Blue River

There’s something about moose being one of the bigger challenges of a project that signals this isn’t an average landscape job. And, the Blue River Habit and Restoration project carried out in 2017 in Colorado certainly was not ordinary. Skiers likely recognize Breckenridge, CO for its world-class peaks, but what the snow covers in the winter doesn’t necessarily look quite as glorious come spring. Located just west of the Continental Divide, this area was originally settled by miners who stripped the land and left piles of rocky waste in their path. Work has been ongoing for more than two decades to clean up the rubble and improve fishing along the Blue River, which drains the area and provides drinking water for the Denver metro area. In fact, the 2017 version of the river restoration project earned a silver award for the Eagle, CO office of Rocky Mountain Custom Landscapes, Inc. This award was part of the 2018 Awards of Excellence (ACE) for the National Association of Landscape Professionals (NALP). Brian Wells, Rocky Mountain Custom Landscapes’ construction manager for that segment of the project, says the goal was to create a natural park setting where people can hike along the Blue River north of the Breckenridge central business area and restore a stretch of the river along Coyne Valley Road and Colorado Highway 9. “We were recommended by (Denver-based) DHM Design, who did the overall design,” says Wells. “We had done some work with them over in the Aspen area. It ...