The Colorado River District has awarded Colorado Trout Unlimited $150,000 through the Community Funding Partnership to aid in implementing Phase 3 of the Middle Colorado Agricultural Collaborative. This project focuses on upgrading five diversions along Elk and Canyon Creeks. Tasks encompass obtaining federal clearances, finalizing engineering designs, and construction. Projects include combining ditches, which will keep heavy machinery out of the stream, and essential infrastructure enhancements that will provide for fish passage and improve agricultural efficiencies and maintenance operations, which will enable voluntary bypass flows when crops and animals do not need the diverted water.
The goal of the Middle Colorado AG Collaborative is to continue opening Elk and Canyon Creeks to spawning and migrating fish from the Colorado River by working with agricultural water diverters to make their diversion structures fish-friendly. To date, Trout Unlimited has completed two successful projects on Elk Creek (Ware and Hinds Fish Passage-2018) and Canyon Creek (Fish Passage-2021). This project is a collaboration between TU national, CTU, Eagle Valley TU chapter #102, and Ferdinand Hayden chapter #008.
