Colorado Emergency Watershed Protection Program/EWP Project Locations

The Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) Program helps safeguard lives and property threatened by natural disasters such as wildfires, floods, hurricanes, and tornados.  It provides technical and cost-share assistance to reduce threats to life and property in the wake of natural disasters such as floods and fires. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) facilitates emergency measures to retard runoff, and reduce soil erosion and sedimentation, as authorized by the Secretary of Agriculture.  NRCS assistance includes removing and establishing vegetative cover, controlling gullies, installing stream-bank protection devices; removing debris and sediment; and stabilizing levees, channels and gullies. In subsequent storms, EWP projects may protect homes from further damage.

Program Progress

During 2002 NRCS provided more than $14 million dollars in technical and financial assistance in the 11 major wild fires in Colorado. Some of the conservation practices included:

• Directional Tree Felling
• Pond Spillway Reinforcement
• Seeding
• Mulching
• Clearing and Snagging
• Rock Check Structures
• Well and Spring Protection
• Home protection from mud-flows.

NRCS also provides technical assistance through the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP). This program is managed and administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA) and is designed to rehabilitate farmland and conservation facilities damaged by wind and water erosion, floods, and other natural disasters.

It also provides assistance to eligible agricultural producers during periods of severe drought. Emergency conservation assistance is available for removing debris and restoring permanent fences, terraces, diversions, irrigation systems, and other conservation installations.

NRCS Colorado EWP Annual Report

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NRCS Colorado EWP 2004 Annual Report

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