Annual Update to the Summit County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC): One of the conditions of Summit County’s gravel milling permit (Conditional Use Permit) requires annual project updates to the BOCC. The Summit County Open Space and Trails Department (OST) will be providing its fifth annual update to the BOCC at a work session scheduled for Tuesday, June 1st at 9:45 a.m. Due to ongoing COVID-19 public health orders and ongoing physical distancing efforts, this meeting will be conducted virtually. Please refer to the BOCC published agenda for meeting access information. Open Space and Trails staff will review accomplishments from 2019 and discuss plans for the 2020, including continued gravel removal from the valley. As always, your attendance at these meetings is welcomed. Please do not hesitate to contact OST with any questions or comments about this meeting. 

Reach A Updates: In the fall of 2019, Summit County opened the Reach A site to the public. We have been excited to see the new trail from Brown’s Gulch to Rock Island Road being utilized by anglers, hikers, bikers, and skiers over the past few seasons. I had an opportunity to get out to the site last week and the trail is nearly dry and almost ready for summer uses. Please be mindful that the site is still in a fragile condition, so please continue to tread gently and stay on the trail when possible.

Reach A monitoring is ongoing. A third year of post-construction monitoring of several site parameters, including the new channel, soil, and plant, and habitat development continues to yield positive results. Recent results indicate that the all parameters are performing extremely well, with the new channel responding appropriately to new flows, soils and plant materials becoming well-established, and stream habitat (e.g., riffles, pools, stream bed substrate) functioning as intended. Additionally, a fall 2020 fishery survey by CPW aquatic biologist, Jon Ewert indicates a very healthy fishery continues to evolve in the new Swan River channel! Mottled Sculpin were found in the stream again this year in greater numbers than past years and the diversity of fish sizes and species continues to increase.


Mottled Sculpin has been found in Reach A.

Reach B Progress: Milling operations have been completed for Reach B and almost 57,000 tons of gravel were removed from the site in 2020, generating over $140,000 in funds to aid in the restoration of this stretch of the Swan. Gravel stockpiles of about 100,000 cubic yards are still present onsite and are currently being removed by Schofield Excavating. All gravel removal operations are to be completed by May 2022 and it is our hope that these stockpiles will be removed by this fall. With the crushing operations completed and final removal ongoing, much of the site is now prepped for the next stage of the restoration process, channel construction and habitat creation!


Gravel Stockpiles on the upstream end of Reach B in late winter. 03/18/21.

This winter and spring, we have worked with our partners at Ecological Resource Consultants to update draft design plans for Reach B, incorporating many of the lessons learned from Reach A, as well as suggestions from our partners at Trout Unlimited and Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Overall, the design includes 4700’ of new stream channel which will cover 2.7 acres, 12 acres of riparian habitat, and 5 acres of upland habitat. The floodplain on Reach B will be flatter and broader to allow for more seasonal flooding and greater diversity in the riparian areas surrounding the channel. Planting pockets will also be a key feature in the Reach B build and will result in planted thickets where sedimentation will occur in the riparian area. The stream will also have more variability in width and depth along the channel to mimic natural morphology. In order to create more in-stream habitat, woody debris will be used to stabilize several of the banks along Reach B. These stabilization methods have been shown to support larger fish populations on other restored sites in Colorado, as well. 

We plan for the channel construction crews to be on site in early July through October, completing channel construction, grading, and initial seeding before winter. Planting of shrubs and trees is slated to occur in 2022.

This will be a very active year on the Reach B site and for the Swan River Restoration Project. Stay posted and look for updates on the construction this summer!

Additional information about Swan River Restoration Project is available at RestoreTheSwanRiver.com as well as on the Open Space and Trails Special Projects web page. If you have additional questions about the restoration project, you can contact Summit County Open Space and Trails Director Brian Lorch, or Open Space and Trails Resource Specialist Jordan Mead, or call 970.668.4065.