Join the Battle Against Post-Fire Erosion in the Poudre Watershed

The Rocky Mountain Flycasters Chapter of TU has helped establish the High Park Restoration Coalition (HPRC) whose mission is directly related to the restoration of targeted areas within the High Park Fire and Hewlett Gulch Fire burn areas.  These fires created a tremendous negative impact on the Poudre watershed and have also created water quality concerns throughout the Northern Colorado Community.  All of us can help lessen those concerns and begin a procss of ecological healing by simply committing a little time and energy.  As winter approaches, and snow pack increases, the stage is being set for a springtime of more soil erosion accompanied by landslides, flooding, road closures, and threats to fishery habitats in the Poudre. The HPRC is now focused on recruiting volunteers to implement near-term plans for carrying out preventive erosion measures. The complex scheduling, training, supervision, and support required to implement these measures is being coordinated through Wildlands Restoration Volunteers, a HPRC partner.

YOU CAN HELP!  The HPRC needs volunteers to provide labor and support for the remaining projects before the snow accumulates.  Project dates are Friday, October 19th, and Thursday, October 25th.  One hundred or more volunteers are needed for each of these days.

If you are concerned about the impact the fires have had on this wonderful area we are so fortunate to live near, please volunteer to help with these restoration efforts!

To register as a volunteer for either of these projects, please visit Wildlands Restoration Volunteers Sign Up.

Once you have reached the site, scroll down the 2012 projects list to the High Park Post-Fire Restoration project on the date(s) you want to volunteer. These two projects are near the end of a long chronological list of all 2012 Wildland Restoration Volunteer projects.  Click on: "Register Here" and then sign in. When completing the registration form, in the box titled Group Name, enter: RMF TU, and the Rocky Mountain Flycasters Chapter will be recognized for your participation.

We hope to see you there!

Photo courtesy of CNHP/Michael Menefee/LightHawk.

Greenbacks, West Denver, and BBBS Come Through for the Kids

The past two weekends were about the kids. Colorado Trout Unlimited, with the help of Jake Lemon, and Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) of Colorado, with the help of Kaity Talmage-Bowers, teamed to create a unique experience for over a dozen boys and girls, along with their ‘bigs’. The first week was chalked full of stream entomology and biology, while the second focused on fly-tying and getting some lines in the water. On the first weekend, with the help of Charlie Horn of West Denver TU and Greenbacks volunteers, the kids and their ‘bigs’ got their feet wet collecting aquatic macroinvertebrates in the South Platte River at Reynolds Landing Park in Littleton.  Adults and kids alike showed great interest in the previously unknown world living under water and rock in their local river.  After sorting the bugs and discussing various physiological characteristics, the kids and their ‘bigs’ worked together to identify what they had found.  Following a brief lunch, the junior scientists worked in groups of three to investigate the behavior of aquatic macroinvertebrates.  Using brine shrimp as their subjects, they set up experiments to test the effects of light, gravity, and temperature.  After collecting and consolidating their data, they shared what their results told them about instream macroinvertebrate habitat and behavior.

With their interest in fish and bugs piqued during the first week’s activities, the kids were ready to fish the following Saturday. With help again from Charlie Horn, the kids first sat down at a table next to Overland Pond to try their hand at tying some flies. Charlie is such a good teacher, and when given the chance to tie a second fly or eat lunch, most hands were raised to stay put.

After the tying session, the kids were provided a gift courtesy of Denver Parks and Rec and the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife      – a brand new spinning rod they could take home and use in the future. We rigged the rods while they took a break, and then they were off fishing on Overland Pond – some with their own flies that they had tied.

It was great to walk around the park and watch these kids pull little fish in left and right. There wasn’t a huge number caught, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that these kids got the opportunity to work with people that care about them. From their big brothers and sisters, to Trout Unlimited, to Denver Parks and Rec and Colorado Parks and Wildlife, kudos to all your efforts to team-up and create a unique experience that these kids will never forget. And maybe, just maybe, a few of these kids will become life-long anglers and the next generation helping to keep our waters clean and fishy.

Kyle Perkins, Compleat Thought

A Great Day for Bear Creek

On a day cloaked with freezing drizzle and fog, nearly four dozen brave souls headed to Bear Creek to get some work done. Before even realizing the incredible importance of the now known, one and only, greenback cutthroat trout population in the creek, folks from the angling, motorized, mountain biking communities and the general populace committed to showing up on October 6th . The goal was to clean up trash, restore stream banks, plant native vegetation and install signs about how to behave appropriately in a sensitive watershed. Two large sites that had been denuded of all vegetation and generally mistreated were chosen for the brunt of the work, along with numerous user-created trails that were contributing sediment to the stream and encouraging inappropriate behavior. These sites were cleaned of debris, seeded with a native seed mix, planted with native shrubs and had erosion control matting installed. The net result was some constructive progress towards better managing this precious creek.

This day came together after folks from Trout Unlimited, the Colorado Motorized Trail Riders Association and the Medicine Wheel Trail Advocates (a mountain biking club) joined together to ask for actions to protect the creek and to preserve the fish and recreation opportunities. We collectively asked Colorado Springs Parks (owners of this piece of land) to allow us to get a crew together to get out and address some of the easiest-to-fix problems.

Of course, much more needs to be done to ensure the legacy of the Greenback and of the unique recreation opportunities found in the Bear Creek watershed. The drainage holds one of the very few single track motorized trails on the Front Range, a world class mountain biking trail and a great hiking trail, very close to Colorado Springs. The fish and the recreation make this drainage a real treasure for both Colorado Springs residents and the general public alike. With these ideals in mind, the above-mentioned groups also asked the managing agencies to complete a few tasks that will both retain the recreation opportunities and preserve the fish. We have asked for a reroute of the trail to a less impactful area in the drainage, restoration of the creek and a remedy of the problems associated with a nearby road.

Once completed, these tasks will ensure the longevity of an amazing fish and tremendous recreational opportunities, and we be hailed as a true community effort. We at Trout Unlimited are proud to be part of efforts like this and hope that collaborative efforts where folks reach out to one another to get things done becomes the new paradigm. We think wild places, wild critters and people will all ultimately benefit.

Successful Clear Creek Cleanup for West Denver Chapter

On September 22, the West Denver Chapter of TU enlisted 15 ladies from the Colorado Women’s Fly Fishers organization and 5 students from the Colorado School of Mines Earth Works Environmental Club.  They were teamed up with 19 West Denver volunteers to pick up trash on Clear Creek and the adjacent U.S. 6 highway. The group started at Mayhem Gulch and worked its way up to the Mountain Gateway Mercantile store, approximately 10 miles upstream.  After the trash pickup, volunteers were treated to a cookout in the parking lot of the store (brats, baked beans, potato salad and soft drinks provided/cooked by West Denver volunteers).  Apple pie was furnished by the store’s proprietor.

West Denver’s chuck wagon was visible from Interstate 70, and grill activities furnished a tasty meal for anyone who stopped at the store. A good day was had by all!

Cleaning up the Colorado and Roaring Fork

By all accounts, this year’s Glenwood Springs River Cleanup, on Saturday, August 25, was a success. About 85 volunteers, including almost a dozen in boats, turned out to pick up trash from an estimated nineteen miles of public riverbanks along the Colorado and Roaring Fork Rivers.   The event was organized by the Glenwood Springs River Commission, a nine-member citizen board that advises Glenwood’s City Council on issues related to the rivers and the City’s River Trail system. The River Commission credits the excellent volunteer turnout largely to a series of ads in local newspapers, mostly financed by a substantial gift from the Ferdinand Hayden Chapter of Trout Unlimited. Volunteers met at Two Rivers Park to register for cleanup assignments. Fueled by coffee donated by Starbucks, volunteers on land picked up trash along the Glenwood Canyon bike path from the Grizzly Creek rest area to the west end of the Horseshoe Bend tunnels, as well as from about three miles of riverbank along the Roaring Fork and Colorado within the city limits. Boaters reached from their boats and scrambled onto shore to pick up litter and larger trash along the south side of the Colorado River in Glenwood Canyon and on both sides of the Colorado from the city limits to the South Canyon boat launch ramp west of town. Other boaters combed less-accessible stretches of the Roaring Fork within Glenwood Springs.

American Rivers, a nationwide nonprofit that advocates for healthy rivers, provided the trash bags, and the Colorado River District chipped in additional cash for the project. The trash, which amounted to several truckloads, included everything from the smallest pieces of foil wrappers to pallets, culverts, and an artificial Christmas tree complete with lights. The most common items were water bottles, soft drink cans, and fast food cups. City of Glenwood workers picked up full trash bags left at work sites by land-based volunteers, and hauled them to the landfill.

After the work was done, volunteers were treated to a community barbecue made possible by the generosity of Glenwood Springs businesses. Rick Wernsmann of the 19th Street Diner donated burgers and sausages and cooked them on a commercial-sized grill. The burgers and brats were accompanied by side dishes stirred up by six Glenwood Springs restaurants. Glenwood Canyon Brewing furnished the beer, and soft drinks were donated by the local Coca Cola distributor. Through it all, the volunteers were serenaded with smooth country-rock music provided by a Carbondale-based band called “All the Pretty Horses.”

This was the second annual community-wide river cleanup, and with the success of this year’s event, it’s pretty certain the River Commission will continue to promote a cleanup day into the future.

Article and photos submitted by the Ferdinand Hayden Chapter of TU.

Volunteer and protect Colorado's only greenback stream

 A new genetics study revealed that Bear Creek, near Colorado Springs, holds the only remaining wild population of greenback cutthroat trout - and TU volunteers with the Cheyenne Mountain Chapter are already rolling up their sleeves to help protect the creek with an October 6 workday!

To help reduce the sediment entering Bear Creek, restoration work will focus on soil decompaction, seeding, transplanting, naturalization, split rail fence installation, and sign installation. We have a lot to do in one day, so we need a big turnout of volunteers. We need 40+ volunteers!

In conjunction with the Bear Creek Roundtable, CMCTU's partner, Rocky Mountain Field Institute ("RMFI"), recently completed a site visit on the lower section of Bear Creek and has developed the Roundtable's "plan of attack" for closing multiple sediment producing social trails and campsites located on the City of Colorado Springs property adjacent to Bear Creek.Interested in participating in this important restoration work?  Want to actively get involved with protecting the threatened Greenback Cutthroat Trout in Bear Creek?  Then join us on October 6.  Please contact RMFI's Liz Nichol at 719-471-7736 or rmfi @ rmfi.org to sign up!

 

Where & When

Saturday, October 6, 2012

8:00AM-4:00PM

 

Starting from the caretaker's House at the bottom of High Drive in Colorado Springs (intersection of Gold Camp Road and High Drive/Bear Creek Road)

Ferdinand Hayden Chapter Cleans Up!

One of the best ways to involve TU chapter members and the community as a whole in an event that gives back and gets great exposure is through a river cleanup day.  This year, through ongoing support from Teva Footwear, Colorado TU has launched the Great Colorado River Cleanup. Communities all across Colorado are coming together to improve the rivers that are so important to these towns.  This year, the Ferdinand Hayden Chapter was the kickoff chapter for these events – and they started off with a bang! The chapter partnered with the City of Glenwood Springs and helped turn out more than 90 citizens to gather trash along the banks of the Roaring Fork and Colorado Rivers. Andrew McGregor, head of the Glenwood Springs Department of Community Development said “I really appreciated the support and participation from Trout Unlimited.  It’s a great partnership.”

Teams of volunteers scoured steep banks and dense vegetation to get at the trash -   enough to fill more than two and half big dumpsters!  A BBQ at Two Rivers Park was held after the cleanup for all the well deserving volunteers – social time as well as satisfaction for a job well done.

The Ferdinand Hayden Chapter also partnered with the Roaring Fork Conservancy earlier in the year and participated in cleanups with the Town of Carbondale on the Crystal River and on the Frying Pan in Basalt.  Certainly a great way for the chapter to get exposure and contribute to their local waters at the same time.

Great work, Ferdinand Hayden, and stay tuned for more cleanups coming soon!

Article and photos by Ken Neubecker.

More good news for Hermosa Creek

A long-planned move to re-establish the Colorado River cutthroat trout in the Hermosa Creek watershed occurred Wednesday when the headwaters stretch of the drainage was stocked with the native fish. Colorado Parks and Wildlife biologists and volunteers, including Trout Unlimited, planted 11,000 fingerlings about 3 inches long and 200 10-inchers in the main stem of Hermosa Creek upstream from Hotel Draw.

Fish were carried in bags from trucks and emptied into Hermosa Creek at various points. If the fish had to be carried any distance, they were transported in super-oxygenated water to ensure they arrived in good condition...

Preparation for the stocking Wednesday began in August 2011, when about nine miles of Hermosa Creek above Hotel Draw was treated with Rotenone to kill non-native fish, mostly brook trout...

Native cutthroat trout don’t compete well with other species, so efforts to increase their population – they occupy only 14 percent of their historic habitat – focus on giving them exclusive use of certain waters.

“Some fishermen just want to catch a fish and eat it,” said Buck Skillen, a member of the 5 Rivers Chapter of Trout Unlimited and a volunteer with Parks and Wildlife. “But there are a lot of us who think it’s pretty important to have a native fish."

To read this article in its entirety, please visit The Durango Herald.

Dolores basin cutthroat streams win water quality protection

The Water Quality Control Commission has voted to adopt "Outstanding Water" designations - which apply water quality standards designed to preserve the high-quality condition of some of Colorado' best and most important waters - for three native cutthroat trout streams in the Dolores basin. The new designation will ensure that water quality is maintained without degradation for the native Colorado River cutthroat trout in the Little Taylor, Rio Lado, and Spring Creek drainages.  The Commission found that the waters supported high-quality water and had "exceptional recreational or ecological significance."  Thanks to the Commission's decision, these fisheries will continue to thrive in the high-quality water that has kept them healthy in the past.

This success story was made possible through the efforts of the Dolores River Anglers committee of the 5 Rivers Chapter, with help from TU's Backcountry Coordinator Matt Clark.  The Dolores River Anglers will soon be becoming a stand-alone chapter - TU's 24th in Colorado - and with this important victory for their local waters, they are already off to a great start.  Congratulations!

New Hope for Roan Cutthroats

The Roan Plateau near Rifle is one of Colorado’s gems – a scenic backcountry area supporting some of Colorado’s best big game habitat and providing a home for populations of native cutthroat trout that have a unique local adaptation – the ability to withstand warmer water temperatures than most other cutthroats.

The Roan’s outstanding fish and wildlife values led Field & Stream magazine to name it one of their “Best Wild Places.” The Colorado Water Quality Control Commission has designated several key streams on the Roan as “Outstanding Waters,” deserving of unique water quality standards. And the Colorado Natural Heritage Program at Colorado State University – a source of information on the state’s rarest and most threatened species and plant communities – has recognized the Roan as one of Colorado’s top four locations for biologic diversity. Of those four places, only the Roan does not benefit from the protective management of the National Park Service.

It’s clear that there is broad recognition that the Roan is a special place. But over the past decade it has become an island of quality habitat in the vast sea of energy development taking place throughout the Piecance basin.

In the final months of the Bush administration, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approved a wide-ranging plan for oil and gas drilling atop the Roan Plateau that seemed indifferent to appropriate protections for fish and wildlife. And in short order, leases for energy development were auctioned off.

Remarkably, even BLM acknowledged dire impacts on fish and wildlife. Its own analysis projected that the agency’s drilling plan would result in a 33% decline in mule deer herds and could even eliminate rare native trout populations. And as troubling as these projections might have been, it’s likely the study grossly understated the real impacts. While BLM worked under the assumption that 300 wells would be drilled on the plateau, the Bill Barrett Company, which holds the leases atop the Roan, plans to drill 3,000 wells - more than ten times the BLM estimate.

Trout Unlimited is no “Johnny-come-lately” when it comes to protecting the important resource values of the Roan Plateau. The Grand Valley TU Chapter has been engaged in on-the-ground efforts to protect and restore habitat atop the Roan since the 1990s, constructing fence to keep cattle off of important stream reaches, installing in-stream habitat features, planting riparian vegetation, and monitoring water quality.

Trout Unlimited accepts the need for responsible development of natural gas resources. In fact, Colorado TU supported an alternative drilling plan for the Roan that would have allowed development of the vast majority of its natural gas without having to disturb key fish and wildlife habitats. Unfortunately, drilling on the scale approved by BLM threatens to wipe out native trout populations and habitat that TU volunteers and professional staff have worked for decades to preserve, and defies any interpretation of “responsible.”

And so, with the future of the Roan’s trout on the line, Colorado TU joined other conservation-minded groups to challenge BLM’s ill-conceived plan in federal court. TU and its partners were represented in that effort by an outstanding legal team from the environmental legal group, Earthjustice.

There has been some recent good news for the Roan campaign: First, the presiding federal district court judge ruled in favor of our challenge to the BLM plan, by directing the agency to revisit its environmental analysis and decision. The very same afternoon, TU was approved for a foundation grant of more than $100,000 to support restoration work atop the Roan Plateau – improving stream crossings, fencing riparian habitat, and restoring cutthroats into new waters. In less than 24 hours, we went from facing the prospect of losing the Roan’s native trout to the opportunity to protect and restore their habitat on a larger scale than ever before.

The legal ruling favored TU and its partners on three key issues. The first two related to the need for improved air quality and ozone analysis. The third, and perhaps most significant, was a finding that BLM erred when it neglected to consider alternatives such as those supported by Colorado TU, which would have allowed for gas development while preserving key habitats on the Roan.

The judge’s decision is an important victory for the Roan Plateau and those who care about its future. It gives the BLM a second chance to “get it right” for the Roan, by coming up with a plan that allows responsible development while protecting the unique and valuable habitats both atop the Roan and along its base. But it is only a chance – the ruling does not assure that BLM will adopt an improved plan, only that it properly consider alternatives and analyze impacts. It will be up to Coloradoans to weigh in with BLM to ensure that the agency does adopt a new and better plan for the Roan. Colorado TU and other sportsmen’s groups will be a key part of these efforts.

Doing right by the Roan is about more than just advocating for responsible development. TU is also working on-the-ground to help protect and improve habitat for native trout. This year, we are working to complete a fish barrier on the East Fork of Parachute Creek that will help protect cutthroat habitat from invasion by brook trout, which can displace the native populations. We are also completing habitat improvements on Trapper Creek, home to a unique population of cutthroats that have managed to adapt to the somewhat warmer water temperatures found on the plateau. These improvements will help create new pools - holding water - that provides a safe haven for the fish during times of low streamflows.

TU’s habitat restoration work is carried out through the generosity of many key funding partners, including Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. But oil and gas companies have also been important supporters of on-the-ground restoration through the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s “Supplemental Environmental Project” (SEP). SEP allows companies facing fines for pollution violations to invest that money to improve habitat and environmental quality.

Besides engaging our established members in habitat protection and restoration in one of Colorado’s best wild places, the Roan also represents an opportunity for Colorado TU to connect with young people and help them develop their own “conservation ethic.” We have teamed up with the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps to deploy a youth conservation corps atop the Roan. One recent project involved planting cottonwood trees and willows along Trapper Creek to help improve riparian conditions in the watershed.

The efforts of the Youth Corps are supported The Greenbacks, a recently formed group of Denver area TUers in their 20s and 30s. In addition to fund raising efforts, the Greenbacks organized their own volunteer day to plant willows along another Roan cutthroat stream, Northwater Creek. And the Grand Valley Anglers chapter continues its decades-long commitment to the Roan by participating as funding partners and volunteers in virtually all the work taking place on the Roan’s native trout streams.

Of course, it can be argued that there are plenty of so-called special places, and that our need for jobs and new sources of energy require trade-offs. We can’t preserve everything. Sacrifices have to be made.

To be sure, there’s truth in that argument, especially in light of a growing population and struggling economy. But there is also a profound truth in the fable of the goose that laid the golden egg. Wouldn’t it be much more prudent to enjoy some economic benefit from the resources beneath the Roan without being so greedy as to kill it?

Over the past 50 years, TU has built a reputation for advocacy based on sound science and successful restoration projects build with the sweat equity of a hundred thousand volunteers. Protecting and restoring places is why we exist as an organization, even if it’s not always the perfect fit for the faint of heart. Sometimes, there’s no choice but to put up a fight. In the case of the Roan, more than ever, it is looking like a fight we can win.

Background on the Roan Plan

On June 8, 2007, the Bureau of Land Management issued its Record of Decision for the Roan Plateau management plan, giving approval to move forward with oil and gas development atop the Roan. CTU had numerous concerns with the plan - including the BLM's own conclusion that their proposal could result in elimination of rare native cutthroat trout populations atop the Roan. An overview of CTU's concerns with the BLM plan appears on a separate page on this site.