TU volunteer leader Ken Neubecker fishing on East Parachute Creek.
Trout Unlimited has a long history of work for and on the Roan Plateau, northwest of Rifle. Home to outstanding big game habitat and some valuable native trout habitat. Protected above some spectacular waterfalls, the Roan is a fish and wildlife treasure deserving of protection.
Over decades, the Grand Valley Anglers (GVA) chapter has supported fencing, tree planting and habitat projects on Colorado River cutthroat trout streams atop the Roan; Colorado TU installed a fish barrier on the East Fork of Parachute Creek to facilitate native trout restoration in its headwaters, which was later connected to restoration down to East Fork Falls by Colorado Parks and Wildlife; and all levels of TU collaborated in opposing proposed widespread oil and gas leasing on the Roan, culminating in a settlement allowing limited leasing on a portion of the Plateau adjacent to existing oil and gas development on private lands.
Grand Valley Anglers volunteers started planting willows and cottonwoods along Trapper Creek on the Roan Plateau in the 1990s.
Just this spring, TU joined with other conservation partners to seek and secure an agreement with the holder of that more limited oil and gas lease for them to relinquish the lease – leaving the public lands atop the Roan free (for now) from the specter of new oil and gas drilling in its sensitive habitats.
At the same time, with thoughtful collaboration from an adjacent energy company landowner, Colorado TU staff and GVA have been collecting water quality information on the East Fork of Parachute Creek. Based on that data, and the stream’s importance as a native trout recovery habitat, TU and other conservation partners are seeking to designate the stream as an Outstanding Water through the Colorado Water Quality Control Commission. An “OW” designation offers the strongest protection for existing levels of water quality, preventing new permits that would lead to any decline from current high-quality conditions.
You can help today by signing on a petition to the Commission urging them to adopt OW designation for the East Fork of Parachute Creek, along with 17 other west-slope waters that have similarly been monitored by our conservation allies for their water quality and that support important water-dependent natural resources. You can see a map of the 17 watersheds proposed for this protection here, and can read and add your voice to our coalition petition by clicking here.
