Central Mineral and Environmental Resources Science Center
Project status is complete. Please check the CMERSC project list for currently active projects.
The Front Range urban corridor in Colorado, one of the fastest-growing regions in the western U.S., stretches about 350 km from Pueblo in the south, through Denver, north to the Colorado-Wyoming border. This population growth has put tremendous pressure on a variety of resources and has created many land management issues for local, state, and federal government agencies. Future land use planning in this area requires geoscience information that can be obtained through studies that lie at the core of the Mineral Resources, Energy Resources, National Cooperative Geologic Mapping, Water Resources, and Landslides Hazards Programs, and supports the process-oriented research objectives of the USGS. These issues require new and focused earth science studies of: (1) mineral and energy resources, (2) geologic hazards, such as landslides and stream flooding, (3) the long-term effects of forest fires on erosion and sedimentation, (4) the effects of increased recreational land use, and (5) quantity and quality of both ground- and surface-water resources.
The long-term goal of the project was to provide comprehensive geoscience data and interpretations that will allow federal, state, and local land management entities to make informed land-use decisions in central Colorado. Addressing these issues required accurate and up-to-date earth science data including: 1) state-of-the-art digital geologic maps, 2) surficial, water, and bedrock geochemistry, 3) topical and regional studies of water, mineral, and energy resources, 4) regional geophysical data sets, 5) remote sensing data, 6) geochronology. These data are digital and regional in scope and integrated into compatible GIS layers. These comprehensive earth science data were used to improve our understanding of the availability of mineral and energy resources, the geochemical and environmental effects of historic mining activity on surface and ground water, the geoenvironmental effects of wildfires, geologic controls on groundwater availability and quality, and geologic hazards, such as landslides and stream flooding.
One of the principal land-management agencies in the area, the U.S. Forest Service, requested studies of four National Forests in the study area in support of their cyclic planning efforts. These new studies are particularly important for the management of all federal lands in the study area, including those managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Specific issues on federal lands are (1) fire mitigation and the treatment of burned lands (Grand County will be used as a test area), (2) erosion management, (3) slope stability, (4) mitigation of the environmental effects of abandoned mined lands, (5) ground water availability, (6) aggregate resource availability, and (7) assessment of mineral and energy resources.
This project focused on data gathering and integration and data interpretation as they relate to long-term resource planning by land-managing entities in Central Colorado. Project activities also provided geologic, geochemical, geophysical and remote-sensing data and interpretations in support of fire science, water resources, and geologic hazards studies in the study area.
The public lands in the study area are experiencing a rapid increase in recreational use as the population of the region increases and residences and vacation homes are built in the mountains west of the Front Range Urban Corridor. This population pressure increases the relevance of scientific information and interpretations on issues such as ground- and surface-water quality and availability, post-wildfire erosion, and landslide hazards. The need for mineral resources, especially industrial minerals and aggregate in response to population growth in the Front Range Urban Corridor, is extreme. The comprehensive studies and interpretations provided by this project should aid land-management agencies and local governments to develop effective management plans to cope with this development and recreational pressure.
Specific examples of how data derived from the project were used by various agencies/customers outside the USGS are:
Phone: (303) 236-5605
Phone: 303) 236-1305