Lower Boulder Creek ecosystem restoration project groundbreaking ceremony October 8

Media Contact: Vivienne Jannatpour, Communications Specialist, (303) 678-6277

Boulder County Parks and Open Space, in partnership with the the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District, will hold a groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate the start of construction of an ecosystem restoration project along an approximately one-mile stretch of Lower Boulder Creek.

The ceremony will take place on Thursday, October 8, starting at 12:30 p.m. MDT at the project site between N. 109th Street and Kenosha Road in Boulder County -- approximately 3.5 miles west of the Boulder County-Weld County line and 8 miles east of the city of Boulder. Limited parking will be available along the Boulder County property access road located just east of the 109th Street bridge (see map below).

In case of inclement weather, the ceremony will take place at the Goodhue Farmhouse located at the Carolyn Holmberg Preserve, 2009 S. 112th Street, Broomfield, Colorado.

BACKGROUND:

Lower Boulder Creek once meandered across a broad floodplain that supported numerous wetlands, stream-side vegetation, and associated native fish and wildlife populations. Since European settlement, the project reach and its associated habitats have been dramatically degraded by activities including upstream development, water diversions, pollution, non-native species, and gravel mining.

The project area is currently in a highly degraded state, which without active ecological restoration would take decades or longer to improve.

In 2011, the Omaha District completed a feasibility study which identified this project as a good candidate to restore habitat for migratory birds and other wildlife, restore wetland and stream values, reduce invasive species and provide other ecosystem improvements. A construction contract was awarded to American West Construction, LLC, of Denver, Colo. for $2.6 million. The project is expected to be complete by Fall 2016.