Ask Your Representative to Protect Colorado's Wetlands and Waters - Vote YES on HB 24-1379

Speaker Julie McCluskie, with co-sponsors Senator Dylan Roberts and Representative Karen McCormick, has introduced state legislation (HB 24-1379)  that would restore critical protections to Colorado’s at-risk wetlands and waters.  The legislation was drafted in direct response to a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year to impose the biggest rollback of the Clean Water Act since its inception in 1972. The Court’s decision essentially eliminated protections for certain wetlands and other critically important waters, including streams that don’t flow consistently year-round.

Without state-level protections, many of Colorado’s critical wetlands and streams could be polluted, filled in, paved over, and destroyed without abiding by the Clean Water Act pollution control and mitigation requirements that have protected them for the past 50 years. Degradation of these wetlands and waterways can jeopardize fisheries, drinking water supplies, and other ecosystem benefits such as flood mitigation, wildfire resilience, and wildlife habitat.

HB 24-1379 will:

• Restore protection for critical Colorado wetlands and waters undermined by last year’s Supreme Court decision;

• Require impacts to be avoided, and only if they cannot be avoided, to be minimized and mitigated, with clear and consistent guidance for compensatory mitigation to ensure that watershed values and functions are maintained;

• Establish a fair and transparent permitting process, including general permits that can streamline approval for classes of activities (such as restoration) that have no or minimal adverse impacts; and

• Secure clear mechanisms for strong enforcement to protect Colorado wetlands and streams.

Colorado has lost about 50% of its wetlands to development since statehood, so protecting what remains is a necessity. Under the US Supreme Court decision, many of those wetlands could be lost or degraded, along with the approximately 24% of Colorado streams that run seasonally (intermittent) and 45% that flow only in response to rain or snow (ephemeral).

Please take a moment today to contact your State Representative and ask them to support HB 24-1379, and to oppose any amendments that would weaken its protection for Colorado’s wetlands and waters.  You can use the provided email template to send your comments, including editing to incorporate your own personal experiences with Colorado wetlands, headwaters, and feeder streams.

Help Good Samaritans Restore Mine-Impaired Streams

Nationwide there are an estimated 500,000 abandoned mines - mines with no one remaining that is responsible for clean-up – 33,000 of which are known to be causing environmental damage. More than 110,000 miles of streams are listed as impaired for heavy metals and/or acidity, and abandoned mines are a major source of these impairments due to acid-mine drainage with toxic metals, such as mercury, lead and arsenic.  Many willing partners could bring expertise and resources toward restoring these mines sites as Good Samaritan project managers, but are unable to do so because they could become liable for the underlying pollution from those mines - even though they were not responsible for creating the problem, only helping to improve it.

Under current law, Good Sams, including Trout Unlimited, can and do voluntarily undertake projects to clean up “non-point-source” abandoned mine pollution, such as moving contaminated waste rock piles away from streams. However, under the Clean Water Act, groups wanting to take on “point-source” mine cleanups—where toxic drainage is discharging directly from the mine opening —face daunting obstacles, including complicated permitting and long-term legal and financial liability for any remaining mine pollution. This has slowed Good Sam projects for such draining mines to a virtual standstill.

Fortunately, bipartisan leaders in the House of Representatives are working to enable Good Sams to tackle restoration without taking on such perpetual, open-ended liability.  Representatives Maloy (R-UT) and Peltola (D-AK) have introduced bipartisan legislation – HR 7779, the Good Samaritan Remediation of Abandoned Hardrock Mines Act of 2024 – which would establish a pilot program for the Environmental Protection Agency to issue permits to qualified nonprofit groups and other third parties to tackle cleanups of abandoned mine sites, in part by providing targeted, limited liability protection. Permits would make Good Sams responsible for their own actions and for completing cleanup work to the standards in their permits – but shield them from the large and perpetual liability for the mine’s pollution itself. This legislation mirrors a bill in the Senate that has 33 bipartisan cosponsors, including Senators Bennet and Hickenlooper.

The challenge of abandoned mines is very significant for Colorado. A study by the State Division of Reclamation Mining and Safety showed over 250 draining mines in Colorado with 148 likely degrading downstream water quality. The pilot program represents a vital first step in empowering Good Sam partners to help address these sites and improve water quality for the benefit of fish, wildlife, and downstream communities.

Please ask your Representative to support HR7779 and to cosponsor this bipartisan, common-sense legislation to help watersheds in Colorado and across the nation.  You can use our email template to share your comments, and customize your note if you wish by adding reference to specific waters that are important to you.

Protect the Thompson Divide – Speak Out for Trout Today

The Thompson Divide stands – as its name suggests – atop a drainage divide, with streams flowing toward the North Fork Gunnison, Crystal, Roaring Fork, and Colorado Rivers depending on which portion of the Divide you are standing. The area supports some of Colorado’s most pristine trout waters and critical habitat for big game. In his travels in western Colorado, President Theodore Roosevelt described the Thompson Divide as “great, wild country” and today it remains one of the largest expanses of roadless forest in Colorado. Trout Unlimited has been working for years to secure long-term protections for the Thompson Divide.

Today, you can help protect this valuable landscape from the impacts of oil and gas development. The US Forest Service is currently taking public comment through January 8 on its proposal to withdraw the Thompson Divide from mineral extraction for the next twenty years. Please visit the Forest Service’s online public comment page and voice your support for protecting the Thompson Divide.

The Forest Service issued a draft environmental assessment evaluating the proposal and with two identified alternatives:  Alternative A, which would keep existing leases in place but withdraw the area from new mineral entry for the next twenty years, and Alternative B, which would keep the area open to new oil and gas leasing.  The proposed withdrawal (Alternative A) would protect nearly 225,000 acres in the Thompson Divide, encompassing a total of 1,550 stream miles including 83 miles of native cutthroat trout streams, 12 acres of cutthroat lake habitat, and nearly four and a half miles of Gold Medal trout fishing waters along the Roaring Fork. TU supports Alternative A to protect these outstanding fishery resources and their watersheds.

The Forest Service comment page includes a basic form where you can provide your contact information and then enter your comments online.  Some points to consider sharing in your comments include:

·         Urge the Forest Service to adopt Alternative A to ensure protection of the outstanding habitats within the Thompson Divide.

·         Watersheds in the Thompson Divide support vital native trout habitat and feed some of Colorado’s most famed trout rivers including the Crystal, Roaring Fork and Colorado.  These areas not only support important fish habitats but also are a key driver of local economies.

·         The proposed withdrawal strikes an appropriate balance, respecting existing leases while ensuring that new leasing does not occur for the next 20 years and jeopardize the area’s critical habitat values.

·         Consider sharing any personal experiences you have with the Thompson Divide, or with the downstream waters that rely on it as a source of high-quality water.

While permanent protection of this area can only be achieved by an act of Congress, and TU continues to support passage of the CORE Act from Senators Bennet and Hickenlooper and Congressman Neguse, this withdrawal is a vital step in the right direction and will conserve the Thompson Divide for the next 20 years while we continue to work toward permanent protection.

Click below to visit the Forest Service public comment form and add your voice in support of protecting the Thompson Divide.

Virtual Q&A Session About the Importance of Restoring Clean Water Protections

Join CTU and Conservation Colorado’s virtual event for an educational discussion and Q&A session with water experts about the importance of restoring clean water protections in Colorado.

Colorado’s rivers, streams and wetlands lost federal protections after a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year. Without these protections the state is at risk of decreased water quality and polluting fish and wildlife habitats.

Únete a nuestro evento virtual para una discusión educativa y una sesión de preguntas y respuestas con expertos en agua. Hablaremos sobre la importancia de restaurar las protecciones del agua en Colorado.

Los ríos, arroyos y humedales de Colorado perdieron las protecciones federales después de una decisión de la Corte Suprema de Estados Unidos a principios de este año. Sin estas protecciones, el estado corre el riesgo de sufrir una disminución de la calidad del agua y la contaminación de los hábitats de peces y vida silvestre.

Take Action – Protect Colorado Wetlands and Headwaters

On May 25th, the US Supreme Court issued a ruling in Sackett vs. EPA that sharply reduced Clean Water Act protections for wetlands that are vital to healthy and functioning watersheds. While not directly addressed, the decision also appears to put streams that don’t have year-round flow at risk of losing Clean Water Act protection as well.  Those ephemeral and intermittent streams represent a majority of Colorado’s waterways and are the sources that feed our larger rivers that support fisheries, as well as providing drinking water to our communities and supplies for agriculture. If we fail to protect water quality at its source, we cannot protect it downstream.

With federal protection for most of Colorado’s waterways jeopardized under the Court’s decision, we need the State to step up and ensure our waters remain protected. Please take a moment to ask Governor Jared Polis to ensure that the State takes on this responsibility so that state water quality protections are applied to keep our headwater streams and wetlands intact. With a strong State-level program, Colorado can continue to protect the high-quality water that we need for our fisheries, our communities, and our working landscapes.

CPW Seeks Public Comment on State Wildlife Areas

Over the last several years State Wildlife Area (SWA) use has dramatically increased, causing a corresponding rise in negative impacts on fish and wildlife and related recreation.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) staff including Area Wildlife Managers began analyzing what negative impacts were occurring and coming up with ideas and solutions to these problems. SWAs are areas purchased with money from the sale of hunting and fishing licenses and equipment. The primary focus for SWAs is to conserve fish and wildlife and their habitat. A secondary benefit is providing areas for wildlife-related recreation (hunting, fishing, and wildlife watching). When not in conflict with the prior purposes, SWAs can also provide opportunities for other forms of recreation.

As use has intensified, CPW is looking at how it may need to adjust management of specific properties and of SWAs in general to ensure that their primary and secondary purposes are not harmed by other types of recreation.  New proposed rules are currently out for public comment through May 24th.  You can review the proposals and offer your comments on general SWA regulation by clicking here.  You can review and comment on proposals specific to individual SWAs – which may be either more restrictive or more permissive than statewide default regulations – by clicking here.

If you are a regular user of SWAs, please take a moment to share your thoughts and speak up for sound and balanced fish and wildlife conservation on these important properties.  Thank you!

Watered-Down Version of Stream Restoration Bill Passes

First, the good news:  the Colorado General Assembly passed Colorado TU’s top priority bill for 2023, SB23-270, “Projects to Restore Natural Stream Systems”.  The not-so-good news:  the bill was significantly weakened from the version introduced before it was passed.  The net result is a positive step forward, but one that doesn’t yet address some critical issues for river restoration projects and potential water rights administration.

Healthy rivers and watersheds provide broad-based benefits to all Coloradans – providing habitat for fish and wildlife; supporting our State’s robust recreation economy; improving wildfire resilience, drought mitigation, and flood safety; and promoting water quality for all those who rely on it from fish to farms to cities and towns statewide. But over the last 200 years, more than half of Colorado’s 105,000 stream miles and river corridors have been significantly degraded.

As introduced, SB23-270 would have clarified where stream restoration could occur without water right enforcement actions. Minor restoration projects such as bank stabilization, channel narrowing, or emergency post-fire recovery work would not face water rights administration, while larger projects to restore stream, floodplain, and watershed health – such as beaver dam analogs, fish barriers for native species recovery, and floodplain reconnection efforts – would have been given a rebuttable presumption of not causing injury to downstream water uses so long as they did not expand water surface area along a given river by more than a specified amount. The bill would have provided a solution to the lack of clarity and consistency across the state on how stream restoration may impact water rights and hence may or may not need administration. With the bipartisan infrastructure law offering significant federal funding in the coming years, it also would have positioned Colorado for a once-in-a-generation opportunity to support watershed and river health through those federal dollars. 

Ultimately, legislators were uncomfortable advancing the complete package of SB23-270 and instead narrowed its scope substantially. The bill passed by the General Assembly and sent to Gov. Polis will address the minor stream restoration projects and those that have taken place or received their permits before August 1 of this summer. That is a positive and important step but leaves the question of how to enable future restoration projects in 2024 and beyond.

Colorado TU looks forward to working with legislators in the coming months to tackle that remaining need with legislation for 2024.  Among the projects that we hope can be accommodated are “process-based” restoration efforts such as beaver dam analogs that help improve riparian health and sustain water tables and thus stream flows. We additionally would like to see fish barriers – used to isolate native fish restoration areas from downstream populations of non-native fish – and replanting of native willows and cottonwoods incorporated as restoration activities that presumably should not trigger water rights administration.

Aspen Journalism has an excellent story outlining the issues surrounding SB23-270, which you can read here.

A big thanks to the TU volunteers who reached out to their State Senators in support of this bill.  We made one crucial first step with this bill as passed – and Colorado TU remains committed to fishing the job with further legislation in 2024.

Ask Your Senator to Support SB23-270 for Stream Restoration in Colorado - Take Action!

Healthy, functioning river corridors for fish and people need your help now.

Healthy rivers and watersheds provide broad-based benefits to all Coloradans – providing habitat for fish and wildlife; supporting our State’s robust recreation economy; improving wildfire resilience, drought mitigation, and flood safety; and promoting water quality for all those who rely on it from fish to farms to cities and towns statewide. But over the last 200 years, more than half of Colorado’s 105,000 stream miles and river corridors have been significantly degraded.  That's why TU has been involved in restoration projects - from recovering front range streams damaged in the 2013 floods, to improving low-flow habitats in critical rivers like the Fraser, to reconnecting waters for trout at road crossings that currently fragment their habitat.

Such projects are now facing an uncertain future due to questions and inconsistencies on if and when such efforts may require water rights. Fortunately, the Colorado legislature is currently considering SB23-270: Projects to Restore Natural Stream Systems, a bill that clarifies where stream restoration could occur without water right enforcement actions. With the bipartisan infrastructure law offering major federal funding in the coming years, the bill also positions Colorado for once-in-a-generation opportunity to support watershed and river health through those federal dollars. 

Without continued stream restoration, Colorado’s trout and their habitat will face an uncertain future. You can help by asking your Senator to support passage of SB23-270, enabling stream restoration projects to continue in Colorado and provide broad benefits to our environment and communities.

TU Report Shows Risks of Speculative Leasing for Oil & Gas - Take Action!

In collaboration with the National Wildlife Federation and Rocky Mountain Wild, Trout Unlimited has released a new report highlighting the Bureau of Land Management’s wasteful and detrimental practice of selling oil and gas leases on land with little or no potential for oil development.

Known as speculative leasing, this process not only diverts agency resources and taxpayer dollars away from other public lands priorities, but it also prevents these lands from being adequately managed for the more valuable resources they offer – important coldwater fish and wildlife habitat.

The new report identifies the following issues with the way the BLM administers these leases and urges Director Tracy Stone-Manning to update the agency’s leasing practices.

Imbalanced priorities on millions of acres

From 2012 to 2020, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) leased five million acres – roughly the twice the size of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks combined – that had little potential for energy development but overlapped valuable fish and wildlife habitat. Specifically, since 2012:

• 55 percent of federal oil and gas leases were on lands with little to no potential for oil and gas development

• 60 percent of leases on public lands with limited potential were sold for the minimum bid of $2 per acre

• 66 percent of leases on lands with little to no development potential were sold non-competitively

Critical habitat and tourism destinations at-risk

Currently, 5.1 million acres of greater sage grouse habitat, 1.8 million acres of sensitive big game habitat, and more than 1 million acres of native trout watersheds are tied up in federal oil and gas leases on lands with limited development potential. What’s equally concerning is the number of popular destinations across the West impacted by these leases. These include Colorado’s own North Park, with its Gold-Medal quality fisheries and high-value wildlife habitats (see map below).

You can help

With growing pressure on fish and wildlife habitat throughout Colorado and nationwide, we must do better. Please take a moment to encourage BLM and Director Tracy Stone-Manning to revise regulations governing public lands oil and gas leasing and development, to better balance responsible energy development with the conservation of our cherished public lands, waters, and wildlife.

Help Stop Water Raid on the San Luis Valley!

Water is Colorado’s lifeblood, and that is certainly the case for the San Luis Valley. From the region’s vibrant agricultural community to its natural and recreational treasures like the Rio Grande River and the Great Sand Dunes, water has been essential to the Valley. Unfortunately, demands for water in the Valley already outstrip supplies and changing climate will only make the challenges even greater. Valley residents have been collaborating - including through water sharing partnerships facilitated by Trout Unlimited - to bring ground and surface water use back into balance.

Now those collaborative efforts are in jeopardy, as the misleadingly named “Renewable Water Resources” (RWR) proposal seeks to pump groundwater out of the San Luis Valley and export it to Colorado’s southern Front Range. RWR sponsors have now asked Douglas County to provide $20 million in Covid relief funds to promote the project. The San Luis Valley’s environment and communities - not to mention Douglas County taxpayers - stand to lose with this damaging boondoggle of a project.

You can help by contacting Douglas County’s commissioners and asking them to reject RWR’s request and to instead invest in other water solutions working with willing communities and in environmentally sound ways.