Raise Your Voice for America's Public Lands

As one of the 324 million public landowners in America, I call on the President and my Members of Congress to protect our public lands sporting heritage by strongly opposing any wholesale effort to sell or transfer our country’s public lands. Some of the best fish and wildlife habitat and hunting and angling opportunities available to sportsmen and women are found on these lands. Public lands, owned by all Americans, are indispensable and we must care for them as such.

Further, I ask that Congress and the President work together to address 21st century land management challenges in ways that protect and restore fish and wildlife habitat, ensure that Federal land management agencies have the tools and funding necessary to effectively manage our lands, and uphold America’s public land hunting and fishing traditions.

Visit the TU Action Center to tell our lawmakers why you support Public Lands!

Speak Out for Sound Management of BLM Lands

  The US Senate will soon be voting on whether to block the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) "Planning 2.0 Rule" - and our Senators need to hear your voice as an angler who values our public lands!  BLM properties in Colorado include some of our most outstanding fisheries like the Colorado River and the Gunnison Gorge, as well as important native trout habitats - and sound planning and management of these lands if essential.

Speak out for sound management of BLM lands!

This new rule updates the BLM’s outdated rule and gives the public a stronger voice in public land management decisions. The revised rule will increase agency transparency and opportunities for public involvement in federal land planning, and ensure that important fish and wildlife habitats and looked at up front and at a landscape level, not left as an afterthought.

Trout Unlimited and our partners in the hunting and fishing community have supported Planning 2.0, but this common-sense proposal is under threat of being repealed by Congress using the Congressional Review Act which would not only block the rule but prevent anything substantially like it being adopted in the future.

Please take a few minutes to contact Colorado's Senators and urge them to oppose efforts to do away with Planning 2.0, to ensure that the public has a voice in public land management!

Protecting Colorado's Water Quality

The Colorado Water Quality Control Commission is considering a state policy change that would weaken the temperature standards that are supposed to protect trout streams throughout the state. The proposed changes brought forth by the Water Quality Control Division (WQCD) would put many trout fisheries at risk including during spawning periods. Take Action and tell the WQCC you do not approve of these changes!

The changes proposed by the WQCD will increase the “standard” temperatures allowed for around 1/3 of Colorado's trout streams, based solely on their elevation, allowing the fish' stress levels to increase and ultimately cause problems for their feeding, growing and movement. According to the EPA, the proposed standards for lower elevation coldwater streams (22 C) are actually lethal for trout exposed to them over seven days.Higher temperature standards also would be allowed on all streams during the "shoulder" months of March and April and October and November - which overlaps with Rainbow and Brown spawning seasons when the fish are more sensitive and susceptible to changes in their environment, and where their successful natural reproduction can be harmed. These shoulder standards are also higher (65F) than what is needed to support successful trout spawning (59-61F).

Make your voice heard by sending a letter to the WQCC

Learn more about the proposed changes

Trout Unlimited is working to ensure that the temperatures of Colorado's streams remain at a healthy level for trout to survive. CTU has put together an Action Alert asking members and supporters to reach out to the WQCC and show that these changes will be harmful to our state's trout and fishing opportunity!

Ask BLM: support balanced plan for fish, wildlife & energy on the Roan

In November 2014, Secretary of the Interior Jewell, BLM Director Kornze, Governor Hickenlooper, and a group of energy and conservation stakeholders announced a settlement of long-standing litigation over oil and gas development on the Roan Plateau.  The agreement struck a balance between protecting outstanding habitat for big game and native cutthroat trout fisheries, and enabling responsible development of natural gas resources on less sensitive lands.

The agreement was only a first step - now the BLM needs to finish the job and put in place a new final management plan that incorporates the settlement's protections and approach to responsible energy for the Roan . The BLM has issued its new Draft Environmental Impact Statement and is expected to make a final decision on the Roan in the next few months, so speaking out now can make a difference!  Click here to sign our petition to BLM supporting a balanced approach that protects the Roan's unique cutthroat trout and outstanding big game habitat.

Tell Congress: Support Public Lands and Recreation

If Congress doesn't act this month, one of our nation's most successful public lands and recreation programs will come to an end. From the Great Sand Dunes, to access on the Colorado River, to community parks and trails in our own backyards, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) has set aside and protected special places in Colorado and nationwide for the past 50 years.

A new Colorado TU report highlights the diverse benefits LWCF has provided to our state, from expanding hunting and angling access, to securing iconic landscapes like the Great Sand Dunes, to conserving private lands through conservation easements and partnerships.  You can read the report here.

Yet this successful program is set to expire on September 30 if Congress doesn't act to extend it.  Please ask your Senators and Representative - today - to support permanent reauthorization of LWCF and keep its benefits flowing to our public lands and our multi-billion-dollar outdoor recreation economy.

Click here to visit our online action alert where you can share your comments with your elected officials.  Thank you!

Ask Congress to Protect Our Headwaters

On May 27, the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers issued new Clean Water rules that restore long-standing protections to headwater streams and adjacent wetlands under the Clean Water Act.  The rules are a balanced package that maintains long-standing Clean Water Act exemptions for standard farming practices, while clarifying that the Act's protections extend to the tributary streams and wetlands that shape the quality and health of downstream rivers. These waters were historically protected under the Clean Water Act until two politically charged Supreme Court decisions in the 2000s put them into regulatory limbo. The court ruled that there must be a proven nexus between these small, sometimes-intermittent waters and the larger rivers they feed in order for the former to receive Clean Water Act protections. Armed with the science that proves such a connection, the EPA and the Corps crafted this rule that protects the clean water sources of America’s rivers. Unfortunately, some in Congress are pushing to block the rules from being implemented.  Legislation to do just that has passed the House and will be considered in the Senate, and other amendments to block the rules will likely be proposed in the coming weeks and months.  Please take a moment to weigh in with your Representative and Senators Bennet and Gardner, and ask them to support the Clean Water Rules and protect Colorado's headwater streams!

Tell the Governor: Healthy Rivers Matter!

On  December 10, a draft of Colorado's Water Plan was formally presented to Governor Hickenlooper - and will no undergo a renewed round of public input and revision with plans to finalize it by late 2015.  The Plan talks about the strategies Colorado should use to meet its future water demands for cities, industry, agriculture, recreation and the environment.  It will set the tone for how Colorado addresses its water challenges - whether there is an emphasis on sustainability, aggressive water conservation, and healthy rivers and landscapes - or emphasis on more dry-up of Colorado's rivers and its irrigated farmlands.  Colorado's sportsmen want to see our values reflected in the Plan. Governor Hickenlooper has said that every conversation about water should start with conservation. Tell him yourself why conserving the health of rivers is important to you! Click here now to weigh in now on the vision for Colorado's water future that you want to support!

This is just the first draft of the first Colorado Water Plan. We have one year to try to secure a healthy future for our rivers for fish, and for people.

You can learn more and read the draft Colorado  Water Plan online by clicking here and by visiting Colorado's Water Plan website.

Ask President Obama and Secretary Jewell to Make Browns Canyon a National Monument

Browns Canyon, located along the upper Arkansas River in Colorado, is known for premier trout fishing, outstanding big game habitat, world-famous whitewater, rugged and remote wildlands, and a proud cattle ranching tradition. This diversity supports thousands of jobs, from river outfitters and guides to ranchers in the nearby communities of Salida and Buena Vista. Protecting this 22,000 acre gem along the Arkansas River as a National Monument is a community-driven effort to preserve this unique natural and economic resource for generations to come. You can help!  Click here to send a message to President Obama and Interior Secretary Jewell asking them to designate Browns Canyon as a National Monument, ensuring that its diverse values are maintained for the public for generations to come!

Roan: Help us thank CO elected officials for their help

For years, Colorado TU and our Grand Valley Anglers chapter have worked on protecting and restoring habitat on western Colorado's Roan Plateau, home to rare native trout populations as well as outstanding big game habitat and scenic forests, canyons and waterfalls.  The Denver Post's Scott Willoughby recently wrote about the Roan's unique values. The Roan has also been a flash point in controversy between energy development and conservation, including a long-standing legal battle over BLM's oil and gas leasing on the Roan.  TU and other conservation groups are hard at work seeking a resolution that can protect the Roan's outstanding fish and wildlife habitat while also allowing responsible energy development to move forward on appropriate sites.  Getting to that solution will take some real political muscle, and we got a much-needed boost when Senator Bennet, Senator Udall, Representative Tipton, and Governor Hickenlooper weighed in with a supportive letter to the Secretary of the Interior.

Please take a moment to visit our action center and thank Senator Bennet, Senator Udall, Representative Tipton, and Governor Hickenlooper for their support and leadership!

Help Defend Bristol Bay's Salmon!

Bristol Bay, Alaska is home to one of the last great salmon fisheries on the planet. The salmon, wildlife, people and fishing jobs of this beautiful and productive region are threatened by the proposed Pebble gold and copper mine. If built, Pebble could become the largest mine in North America, located atop drainages feeding right into Bristol Bay - and the mine operations and waste produced could jeopardize the future of the salmon. We have an unprecedented opportunity to stop this mine and protect Bristol Bay's fish and jobs through the Clean Water Act.  EPA is taking comments on the issue through September 19 - you can take action by clicking here.