Meet Dan Omasta, CTU Grassroots Coordinator

Let me begin by saying how honored and excited I am to be a part of the Trout Unlimited family as the new CTU Grassroots Coordinator.  Joining this team of dedicated staff, passionate volunteers, and avid sportsmen and women is a dream come true. Growing up on the dirt roads just east of Parker, Colorado, I was fortunate enough to explore the many streams and lakes that this great state has to offer. In particular, I often found myself hiking up small creeks in the Gunnison Basin in search for the pockets of eagerly-feeding brookies that never once questioned my poor presentation or choice of fly.  By the time I was twelve years old, I had my own fly rod and I was hooked.

After graduating from the University of Colorado with a political science degree focused on land management and environmental policy, I did what any young conservation professional would do – I told my parents that I was moving to Crested Butte to be a ski bum.  This was certainly not the big life decision they were expecting, but (as parents do) they understood my deep connection to the mountains and rivers of Colorado.

While backcountry skiing and raft guiding in the Gunnison Valley certainly had their perks (and still do), after two years into my ski-bum career, I felt a strong drive to get out and do more.  That’s when the second “big life decision” phone call happened: Mom, Dad, I am moving to New Zealand to go fishing.  What started out as an adventure on the other side of the globe quickly turned into a vision for my future.  While living on the North Island, I was lucky enough to work for an outdoor adventure company that paired rafting and fishing with conservation efforts to protect a native species of duck.  The work was more than simply taking clients out for a fun day on the water or getting them into some big fish (and yes, they are big!) – we were out there to check traps, monitor mating pairs, and discuss the effects of the local hydropower regime on the native ecosystem.  This was what I wanted to do when I returned home.

After moving back to Gunnison in 2013, I worked with a team of fellow raft guides and conservationists to start a non-profit rafting company.  River Restoration Adventures for Tomorrow (RRAFT) is a small outfitter dedicated to protecting critical watersheds through community engagement and hands-on restoration work.  Over the past three seasons, our team has worked with over 400 community volunteers and youth to conduct various conservation projects on over 300 miles of riparian corridor throughout Colorado and Utah.  Our trips ranged from cottonwood planting projects with Delta and Cedaredge High School youth, to overnight trips with the Adaptive Sports Center and Peace of Adventure, to 10-day surveys of invasive plant species along the Colorado River in Cataract Canyon with the National Park Service and the Southwest Conservation Corps Ancestral Lands crews.  Not only were we making a difference for the rivers, we were helping to inspire and engage the next generation of stewards.

Rivers hold a special place in my heart.  They are the lifeblood of our public lands and the key to healthy communities.  As we enter this new era of water management, a changing climate, and significantly increased demand for flows, our rivers and headwater streams will need our help now more than ever.

I am excited to be a part of the Colorado Trout Unlimited family as we all work together to protect and restore these critical ecosystems.  I am optimistic in Coloradoans’ abilities to find common ground and their ability to build bridges that allow for mutual benefit.  And I am looking forward to working with all of you – the driving force of TU – to protect our watersheds for the generations to come.  Thank you all for the hard work, resources, and time that you give for our public lands.  I am looking forward to meeting you and seeing you out on the river!

Behind the Fin: Marge Vorndam

How long have you been a TU member?  Since 1987.  I joined the Cheyenne Mountain Chapter of Trout Unlimited when I lived in Colorado Springs. I was on the Board there as Communications Chairman/Newsletter Editor (before e-mail and computers, we sent out paste-up hard copies every month) and helped with fundraising and projects with everyone there.

After moving South in the early 1990s I transferred to the Southern Colorado Greenback Chapter of TU. After several years, I was on the Board again, serving mainly in the capacity of Communications Chairman. I will be retiring this year, but plan on maintaining an active role in the chapter. Hubby Paul and I are Life Members, and proud of that.

Why did you become a member and what chapter are you involved with?

My Master’s degree is Environmental Studies. Back when I joined TU, my personal interest was to see improvement in and preservation of water quality health across our landscape. The then-NTU mission was directed to that same theme.  NTU decided to change its mission several years ago to focus more on cold-water fisheries, but since I love to fish, it wasn’t a tough choice to stay with TU’s stance on fisheries and watershed conservation and water quality improvement.

What made you want to become involved with TU?

At the time that I chose to join and support organizations with a mission like my interests, TU was front and center!  I embraced their overall action agenda, and still can buy into it as  foremost of the conservation organization on my list.

What is your favorite activity or project that you have done with TU?

Kids’ education.  Several years ago, Jenny Kedward from the local Sierra Club, Pat McGraw, then-President of our Chapter, and I collaborated to do a two-day summer camp program for 12-14 year olds in our community that concentrated on water education and fishing. We conducted it for four years in a row. Our chapter’s Frostbite Fish-Off Tourney, held for several years, is a close second.

I know you won’t tell me your top spot, so what is your second favorite fishing spot or favorite fishing story?

Lake Michigan and Michigan Rivers remain a favorite destination of mine, with my uber-fishing nephew, Kevin Dieleman. He takes me fishing for the BIG fish every time that I’m in MI. While big-fish fishing is a super-charged experience, I really appreciate the fly-fishing scene in Colorado  anywhere.

What does being a part of TU mean to you?

It’s an ultimate experience in helping to preserve the water resource. With a growing human population, more attention must be focused on water and how it is used and abused.  I appreciate what I can do to facilitate that experience for future generations. I was really proud to be part of the development of Colorado’s Water Plan for our area.

What else do you do in your spare time or for work?

I teach online courses for students at various colleges in Colorado and elsewhere related to Environmental Science.  It’s an integral part of what is important to me – getting students excited about what we all can do to support a better world for now and into the future.  Additionally, I am a Colorado Master Gardener and a Colorado Native Plant Master, both of which further my educational goals

TU on Clean Water Act Executive Order

Feb. 28, 2017 President Trump signed an executive order today that will begin to unravel protections included in the Clean Water Rule.

In response to the order, Trout Unlimited released the following statements from Colorado TU executive director David Nickum and from TU CEO/President Chris Wood.

David Nickum, executive director, Colorado Trout Unlimited

“The President promised to drain the swamp; instead, this shortsighted decision opens the door to drain our wetlands.  Colorado’s incredible outdoors quality of life depends on healthy, clean watersheds, and anglers know that starts at the source: the small, unassuming streams, headwaters and wetlands that the administration’s order has now put at risk. Even streams that don’t run year-round – which represent about 75 percent of Colorado’s stream miles – directly impact the health of the downstream rivers that we depend on for drinking water, irrigation, and our recreation economy. If we degrade and pollute those headwaters, it is only a matter of time until the next snowmelt or rainstorm sends those impacts down into our larger rivers and water supplies.

The Executive Order disregards the rule of law by proposing a standard that was rejected by a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court, and it disregards the laws of nature by pretending that downstream rivers can be protected without protecting their upstream sources.

As EPA and the Corps begin to apply this Executive Order, you can expect Colorado sportsmen and women to be aggressively involved, fighting for the headwater streams and wetlands that are essential for healthy fish and wildlife habitat.”

Chris Wood, President and CEO of Trout Unlimited

“Today, President Trump signed an executive order that begins to unravel the protections of the Clean Water Act for small headwater streams.

The Clean Water Rule was finalized in 2015 after more than one million public comments and extensive scientific review. It provides protection to streams and rivers including 60 percent of the stream miles in the U.S. that flow seasonally. Protecting these headwaters is important not only to anglers, but also to the one in three Americans whose drinking water comes from small seasonal streams.

The Executive Order directs the Army Corps of Engineers and the EPA to rescind and revise the Clean Water Rule. It also directs the agencies to use former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s minority opinion that said seasonal streams do not merit protection, as a basis for the revision. If Justice Scalia’s direction is followed, 60 percent of U.S. streams and 20 million acres of wetlands would lose protection of the Clean Water Act; an unmitigated disaster for fish and wildlife, hunting and fishing, and clean water.

Sportsmen and women have a simple question for the President and EPA Administrator Pruitt: are we going forward or backward on clean water? Today’s announcement is a big step back. Legally, scientifically, and logically a reliance on Justice Scalia’s opinion is wrong-headed—but there’s still time, working through the new rulemaking process, to make it right.

When the new Administration replaces the Clean Water Rule, it must listen to the voices of tens of millions of sportsmen and women who want more clean water, more fish and wildlife habitat, and more hunting and angling opportunities. The Trump Administration can change direction on this Rule but they can’t change the fact that clean water is not a political issue. It is a basic right of every American.

Gravity works cheap, and it never takes a day off. The Administration cannot stop water flowing downhill—and we all live downstream. To be effective, the Clean Water Act must be able to control pollution at its source, upstream in the headwaters and wetlands that flow downstream through communities to our major lakes, rivers, and bays. The Administration’s action places the health of 60 percent of the stream miles in the U.S. at risk. Trout Unlimited intends to work with our hundreds of thousands of members and supporters to reverse course on this misguided direction.”

For more information, go to http://standup.tu.org/stand-up-for-clean-water/

Contact:

David Nickum, dnickum@tu.org, (720) 581-8589

Randy Scholfield, Southwest Region Communications Director, rscholfield@tu.org, (720) 375-3961

Trout Unlimited’s mission is to conserve, protect and restore North America’s coldwater fisheries and their watersheds. www.tu.org

A Climate Plan on the Dolores

By: Randy Scholfield, communications director for TU's southwest region. Like many rivers across the West, the Dolores River in southwestern Colorado is on the front lines of climate change impacts. As the climate warms, the river will face lower flows, higher temperatures, and increasing stresses on fish and aquatic life.

How can we more effectively address these changes on a watershed scale? That’s the question driving a recent study by Trout Unlimited and other groups of the Dolores River basin.

“We know there will be change. The question the study addresses is what kind of change can we expect, the approximate timing and what are the impacts,” Duncan Rose of the Dolores River Anglers chapter of Trout Unlimited told the Durango Herald in a recent article.

To find those answers, the TU study—conducted in partnership with Mountain Studies Institute of Silverton—looked at climate models and trends between 1949 and 2012 that showed wetter periods of higher temperatures followed by longer periods of intense drought.

In projecting those trends into the future, some sobering results emerged: based on worst-case drought scenarios, the 46 trout streams in the Dolores Basin could lose some 44 percent of their flows in the next 50 to 70 years. Some streams, especially at lower elevations, might be lost causes to fish habitat, becoming intermittent or vanishing entirely.

But the study found that other middle- and higher-elevation streams could be made more “resilient” against the worst impacts of climate change through adaptive strategies such as habitat restoration, including improving in-stream structure such as boulders and pools to create cooler refuge areas for trout, and restoring streamside vegetation to provide more shade.

As important, the study field-tested an analytical model to determine which stream miles would best lend themselves to these efforts and provide the most “bang for the buck” for conservation outcomes.

“This is a framework that can be used across the West,” says Garrett Hanks, TU's Southwest Colorado field coordinator. “The issues in the Dolores are similar to many of our coldwater fisheries, and if we're going to be active in managing our coldwater watersheds into the future, this framework can inform many levels of TU’s strategy, such as how to identify and prioritize our protect, reconnect and restoration work.”

TU’s stream resilience work gives hope that many of our best trout waters can survive the worst impacts of climate change. The Dolores study could give TU another science-based tool for deciding where and how to dial in this adaptation work in watersheds across the West.

Why Planning 2.0 matters

By Tyler Baskfield, TU Colorado sportsmen’s coordinator South Park is a sportsmen’s paradise of elk herds, dream trout streams like the South Platte, and endless recreation possibilities. For Colorado Front Range residents like me, South Park is a vast backyard playground, just a short hour and a half drive from Denver. It’s one of the crown jewels of public lands in Colorado.

Unfortunately, it’s also currently in the crosshairs of shortsighted partisan politics.

Sportsmen everywhere should be alarmed by an effort afoot in Congress to roll back the public’s say in managing South Park and other public lands.  Now is the time to speak up if we want to protect these special places.

A critical vote is expected in the Senate in coming weeks that may eliminate the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Planning 2.0 initiative through the Congressional Review Act. The House has already voted to repeal the BLM planning rule.

This misguided move to repeal Planning 2.0 is a thumb in the eye of sportsmen and others who believe local residents and governments should have more of a say in how public lands are managed. The BLM developed Planning 2.0 in response to concerns about the lack of transparency in public lands management and the planning process being unduly influenced by special interest stakeholders. Planning 2.0 gives sportsmen, local governments, landowners and residents more input early on in the planning process—and this “smart from the start” approach helps to avoid conflict by bringing stakeholders together to settle thorny land use issues, such as where to site oil and gas development and how best to allow multiple uses of the land while ensuring the health of wildlife, rivers and other natural resources.

South Park is one of the places where BLM is piloting Planning 2.0, and so far the majority of stakeholders have embraced the new planning process. Members of the oil and gas industry, Front Range water providers, sportsmen, environmentalists, Republican Park County commissioners, business owners, agency personnel, ranchers—all praise the increased opportunities for input and believe Planning 2.0 will help protect natural resources while sustaining the local economy.

Sen. Cory Gardner rightly called outdoor recreation “a cornerstone of our economy in Colorado” after the Outdoor Recreation Jobs and Impact Act of 2015 that he authored recently passed the Senate. He clearly understands the importance of outdoor recreation, public lands and wildlife resources to local economies and residents. Outdoor recreation accounts for more than $13 billion in economic activity in Colorado and supports some 125,000 jobs, according to the Boulder-based Outdoor Industry Association.

The foundation of that booming outdoor sector is the health of places like South Park.

Colorado sportsmen and outdoor enthusiasts call on Sen. Gardner and other lawmakers to continue to lead and advocate for the state’s important recreation economy and public lands heritage by resisting this reckless stampede to scrap Planning 2.0.

The current administration has a great deal of latitude to implement, or if necessary revise, the rule to ensure that it works for all stakeholders, including public land users, state and local governments and the BLM itself. Using the Congressional Review Act does not help to solve public land management challenges; it will only make it more difficult for the BLM to be good land stewards. The House of Representatives erred when it passed its resolution disapproving of the Planning 2.0, but the Senate doesn’t have to make the same mistake.

Sportsmen everywhere need to raise their voices for public lands. Please take a few minutes to contact your Senators and urge them to oppose efforts to do away with Planning 2.0 and ensure that the public has a voice in public land management.

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!

Public Lands: Why our voices matter

Many anglers and hunters have been weighing in in opposition to proposals to sell or dispose of our federal public lands.  Recently, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) proposed legislation that would have sold off some 3 million acres of federal lands including more than 90,000 in Colorado – though we never saw a final listing of exactly which lands were going to be sold.  In response to the overwhelming voice of sportsmen speaking out against this type of measure, here is what Rep. Chaffetz announced via his Instagram account: "I am withdrawing HR 621. I'm a proud gun owner, hunter and love our public lands. The bill would have disposed of small parcels of lands Pres. Clinton identified as serving no public purpose but groups I support and care about fear it sends the wrong message. The bill was originally introduced several years ago. I look forward to working with you. I hear you and HR 621 dies tomorrow."

The voice of hunters and anglers is strong, and we CAN make a difference when we speak out.  To all of you who have helped speak out on this issue, recently and throughout the past few years, thank you - and keep it up!

“We are pleased to hear Representative Chaffetz has changed course on his effort to sell public lands and we thank him for listening to the voices of sportsmen and women. Across the country we have seen a groundswell of support for our public lands,” Trout Unlimited CEO Chris Wood said. “Selling them off cheats not only this generation but all those who follow.”

We can still make our voices heard and sign the petition that we want to keep America's public lands in public hands!

Thinking Big on the Colorado River

By Paul Bruchez Paul Bruchez is a rancher who lives near Kremmling and is a partner on TU's effort to restore the Upper Colorado River

The Colorado River runs through the heart of my family’s ranch near Kremmling, where I live and work, so we have firsthand knowledge of the importance of water. Our family’s irrigated meadows and livestock operation depend on it.

I’m also a passionate angler and fly-fishing guide here in the valley—recreation is another important foundation of our local economy.

That’s why, over the years, it’s been so hard for me to see the river in sharp decline. For decades, Front Range water utilities have been pumping water from the Upper Colorado, with devastating impacts on river health: Lower flows spiked water temperature and silted in the river bottom, smothering bug life and damaging the river ecosystem and this world-class trout fishery.

Agriculture suffered, too: as river levels dropped, my family and other ranchers in the valley saw our irrigation pumps left high and dry and our operations unsustainable.

And as a fly-fishing guide, it became clear to me that a restored river could be a much more valuable recreation asset for our community and state.

In short, our future here in the valley depends on a healthy Colorado River.

A few years ago, I saw an opportunity to fix the irrigation problems while also improving river and wildlife habitat. Our ranching neighbors came together and agreed on the need for action.

Paul Bruchez on Reeder Creek Ranch. Photos: Russ Schnitzer

We worked with a variety of partners—Trout Unlimited, American Rivers, the Colorado Basin Roundtable, the Colorado Water Conservation Board, Grand County Government, Northern Water, Denver Water, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the Upper Colorado River Alliance, the Colorado River District, and other river stakeholders—to put together an ambitious proposal for restoring a significant stretch of the Upper Colorado River.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service recognized that big vision, awarding our rancher group and our partners $7.75 million under the Regional Conservation Partnership Program to improve irrigation systems and reverse the decline in water quality and fish habitat in the headwaters of the Colorado River.

This funding is an amazing win for all Coloradans, because a healthy Colorado River sustains all of our lives.

The Colorado River Headwaters Project will install several innovative instream structures designed to improve water levels for irrigation while enhancing critical river habitat by rebuilding riffles and pool structure.  A crucial piece will be restoring approximately one mile of the Colorado River’s former channel currently inundated by Windy Gap Reservoir. This ambitious bypass project will reconnect the river—for the first time in decades—and improve river habitat in the headwaters area.

When fully implemented, the Headwaters Project will directly benefit more than 30 miles of the Colorado River and 4,500 acres of irrigated lands and make available up to 11,000 acre-feet of water to improve the river during low-flow conditions.

That means the stellar fishing here on the upper Colorado is only going to get better.

What have I learned from this project? That the interests of agriculture producers can align with the interests of conservation groups, state agencies, water providers and other river users. It’s not just the waters of the Colorado River that are connected—so are the people who depend on it.

The Colorado River flows through all of our lives.  By working together, we can find smart, creative solutions that keep the Colorado healthy and working for all of us.

2017 River Stewardship Gala

Visit the 2017 River Stewardship Gala page for more information including tickets, sponsorship, auction items and more!

The CTU River Stewardship Gala is a celebration of Colorado’s rivers and world-class fishing opportunities. The Gala is the largest conservation and fishing-oriented auction in Colorado with over 350 guests in attendance in 2016 that helped raise over $60,000 for conservation efforts throughout the state. Funds from the River Stewardship Gala go towards CTU’s work in youth education, protecting statewide instream flows and temperature, reintroducing and protecting native trout, and preserving and restoring the state’s fisheries and their watersheds.

CTU will present its 2017 River Stewardship Award to the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) in recognition of their leadership in promoting river and watershed health statewide. In the past year, the CWCB spearheaded development and initial implementation of the Colorado Water Plan, including a strong emphasis on healthy rivers, collaborative multi-purpose projects that include environmental benefits, and funding for Stream Management Plans. In addition, for more than 40 years, the CWCB has grown its instream flow program to expand streamflow protection in basins across the state. Collectively these actions are providing the state leadership to build an enhanced Colorado culture of river and watershed stewardship.

We also want to thank Denver Water for being this year's River Champion title sponsor at the event!

Prizes will be available ranging from fishing trips, fishing gear, nights out on the town, art, and much more! There will even be great trips around the state and even a trip to fish in Argentina!

Click here for more information about the Gala including a few of the featured prizes!

Fly Fishing Film Tour Premieres in Denver

The 2017 Fly Fishing Film Tour (F3T) Premieres in Denver this Saturday, January 21 City Hall Amphitheater! The tickets for admissions are $18. A portion of the funds raised at F3T go towards conservation efforts. In 2015, the film tour helped raise over $300,000 that was donated to conservation groups such as Trout Unlimited, Wild Steelhead Coalition, Bonefish Tarpon Trust, Utah Stream Access Coalition, Stop Pebble Mine and many more.

Along with many awesome videos, this year's event will feature a TU sponsored film: Old Friends New Fish. According to the F3T site, the film features "Three women who return to the rivers of Montana where they met and became friends twenty years earlier. Much has changed in their lives, but fishing still unites them and serves as a metaphor for much of the joy and challenge along the way."

Other films feature Tarpon fishing, fly fishing in Russia and Siberia, a film that focuses on the relationships with our favorite waters as well as the importance of family and friends as well as our responsibility to share healthy landscapes with future generations. Check out the F3T site for information on more films as well as the descriptions and trailers!

This weekend the Greenbacks of Colorado TU will be there with chances to win a Surface Film photograph! Stop by and say hi to the Greenbacks and learn more about their upcoming projects and events. There will also be some chances to win other prizes at the event!