The CCC Ditch is located near Naturita on the San Miguel River. The San Miguel River is one of Colorado’s last free flowing rivers and is one of the few naturally functioning riparian ecosystems remaining in the Western United States. We have been working in partnership with the CCC Ditch Company, the Colorado Division of Wildlife, The Nature Conservancy, the Bureau of Land Management, and other interested parties to create a diversion structure that is more sensitive to fish passage issues and is safer for recreation. Better diversion management will also prevent the late-season dewatering that occurs at the diversion structure.
The funding for this project is now in place and FlyWater inc., the project contractor, is currently at the site harvesting rock and other materials needed for construction. This project would not have come to fruition, however, had it not been for Jeff Crane from the Colorado Watershed Assembly, who is one of the state’s best builders of stakeholder groups.