• Client: City of Fort Collins, Larimer County, CO
• Date: Mar 2015 to Nov 2015
• Info: Blue Mountain Environmental Consulting facilitated the process of negotiating an easement on the City of Fort Collins’ Redtail Grove Natural Area.

The proposed 13.4-acre Goldelm Apartments development fell within 100 feet of Fossil Creek, which flows through the city-owned Redtail Grove Natural Area to the north of the development. The natural area provides diverse riparian habitat, native short- and mixed-grass prairies, large cottonwood galleries, and geologic features such as fossils.

Blue Mountain Environmental Consulting represented the client and worked with the City of Fort Collins to obtain an easement to tie into an existing sewer line and install a storm water outfall pipe that would drain into Fossil Creek. We performed an Ecological Characterization Study that met the requirements of Section 3.4.1 (D) (1) of the Land Use Code of the City of Fort Collins. Blue Mountain also prepared an Alternatives Analysis for Easements report for the city and submitted a wetland delineation in accordance with the Regional Supplement to the Corps of Engineers Wetland Delineation Manual: Great Plains Region (Version 2) and Pre-Construction Notification to the Denver Regulatory Center of the Army Corps of Engineers.

To protect and restore natural resource values within the proposed easement, Blue Mountain prepared a Resource Protection Compliance report, which outlined restoration and mitigation efforts to be performed to meet City of Fort Collins standards and guidelines and likely enhanced habitat within 0.1 temporary and 0.075 permanent acres of disturbance to palustrine emergent wetlands associated with Fossil Creek. Blue Mountain worked with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and utilized the Information for Planning and Conservation (IPaC) tool to identify habitat and compliance for threatened and endangered species (Preble’s meadow jumping mouse, Colorado butterfly plant, and Ute ladies’-tresses).