We are thrilled to announce that 65 TIC tanks across Colorado received Rainbow Trout eggs, donated by CPW’s Crystal River Hatchery, in late October. These eggs have now hatched and are in their alevin stage! Check out some of our outstanding TIC Sites and Students as they celebrate this incredible program!
Video from Estes Park Elementary School
Video from the Academy of Charter Schools
This year’s CTU River Conservation & Fly Fishing (RCFF) Camp was June 11th - 17th in Almont, CO, and was a huge success! After receiving several camp counselor applications (from 2022 campers and returning Junior Counselors) as well as new camper applications, we had the excellent idea to not only accept 20 awesome campers but also accept 12 Junior Camp Counselors at this year’s RCFF Camp!
Each of these Junior Counselors had already completed camp. This year, they had the opportunity to build up their leadership, teamwork, and angling skills as they helped lead small groups, guided campers, and helped the Seasoned Counselors keep camp organized.
This morphed beautifully into incredible relationships between our Campers, Junior Counselors, and Seasoned Counselors. Seasoned Counselors introduced discussion topics, while Junior Counselors led small groups of interested Campers. Campers received one-on-one tips from leading Seasoned and Junior Counselors as they fished, tied flies, designed posters, and even learned how to build their own fishing leaders!
Campers grew in their angling skills and confidence throughout the week, and Junior Counselors grew in their leadership skills. This leadership model for CTU’s River Conservation and Fly Fishing Camp helped streamline some of the organizational parts of the camp. Still, it also allowed us as an organization to promote our ‘Stream of Engagement’ model for the CTU Headwaters Youth Programs. Through this program delivery model, we strive to engage new participants in our Youth Programs and ensure that people of any age can "plugin" to TU and continue their relationship with coldwater conservation and fly fishing through various age-appropriate opportunities and programs.
CTU’s River Conservation and Fly Fishing Camp is not only teaching how to build fishing leaders but also building leaders within Trout Unlimited and fostering the next generation of river conservationists and anglers! Thank you to all the Camp Counselors, Volunteers, Campers, and Camp Supporters! We could not do this without you!
First off, thank you to everyone who donated and supported CTU Youth during our Colorado Gives Day campaign! We accomplished our goal and then some, for a grand total of $7,675! Thank also to Barbara Luneau and Mark Rayman for offering a matching incentive and helping to double our donor’s donations by $2,500.
2023 is looking bright for CTU’s Headwaters Programs. We are beginning to plan out our 2023 STREAM
Girls and STREAM Keepers schedule. If you are interested in offering a STREAM Girls or STREAM Keepers program in 2023 fill out the forms below.
Trout in the Classroom (TIC) is looking forward to 2023, as well. We will be installing a new TIC Community Tank at the CSU Spur Hydro Building in late December or early January. We hope to have the tank working and fish swimming by the time The National Western Stock Show is running. If you are going to the Stock Show be sure to visit the new CSU Spur Hydro Building and TIC Community Tank on the second floor.
We are excited to announce our 2023 River Conservation & Fly Fishing Camp will be June 11 - 17, 2023. Registration is now open for Camper applications and Camp Counselor applications. Visit our Camp website for more information.
Want to help CTU’s 2023 River Conservation & Fly Fishing Camp? Below are some great ways to show your support.
Help us spread the word!
Sponsor a Camper!
Camp Registration is $600 per camper. If you would like to sponsor a camper please email Barbara Luneau or Natalie Flowers.
Volunteer!
Camp Counselor applications are now open. Click here to apply to be a CTU Camp Counselor.
Thank you for all the support in 2022. We can’t wait to continue fostering the next generation of conservations and anglers in 2023!
If you would like to increase your impact, please contact Natalie Flowers and/or visit our Supporting CTU Youth page to see our greatest needs, sponsorship opportunities, and more.
STREAM Girls is a watershed education program created through a partnership between Girls Scouts of USA and Trout Unlimited with the goal of engaging elementary and middle school girls in STEM-based exploration. In addition to STREAM Girls getting its name from the focus on watersheds, STREAM also stands for Science, Technology, Recreation, Engineering, Art, and Math. The program is divided into eight activities highlighting each of these subjects. Girls learn about stream flow measurements, aquatic macroinvertebrate life, riparian habitats, and fly fishing throughout the program. Through inquiry-based learning, Girl Scouts get to know their local watersheds, develop new outdoor skills, and increase their understanding of real work applications of STEM.
After a successful year of hosting 6 STREAM Girls events in 2019, Colorado Trout Unlimited was excited to carry the momentum into 2020 with six more scheduled programs. Unfortunately, 2020 plans were stifled by the COVID-19 global pandemic. With public health orders restricting group size and concerns surrounding shared gear utilized during in-person programming, CTU shifted STREAM Girls to a virtual platform. To facilitate this transition, CTU staff and volunteers created several videos and sourced additional existing educational resources to support the STREAM Girls activities.
Over the course of fall, CTU hosted STREAM Girls programming through four virtual/self-guided events with the support of local Trout Unlimited chapters. The four STREAM Girls programs engaged 59 girl scouts from across Colorado. Beyond the Girl Scouts who received STREAM Girls patches, the virtual programming engaged entire families in getting outdoors to explore and learn about local watersheds.
To understand the efficacy and impact of the virtual STREAM Girls program, CTU asked Girls Scouts and their parents to complete a post-program survey. Colorado Trout Unlimited was pleased to have 100% of respondents note increased knowledge of their local watersheds, heightened interest in STEM-subjects, activities, and careers, desire to further develop fishing skills, and recommendation of the program to other girl scouts. Participants provided additional positive feedback, which included:
“This is a great program to introduce girls to fly-fishing and knowledge of local streams. It was a well-thought out, self-guided program that covered a great deal of information. We had a fun time doing all of the steps.”
“It is a wonderful break from our overwhelmingly electronic world! I thought it was a great way to introduce different aspects of stream science so that have it in their head as they are thinking about future endeavors.”
“It is a great activity to get outside and bond/enjoy the time with your girl.”
“A great way to get involved with your Girl Scout and learn as a family with specific detailed tasks to help you learn about rivers, fly fishing, etc.”
“It was really fun and would like to do it again in person. All the activities were awesome!”
A big THANK YOU goes out to Girls Scouts of Colorado, Pikes Peak Chapter, St. Vrain Anglers, Rocky Mountain Flycasters, Gunnison Gorge Anglers, Grand Valley Anglers, and all of the volunteers who helped support these events! Additionally, we would like to acknowledge Orvis, New Jersey Audubon, The Stroud Water Research Center, Arizona Department of Water Quality, and Arizona Game and Fish for allowing Colorado Trout Unlimited to use educational videos for STREAM Girls.
Colorado TU was the first to pilot and host virtual/self-guided STREAM Girls events across the country. CTU is proud to have shared our success and lessons learned with Trout Unlimited staff and volunteers
across the country. We look forward to further developing these resources to help support STREAM Girls events in the future!
By Geoff Elliott, CTU Youth Education Coordinator
The CURRENT is a low-key, light-hearted fly fishing podcast hosted by Will Rice. With some recently found free time, Will will be thumbing through his Rolodex of accomplished anglers and friends in the fly fishing industry to talk about what's going on in their neck of the woods.
After visiting with friends from a variety of fisheries across the US, host Will Rice welcomes Bianca McGrath-Martinez from CTU, Bill Gilmore and Guy Grace from Littleton Public Schools to talk about the Trout in the Classroom program.
This environmental education program allows for elementary, middle, and high school students to raise rainbow trout eggs to fry as a vehicle to understand ecosystems. At the end of the program, the students typically release the fry into a local fishery with help from CPW. Will explores the fate of these trout with the recent shutdown of schools.
For more on the CTU Trout In The Classroom Program: CLICK HERE
You can find the podcast on Apple Music, Spotify & Stitcher. If you enjoy what Will is putting together with The CURRENT podcast, we ask that you please rate it and leave it a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify! Thanks for listening!
Greenback and CTU volunteer, Emma Brown, put together a great feature about the 2019 CTU River Conservation and Fly Fishing Youth Camp in Almont, CO. Check out the great video she filmed above!
The River Conservation and Fly Fishing Camp is a week long camp designed to educate 14 to 18 year old students on the importance of cold water conservation and provide hands-on fly fishing instruction. Approximately 20 students are selected each year based on their qualifications and a written essay on why they would like to attend the camp.
Camp classes include: Principles of Ecology, Hydrogeology, Aquatic Vertebrate and Invertebrate Sampling, Hydrology, Trout Behavior, Trout Stream Entomology, The Biology of Pollution, Acid Deposition, and Politics of Conservation and Human Effects on the Rocky Mountain.
In addition, the camp will include hands-on instruction on Fly Tying, Fly Casting, Stream-side Ethics, Angling Literature, Stream-side Botany, Wader Safety and Survival, and The Evolution of an
Angler. The campers will also participate in a watershed project to repair habitat in a nearby stream.
What do an Elementary School Principle, fisherman, third grader, and town Mayor all have in common? Well, in Estes Park, they all braved the icy waters to raise money for Trout in the Classroom!
Colorado Trout Unlimited and our local chapters are proud to support environmental education programs that get kids outdoors and bring unique learning opportunities into the classroom. Trout in the Classroom is one such project. The program works with teachers to raise trout from eggs to fry throughout the school year, providing unique teaching opportunities along the way and culminating in an end-of-year release. Unfortunately, the equipment required to grow fish in a classroom isn’t cheap.
Fortunately, local businesses and leaders in the Estes park community refused to let costs stand in the way of bringing TIC to their school. Led by local resident, Joe Bottoms of Trout Haven Resorts, the town organized a Polar Plunge in the middle of one of the snowiest winters in a decade. Here’s how it went:
Local elementary school Principle, John Bryant, takes the plunge to help raise money for TIC tanks in his school.
Story by: Joe Bottoms
The 2019 Polar Bear Plunge was held at Trout Haven Resorts on March 2 with a great turnout, despite the weather. The first annual fundraiser was held to start a Trout in the Classroom (TIC) program in the Estes Park Elementary School. Community members and local business teams took the plunge to raise the money for two state-of-the-art aquariums that are now installed in the third grade department. Starting March 12, students will be working with a fisheries biologist to hatch and raise rainbow trout, with in-depth lessons in trout ecology at each life stage.
Third graders were chosen as the beneficiaries of this project because the TIC program aligns with the Colorado Department of Education's third grade standards for learning, but the program is going to grow to other grade levels as well as the middle and high schools as the program evolves. This year, third graders will be learning about the rainbow trout's life cycle, habitat selection, temperature-dependent growth and development, and general trout ecology. They will also be doing dissections, which is always the favorite lesson. We are partnering with the Estes Valley Watershed Coalition to do a field trip to streams that are scoured and streams that have been restored after the 2013 flood to identify good trout habitat and demonstrate the benefits of freshwater conservation and restoration.
Local students take the plunge!
The 2019 Polar Bear Plunge raised $5,300, which funded the two aquariums to be used this spring. The remainder is being donated to Trout Unlimited to carry the TIC program forward and expand trout conservation in the Estes Valley. Over 100 people attended, and over sixty took the plunge themselves. Among notable jumpers was the principal of Estes Park Elementary School John Bryant, President of TU's Alpine Anglers (chapter #453) Mike Larned, Mayor Todd Jirsa, and an a number of third grade students excited about their new aquariums!
Thanks to all who contributed and participated; we hope to get third graders excited about environmental conservation and that some of them will go on to do great things in the Estes Valley and Rocky Mountain National Park!
Local 3rd Graders make the leap to help raise money for a TIC tank in their classroom!
President of Alpine Anglers Chapter of Trout Unlimited, Mike Larned, prepares his jump!
Bianca McGrath-Martinez has joined the Colorado Trout Unlimited team as the new Youth Outreach VISTA staffer to grow our capacity for implementing youth programming across the state.
Bianca graduated from the University of Maryland, Baltimore county in 2016 with a Bachelor of Arts in Global Studies, focusing on environment, development and health. She also received a minor in Geography. Prior to joining CTU as their AmeriCorps VISTA, Bianca served with AmeriCorps at an education nonprofit in Compton, California. Bianca’s hobbies include hiking, reading, listening to music, and traveling.
CTU Youth Outreach Intern, Nicholas Krishnan helps students with attaching their leaders to their fly lines. Photo credit: CTU/Annie Smith
On August 8th, 2018 a group of 10 Environmental Learning for Kids (ELK) Urban Rangers - youth leaders who help teach ELK programs for other kids- along with Colorado Trout Unlimited volunteers headed up to Clear Creek in Jefferson County to spend the day learning about trout and fly fishing. All of this was put together by CTU's Youth Outreach Intern, Nicholas Krishnan. He has been working with this summer to identify and organize a collaborative program to provide Denver youth an opportunity to get outside and learn all about fly fishing. ELK graciously agreed to participate in this collaborative effort and without them it wouldn't have been possible. A huge thank you to them for helping make this a success. Please consider checking out ELK as they are empowering Denver's youth through outdoor learning.
The day consisted of a little bit of everything to maximize our time on the water. Students learned all about trout including the different species, biology, diseases, and invasives that affect their habitat. From there, gear was distributed to each of the students including a fly rod, reel, fly line, leader, tippet, and a stocked fly box. Gear was generously donated by Eagle Claw Fishing Tackle, Orvis Park Meadows, Cabela's Lone Tree, Anglers Accessories, Denver Angler and CTU. Flies were tied by Liz Smith, Dick Shinton, Ryan Riley-Buttram from the Greenbacks, Dr. Jacob Kinnard and Will McDonough. Professional photography services that day were provided by Catherine Belme and Shaw Taylor.
After a full day of learning and fishing, the students enjoyed wading in to cool off! Photo credit: CTU/Annie Smith
The students practiced their casting, knot tying, and setting up their fly rod before hitting the water. Each student was paired up with one of our volunteers providing one-on-one teaching. Everyone enjoyed wading out into the river and one of the students caught two fish! Towards the end of the day, many of the students decided to cool off by wading in waist deep to the middle of Clear Creek. You could overhear one of the students exclaim, "I feel like a kid out here". Check out some of the pictures from the day below. Again a huge thank you to all the volunteers, ELK students and staff, donors, and most of all, CTU Intern Nicholas Krishnan for organizing the whole thing. Great job everyone!
Photo credit: CTU/Annie Smith
Are you looking for ways to help support youth education around Colorado? Join the team at Colorado TU as the AmeriCorps VISTA Youth Education Coordinator! Job description and application details are below. Candidates MUST apply for the position through the AmeriCorps VISTA program.
Application Deadline: Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Job Description:
Colorado TU’s STREAM of Engagement program aims to engage the next generation in conservation, and to extend STEM learning and outdoor experiences to underserved and minority youth in communities where Colorado TU chapters can help deliver youth programs. We will provide opportunities for youth to benefit from healthy outdoor activity and to improve their economic prospects through the development of skills and interest in STEM fields, as well as improving connection and commitment to the health of their home watersheds, which are essential to the community’s well-being and economy.
This VISTA position will help link communities of need with the resources and volunteer capacity of Colorado TU chapters (24 located around the state) to provide educational programming to youth. The program will focus on building sustainable capacity to deliver effective and compelling programs to youth in communities that can be served through TU chapters and local partners. Efforts will include development of new partnerships with community groups, securing financial and other needed resources, recruitment and cultivation of volunteers, development of curricular and other support materials, and organizing training for volunteer leaders and educators.
Other responsibilities include:
(1) Identify communities of need in proximity to CTU chapters that can provide youth outdoor education programs; determine local groups in these communities with which TU can collaborate to serve youth populations; and develop agreements with groups for program delivery.
(2) Assemble, develop, and/or refine curricular and training materials for CTU “STREAM of Engagement” programs including establishing an online clearinghouse of this information; and develop and host in-person training for educators and volunteer leaders.
(3) Help enhance organizational capacity through grantwriting to secure funds for youth programs, securing equipment needed for program sites and regional “lending libraries” of gear to be shared among sites, and assisting local program leaders in effective volunteer recruitment.
(4) Establish pilot project(s) for new program(s) (e.g., STREAM girls with Girl Scouts), conduct program evaluation, and develop recommendations for effective and sustainable delivery of the new program(s) as they expand to new sites.
(5) Work with CTU Headwaters committee to develop effective organizational coordination processes and structures.
Requirements:
Candidates must have a Bachelor's degree or higher. Preferred candidates will have experience in outdoor/environmental education, teaching, working with youth, grant writing, community organizing, and a basic knowledge of fly fishing (not required). Experience in working with underserved communities, speaking multiple languages, and knowledge of Trout Unlimited is a plus.
Benefits:
The successful candidate will receive benefits through the AmeriCorps VISTA program, which can include a living stipend, base salary, student loan deferment, and tuition awards.
Full-Time Position. Start time frame: September.
Apply Today!
To apply for the position, please complete the following process:
Step 1: Email a copy of your resume and a cover letter to David Nickum, Executive Director, Colorado Trout Unlimited by Tuesday August 7.
Step 2: Apply for the formal position at AmeriCorps VISTA. How to Apply for a VISTA Position Guide
For questions, please contact David Nickum (dnickum@tu.org).
Thank you for your interest in this position!
