The irrigation company that owns the reservoir at the heart of Barr Lake State Park has bulldozed old cottonwood trees and scraped habitat into a wasteland, birdwatchers and other recreational users say, and it further galls them that the work to increase water storage there could further support fracking for oil and gas.

State wildlife officials have little control over the extensive dike work at Barr Lake, which is being carried out over the next few months by the Farmers Reservoir and Irrigation Co., or FRICO. But conservationists point out FRICO, a mutual ditch company dating to 1902, received a state Water Conservation Board grant for some of the work, and natural resources officials should have more say in protecting a popular area.

“To undertake such an extreme development at this facility, with this reservoir, with the state park in the background and with the supports for wildlife in the background, it was shocking,” said Jeremy Nichols, an environmental advocacy consultant and a frequent birder. Colorado’s extensive and vocal birding community decried the destruction and traded information on bulletin boards as soon as the bulldozers rolled.

FRICO said its top officials were out of town and would not comment. Information on work at the reservoir has come through state wildlife officials and the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, which has a migratory bird banding station in daily use at Barr Lake.

FRICO controls water shares that supply farmers, hundreds of thousands of Front Range municipal customers and oil and gas operations that need millions of gallons to fracture wells.

Nichols and others unearthed a FRICO grant application asking for state help to design and engineer dike repairs allowing for a higher lake level, with the additional water planned for municipal and farm users. The application also said “Barr Lake provides water to industrial water users such as Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Noble Energy for their fracking operations. Additional storage at Barr Lake will increase the amount of water potentially available to meet the current and future demands associated with those industrial entities.”

Water Board 2021 minutes show unanimous approval of a staff-recommended $183,963 grant; FRICO had requested $278,607.

“This may not all be about oil and gas,” Nichols said, “but it’s certainly not about looking out for the future of Colorado.”

Bird Conservancy of the Rockies volunteers are a constant presence at Barr Lake, either banding birds to contribute to national research on migration patterns, or enjoying the same bird-friendly facilities that draw hundreds of thousands of visitors every year: boardwalks to marshlands and waterfowl viewing, walking and biking trails and old cottonwoods hosting nesting raptors.

Still, the nonprofit’s education director Sherry Nickolaus said in an email, “FRICO did not work with Bird Conservancy prior to this becoming a controversy.”

State Parks officials said they did have talks with FRICO before the work started. Removing the cottonwoods, moving raw earth around the dike and other machine work is the start of a five-year plan by FRICO to remove damaging root systems and shore up the structure after the company began raising the water level this year, parks officials said.

Parks employees have to explain over and over that while they can talk with FRICO, the irrigation company owns the reservoir, and state facilities for the public must work around the waterway needs.

“Anytime you see some heavy equipment coming into a park, you want to know what’s going on. So yes, I think people expressed some concerns about that,” said Kara Van Hoose, a spokesperson for Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

FRICO removed about 20 cottonwoods in the northeastern dike section of the park, which is opposite from where bald eagles nest in the southwestern corner, Van Hoose said. Nesting happens in February and March, moreover, further reducing the chances of the work disturbing current eagle pairs.

“Barr Lake is known for birding,” Van Hoose said. “They’re known for their bald eagle populations, and that’s something we’re very proud of, and something that we take very seriously. So we’re glad that people also take it very seriously. It has been nice to hear people concerned about the population and we are glad to hear that we all want the same things.”

Bird Conservancy has been more careful in criticizing the earth work than people on birding bulletin boards, but the leadership remains concerned about a bigger reservoir and the years of work ahead.

“We have seen a decrease in the number of birds we are banding and releasing this year, and this could be due to a number of factors including the higher water level which is affecting available habitat and food sources, wildfires in Canada, and habitat disturbance,” Nickolaus said.

“As they work in the area we band, which is slated for future years, some large trees will have to be removed,” she added. “Luckily the berm has a good slope, which will minimize how much disturbance happens near the shore. We will work with them to mark critical habitat and try to avoid as much disturbance in the area as possible.”

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