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Poudre River Wetland Management

Poudre River Riparian Forest Assessment

    • Client: City of Fort Collins, Larimer County, Colorado
    • Date: April, 2009 to July, 2009
    • Project Type: Wetland Management
    • Info: The City of Fort Collins Natural Areas Program hire Blue Mountain to conduct a riparian forest inventory on approximately 15 miles of the Poudre River.

    The goal of this study was to quantify the distribution, composition and abundance of tree species growing in the riparian corridor. Fixed-width, variable-length belt transects were used to assess basal area by species. Abundance was recorded for desirable species such as narrowleaf and plains cottonwood and mulberry along with the abundance of undesirable species such as crack willow, Russian olive, tamarisk, Siberian elm and others. Regeneration less than 1” diameter at breast height was evaluated and used in conjunction with diameter distribution data to determine trends in regeneration.