Water conservation methods to conserve the High Plains aquifer and Arikaree River Basin: A case study on the Arikaree River

Throughout the United States, and especially in Colorado, farmers confront the challenges of meeting water needs for crop production while trying to maintain natural habitats and conserve dwindling water supplies. The challenge of dividing limited resources creates a constant need for evaluation, research, and conservation of our valued water resources. The Arikaree River is a tributary of the Republican River on the Great Plains of Eastern Colorado. The river is groundwater dependent and receives flow from the underlying High Plains aquifer. The river alluvium has mature riparian communities of plains cottonwoods, habitat for threatened fish species such as the Hybognathus hankinsoni (Brassy Minnow), and habitat for many terrestrial invertebrates, sustained by water from the High Plains aquifer. In addition to the demands for maintenance of habitats, the surrounding, almost exclusively irrigated agricultural lands need water as well. The irrigation water supply is the groundwater pumped from the High Plains aquifer by high-capacity pumps. In recent years, the river became a series of disconnected pools or has dried up entirely during the late summer. To sustain both a precarious regional agricultural economy and an aquatic/riparian ecosystem, both dependent on groundwater for existence, there must be tradeoffs to preserve this important resource. The results of this research project provided practical guidelines for water conservation and water management practices. This research project identified feasible and realistic conservation measures that water users could voluntarily implement in Yuma County and other river basins around the country.