Bridge. The city has built a forecasting model that allows for a five-day prediction of river flow and temperature — the model can also simulate what impact different releases would create. This data can be accessed online at apps.usg.gov and waterdata.usg.gov. 

The model is a key decision-making tool so the city can “tailor those releases to best help conditions in Steamboat,” according to Baxter. Once the city reports this data, members of the Yampa River Fund make the final decision as a collaborative group to release water from the reservoirs to reset the Yampa to healthy levels and prevent or shorten recreational closures to the river. 

Mamich emphasized that the Colorado Water Trust’s secondary goal revolves around keeping the Yampa River open for recreation, but this is only possible through first sustaining the health of fish and the overall ecosystem health. The monetary value for river recreation is essential to the economics of Steamboat.

In 2022, the nonprofit organization American Whitewater reported that the extra open recreational days that were directly due to the Yampa River Release Program equated to half-a-million dollars in economic activity for Steamboat, continued Mamich. 

Looking forward to a summer starting off with below normal snowpack levels, the Colorado Water Trust “can say with certainty” that all of the 5,100 acre feet allocated from Stagecoach will be used by summer’s end. 

The effect of climate change is becoming increasingly noticeable within the Yampa River Environmental Release Program. Mamich said last summer was the first time that the program used all of the Stagecoach water and this year they expect the same. This full amount adds up to $275,000 worth of water.

The Colorado Water Trust expects that snowpack runoff will occur faster and quicker than in the past, resulting in low flows earlier in the summer and earlier and more frequent water releases and river closures. This means reservoir water must be released more methodically and cautiously to preserve it as much as possible. 

Besides snowpack, another major element that influences the Yampa’s health is monsoon season. If the early summer rains raise water levels and drop temperatures enough, then there won’t be as much of a reliance on late-summer water releases.

Overall, the Colorado Water Trust’s main challenge is monitoring and maintaining river flow and temperature of the Yampa on a day-to-day basis. “It’s a super, super collaborative effort to make this happen,” said Mamich.

Mamich praised the Yampa River Fund, Friends of the Yampa and the city for their work on the release program, calling it a “really great model for the rest of the state.”