For ten years the Park County Land & Water Trust Fund has provided annual funding to monitor aquatic and riparian conditions along different streams throughout the county. This data has been used to evaluate the effectiveness of stream and riparian habitat improvement work, and to guide the design of future restoration projects.
The Middle Fork Habitat Study is designed to correlate several years of habitat monitoring data with fish population data collected by Colorado Parks & Wildlife. Among other things, this ongoing project has revealed new information about the type of habitat required by wild trout during different seasons and stream levels.
Utimately, this information will be used to prioritize future habitat improvement projects and enhance wild trout populations in area streams.