CPW Needs Help from Anglers

Colorado Parks and Wildlife Press Release DURANGO, Colo. – Interested in catching a 20-inch rainbow trout? Thought so.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife is asking for help from anglers to learn about the “catchability” of different strains of rainbow trout that are stocked in reservoirs.  Aquatic biologists have stocked Pastorius Reservoir with 800 of a new strain of rainbow trout as part of a special project. To increase angler interest and participation in the project, CPW is also stocking 100 rainbow trout “broodstock” which are in the 16-20”-plus  inch range.

To determine how the fish respond to bait, lures and flies, CPW has “marked” the 800 fish by clipping the small adipose fin that is located on the backs of the fish. Starting March 29 anglers at Pastorius are being asked to record the number of fish they catch that are marked (no adipose fin) and unmarked (adipose fin present) and to answer a five-question on-line survey.  The survey is expected to run about two weeks.  Clipping the fin causes no harm to the fish.

CPW has posted signs at the reservoir with a QR code and web link anglers can use to access the survey with their smart phones as soon as they get done fishing for the day.  Anglers are asked to record their catch, including fish they released, after each day of fishing. Those fishing can take the survey more than once.  The survey should only take a couple of minutes to complete.  A CPW volunteer will also be at the reservoir to answer questions.

“We rely on anglers to help us manage fisheries,” said Jim White, CPW’s aquatic biologist in Durango. “This information will be valuable for our hatchery and stocking programs. Plus, we’re giving folks a chance to land some big fish.”

The cell phone service at Pastorious Reservoir is good, so anglers with cell phones can record information on the spot. The survey can also be completed at home. No personal information will be collected through the survey.

The daily bag limit at Pastorius Reservoir is four trout, and the possession limit is eight fish. The reservoir is locate south of Durango on La Plata County Road 304

Anglers are reminded that they need a new fishing license for the year starting April 1.

Take a Moment to P.A.U.S.E

Photo provided by Troutfin Studio at www.markajessop.com By: Peter Stitcher of Ascent Fly Fishing

Exhale... You've done it.  You've successfully escaped the office.  You've tunneled under the suburb's privacy fences, and the incessant drone cell phones and email notifications are fading into the distance behind you.  In front of you lies a day without obligation and a river full of potential and the promise of hungry trout.  Before you run down the trail and lose yourself on the water, slow down and PAUSE for a moment.  Mother Nature has something to tell you, and listening will prove the difference between a day spent  staring at the water or one punctuated with tight lines and wet hands as you release fish back into the river.

This message is a story about which bugs are hatching, what the trout are eating, and which fly patterns will give you the greatest chance of success on this water, on this day.  The lines of this tale surround the river; it is recorded among the willows, whispered on the wind, and chiseled along the bed of the river.  Guided by the acronym PAUSE, the fly fisher can interpret nature's cues, tie on the perfect combination of flies, and be ready for an epic day on the water.

Parking lot to the River - Matching the hatch starts when you park the truck and continue on your way to the water's edge.  While not the most appetizing script to read, plastered to your windshield and the grill of your car is a record of the bugs that were flying and hopping along the lake or river that you are planning to fish.   The fragile wings of mayflies and sturdy grasshopper legs act like braille to the astute angler and are the first clues as to what flies they might fish that day.  As you leave the parking lot and work your way down to the water, observe what is hopping and flying around you.  Grasshoppers frantically leaping off the trail ahead of you, the wayward beetle landing on your shoulder, and the shrilling of the cicada, and caddis flies stirring into flight as you push through streamside trees are all indicators of food that might be falling or landing on the water.

Above the Water- Swallows flying and swooping over the water are going to be your first indicator that bugs are hatching from the water and dry flies might be on the menu!  As you reach the water's edge, watch for swarms of invertebrates over the water and streamside vegetation.  Even at a distance, the chaotic flight of the caddis, the purposeful straightforward flight of the stonefly, and the orderly wave-like motion of the mayfly will be evident, and will help to direct you to the most likely dry flies in your fly box.

Under the Water - It is beneath the surface of the water that trout do 75% of their feeding,  and that's where the angler's most important information will be found.  Using an Invertebrate Seine along the streambed and pulling rocks from the current to observe what is holding onto their surface will give you a detailed menu of which bugs are most abundant, as well as their size and color so that you can lay your fly box alongside and choose the closest match.

Spider Webs - Spiders are Mother Nature's PhD level Entomologists and are the most efficient samplers of insects along the river.  If it has been hatching or hopping along the water where you are fishing, the spiders will have caught them.  Look for spider webs in the bushes and snags along the river and hold your fly box up to their latest catch to match the hatch.

Eddies -  Like the Bermuda Triangle of Trout, swirling currents and backwaters along the edge of the river provide a catalog of the most active bugs in and on the water.  Spinning on top of the rotating current will be a sample of spent invertebrate cases, crippled insects, and expired post-spawn adults.  Beneath the surface of the water, the same currents that trapped the adults in their dizzying spin also  act to deliver aquatic insects to these collection points where they can be easily observed and matched by the angler.

Success never comes easily for the fly fisherman.  There is no such thing as a lucky fly that will produce every trip to the river, and there are no infallible guides equipped with crystal balls through which to foresee the next hatch.  However, for the fly fisher who takes a moment to PAUSE and observe, the rewards will be immediate, the fish will be more frequent, and the experience on the water will be that much richer!

Peter Stitcher is an Aquatic Biologist and the Chief Fly Geek at Ascent Fly Fishing.  At Ascent we don't guess what the fish are biting on, we know!  With our Biologist Crafted Fly Selections you can tell us where you are fishing, when you are fishing, your budget, and skill level, and we will match down to the life cycle to the fly what the fish will be eating when you are on the water! You can see our full spread of flies and gear, and read our Sci-Fly Fishing Blog at: WWW.ASCENTFLYFISHING.COM

Ascent Fly Fishing is also a proud Trout Unlimited Business partner, and have provided free TU memberships to more than 1000 of our clients in the last two years. 

Overlap Season

By: Jack Bombardier, Confluence Casting In many mountain towns, there is said to be a fifth season, in addition to the usual four, called Mud Season. That’s true in much of Colorado, but the Centennial State can also claim to have a sixth season, one I like to call Overlap Season.  This occurs when you can fish, ski or golf within the same period of time.  Overlap Season usually begins sometime in March, or can be as late as April, but this year it began in February.  The snow is still deep, the fish are biting, and the fairways are greening up.  Although I’m not a golfer, I do try to make the most of the skiing and fishing opportunities that I can. It’s an awesome time of year to live in Colorado, and makes me glad that thirty-one years ago to this very month, I made it my home.

The Lower Upper Colorado River looks just gorgeous right now, low and clear and as olive as Al Pacino’s cheeks.  Water temps are up to fifty degrees, and from what I’ve seen “fifty” is the magic number in the springtime.  Fifty makes trout very, very happy.

But then your gaze rises above the water’s liquid allure, and up towards the mountains, where the pristine white blaze of perfect, pristine show shines like chrome.  That snow beckons surely as does the river, but there’s the knowledge that the window to enjoy those perfect slopes is closing fast.  To try and fool a fish?, or go carve through some aspen trees at Beaver Creek?  Hope to hold a crimson striped, spawning rainbow trout I I your hand, or hop off a cornice at A-Basin and carve a turn into some wind-deposited powder?  So many choices, and so short an Overlap Season to take advantage of!

How long the river will stay as perfect as it is now, on March 15^{th 2017}, is difficult to say.   With the deep snowpack we have, one would expect the water managers to start releasing water fairly soon to make room for the Big Melt.  But it’s been a weird winter, one which has flipped the pattern of the past few years.  For the past several winters now, we’ve had a lot of snow early in the season, and a lot in the spring, with the middle stretch of January and early February being dry and cold, without much snow.  This season, it was awful early, with Vail and Beaver Creek opening late and the World Cup races at the Beav being cancelled due to lack of snow (and overnight temperatures to warm to make it). But then the snow finally came, and by the end of February we were looking at snowpack numbers we haven’t had since the epic year of 2011.

Now it’s the middle of the March, and not only has the snow pipeline shut off, but the short-term prognosis is for more warm, dry weather. What that means for fishing is that as long as the water in the reservoirs stays up there, the fishing should be great!  This might be the best spring fishing since we had in the drought year of 2012, with one big difference. 2012 was a drought year and though it fished great back then, the Lower Upper was dominated by brown trout.  Low water conditions that fall led to the release of 30,000 catchable-size rainbows into the river, and those rainbows and their offspring are going to be spawning this year. This spring the river has fished well, and should get even better once the bugs start moving.  So if you want to make the most of Colorado’s Sixth Season, get up here soon and make sure you pack your skis and fishing gear.  You can even put a golf bag in the back if you still have room! So please give me a reason to leave my old Volant Chubbs in the back of the Saab, and come fishing!

Buy your Colorado 2017 fishing license now

From Colorado Parks and Wildlife Coloradans can purchase a 2017 fishing license starting March 15 through Colorado Parks and Wildlife. An annual license is good starting April 1, 2017 through March 30, 2018. CPW provides a range of options for anglers from the annual fishing license to the one-day fishing license as well as educational opportunities for those new to angling.

“Colorado provides outstanding fishing across the state for an amazing diversity of species ranging from cutthroat trout and kokanee to walleye and bluegill,” said Doug Krieger, CPW’s aquatic section manager. “I encourage experienced anglers to introduce a friend or family member to fishing this season. Fishing is a great activity to share with someone else and a great chance to get outside and enjoy Colorado’s natural resources.”

CPW stocks 90 million fish annually into waters throughout Colorado in order to ensure good angling opportunities. CPW does not receive general tax dollars and fishing license fees support all statewide hatchery and fish-stocking operations.

Buy a license online at CPW’s secure license application portal or by phone at 1-800-244-5613.

For individuals aged 18 through 64, a $10 Habitat Stamp is required with the first license purchase for the year. For more information, read about the Habitat Stamp.

Youth under age 16 can fish for free and CPW provides opportunities throughout the season to learn how to fish. Check the calendar on the CPW website for upcoming clinics.

Don’t forget to buy a state park pass when you buy your license. Colorado state parks offer 37 places to fish, 365 days of the year.

Get tips and stay up to date on Colorado fishing regulations by reading the 2017 Colorado Fishing Brochure. CPW also sends customers that sign up through the secure license application portal emails providing updated fishing conditions, tips, news and upcoming events as well as regulation updates.

Mike Clark: Bamboo Master

By Randy Scholfield, TU communications director for the Southwest.  When he started making split-cane bamboo rods 40 years ago, Mike Clark had no idea he could make a living from his hobby.

“I built them to satisfy my fishing interests,” he says.

Then, one day, a man wandered into his heated garage workshop and asked to buy one of his rods. He offered to pay $250 for it, which kind of blew Mike away.

“I thought, ‘Wow, I can actually sell these?’”

That was 40 years ago, and Mike Clark has been steadily making traditional bamboo rods—and amassing a legendary reputation for craftsmanship—ever since. His South Creek Ltd. cane rods now sell for thousands of dollars, and there’s a long waiting list.

From his workshop in downtown Lyons, Colo.—a comfortable, rustic space filled with displayed rods and the tools of his trade—Mike makes handcrafted rods, about 40 of them a year. He estimates that he’s made more than 1,000 rods in his career.

A few years ago, there was so much demand that he had a five-year waiting list—that’s right, five years. Mike stopped taking orders for several years just to catch up.

The good news: in 2012, he started taking orders again. Almost immediately, he had more than 80 orders to fill.

He’s tried to find ways to speed up the process and turn out more rods, he says. But it can’t be done—not without sacrificing quality. And he’s not about to do that.

He’s one of those craftsmen for whom tradition means doing things the right way. No shortcuts.

Why bamboo? “It’s natural. It’s simple. It works,” Mike says. The slower, smoother action appeals to many anglers, as does the allure of tradition: bamboo rods got their start in America before the Civil War and reached a high point in the last century, when Colorado rod manufacturers such as Granger, Wright-McGill and Phillipson produced high-end cane rods that are still prized by collectors.

With his finger, he traces the grain down—each grain line is straight as an arrow and matches the grain on the next piece, all down the rod length. You won’t find that on machined rods, he says, where the grain oftectun veers out of alignment. Under stress, that piece can pop out. Hand-planing throughout the process gives the rods more uniform strength and stability.

Mike has designed his rods in the popular taper style of those Colorado companies, but he’s taken that tradition to another level with handcrafted details and exceptional finish.

“People are fascinated that someone is still making bamboo rods by hand, not someplace in China,” says Kathy Jensen, Mike’s longtime assistant and office manager. “What Mike is doing here is a 130-year old technology. He’s still making rods the traditional way.”

He starts with culms of Tonkin cane—the strongest and straightest grained bamboo species—stacked and aged for years in his shop. He then splits them and shaves the strips into equilateral triangles tapered down to precise tip dimensions, using metal forms and block planes. It takes a steady arm and good eye.

That’s a key to his craft: unlike the (still very fine) mass-produced bamboo rods on the market, which are machined, he hand planes each rod strip down to exacting specs. Then he glues the strips together into blanks and adds nickel silver hardware, exotic woods and other finishes.

While there are many amateur and professional cane rod builders out there, few of them plane by hand at every step. Instead, they do “rough cuts” with a machine and then finish planing by hand.

Mike allows that you can make very good rods that way, but the difference of a true custom rod is in the details.

He shows me one of his rod sections. With his finger, he traces the grain down—each grain line is straight as an arrow and matches the grain on the next piece, all down the rod length. You won’t find that on machined rods, he says, where the grain often veers out of alignment. Under stress, that piece can pop out. Hand-planing throughout the process gives the rods more uniform strength and stability.

For Mike, “custom” also means designing rods to the exact specifications of each angler. He likes to spend time with them to learn their casting styles and fishing preferences. “I can tweak a taper for them,” depending on their individual needs. He also follows their lead on aesthetic finishes and materials, from choosing the color of silk threads to adding ivory with scrimshaw or jade reel seats and diamond inlays.

He makes clear, though, that he’s primarily interested in making great fishing tools, not art pieces—he wants his customers to fish with his rods, not hang them on a wall.

Over the years, he’s slowly built his business, largely through word of mouth. He’s friends with local fly-fishing author John Gierach, who has written about South Creek rods and put his own name on a couple of signature rods. He also sells the flies of another famous friend—A.K. Best.

That cachet has attracted bamboo buyers from around the world, including celebrities like guitarist and fly-fishing enthusiast Eric Clapton, whose letter of thanks for a rod hangs on the wall, among many other testimonials.

While Kathy has made a few rods under his supervision, she wouldn’t feel comfortable putting the South Creek Ltd. name on one of her rods.

“Our clients pay for Mike’s high level of craftsmanship and years of experience—you can’t duplicate that.” It’s one reason why, when Mike retires, the South Creek Ltd. name and business will be retired, too.

While Mike’s not planning to retire any time soon, he’s planning to cut back on the number of rods he makes, to about 30 a year.

“We want to slow down and go fishing a bit,” he says.

He’s devoted to his local water, the St. Vrain, and in recent years has worked with the local Trout Unlimited chapter to raise thousands of dollars to restore the river habitat, which was badly damaged by extreme floods a couple years ago.

“We’re getting our fishery back to health,” he says.

Then he excuses himself to get back to his workbench. He has orders to meet.

For more info on South Creek Ltd. rods, go to www.southcreekltd.com.

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

Winter is Tenkara Time

By Jack Bombardier, Confluence casting Most anglers put their rods away once the snow starts to fall, and break out their skis or retreat to the tying bench. But a new tool has emerged over the past few years which has to potential to revolutionize the way we think about fishing during the “off season,” and that is the tenkara rod. Tenkara-style rods are usually around 12 feet long, with a fixed line and leader combination of 14 to 20 feet that comes straight off the tip of the rod. Tenkara setups use no reel whatsoever, and make fly fishing even easier than spin fishing. I guide float-fishing trips on the Upper Colorado River and have had days where novice anglers using tenkara rods have out-fished more experienced fishermen using conventional rods.

By now you’ve probably already heard about tenkara, and maybe even tried it yourself. The rods were brought to America by Daniel Galhardo of Tenkara USA, but there are now several different companies selling them at various price points and levels of quality. It is true that there are situations in which tenkara setups aren’t optimal, and that would include wade fishing big rivers, angling for large prey, and windy days.

But there is one scenario where tenkara rods really shine, and that is for winter tailwater fishing. Colorado is home to many productive winter fisheries, most located below big dams. Tailwaters include the Blue River below Dillon Reservoir, the Frying Pan below Ruedi, the Yampa below Stagecoach, and the Taylor, to name a few. What these waters have in common is a steady flow of (relatively) warm water flowing all winter that is conducive to insect hatches, and in turn to feeding fish. Waters like this are justifiably famous for the big trout they produce, but fishing them during the high season usually means casting right beside many others doing the same thing. The nice thing about visiting them in the winter when everyone else is on the slopes, or inside nice and warm and dreaming of April, is that you can often have these normally busy waters all to yourself.

The two main obstacles to winter fishing are rod guides that ice up and freezing hands, but tenkara rods solve both problems. (Freezing feet can also be a problem, but if you stand in the 40 degree water instead of the 10 degree air on the bank it helps!)  Tenkara rods have no guides to accumulate ice, so that’s one problem completely eliminated.  As for your hands, a tenkara only requires the use of one to hold the rod, so the other hand can stay warm in your pocket.  The hand holding the rod can be clad in a snowmobile mitten if conditions dictate, since tenkara rods don’t need delicate hand coordination to fish with. The only time you’ll get your hand wet is when landing a fish, but using barbless hooks can greatly reduce the amount of fish handling necessary when you do land one.

Flows coming out of dams are usually low, but low water like that is perfect for tenkara. Tenkara rods are mostly promoted as a way to fish small streams and headwaters, and they are great for that. But the more I use them, the more other situations I realize they are good for. Beginning fisherfolk? Check. Kids, or the elderly who no longer have good hand-eye coordination? Check. Backpackers, or people fishing from horseback or mountain bike? Check. Fishing from a boat, where casts are often fairly short? Check. But of all the varied uses of tenkara rods, there is none where they give you a bigger edge than for winter fishing. Once you’ve used a tenkara rod on your favorite tailwater, you’ll never take your regular rig out again when temperatures dip below freezing.

Jack Bombardier is a fly-fishing guide and TU member who owns and operates Confluence Casting on the Colorado River. 

Voices from the River: A winter respite

By: Randy Scholfield, communications director for TU’s southwest region. Here on the Front Range, where plains meet mountains, winter weather is always unpredictable, a hit-and-run affair. We might get a foot of snow—and three days later, it’s 70 degrees and you get a hatch of Boulder dudes in shorts and flip-flops.

For the past week, we’ve been having one of those almost surreal winter respites. While it’s been lulling me into expectations of equatorial warmth in February, I know deep down that this is an illusion, a fleeting sideshow. And after weeks of indoor torpor and unhealthy levels of binge TV, I know I need sunshine and a quick fishing fix.

So, on short notice, I grab my rod and head out to seize the unseasonable afternoon.

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to explore more of the miles of creek waters close to home. Boulder Creek, for one, is 15 minutes from my house, and I sometimes neglect it in the search for farther-flung adventures. Through downtown Boulder, the creek is a surprisingly reliable fishery throughout the year.

But my real interest this afternoon is in exploring new (for me) and less-pressured areas of Boulder Creek on the edge of town, where the creek meanders through open space and pastures, often hidden behind a suburban facade of office buildings and warehouse yards.

I park at a post office close to a major intersection, clogged with afternoon traffic, and follow a nearby footpath to the wooded creekline. I’ve heard that what this outlying area of Boulder Creek lacks in quantity it makes up for in quality—while it’s hit and miss, larger browns are sometimes pulled out of these unassuming waters.

Today, the creek through most of its length has a ditchy, diminished look—I’m looking for deeper, tanky holes where trout are likely stacked up against the lower flows. I walk along the creekbank toward the large bridge overpass, the steady hiss of commuter busyness and frantic schedules sounding louder.

Heading upstream into trees, I come up on a long deep holding run below a riffle. The water is a clear, greenish hue with cobbled depths, with several fishy tailouts below the riffles and meandering lines of foam near the far bank.

A few casts into the head of the riffles brings quick confirmation of what I suspect. Through the drift, I see white flashes in the depths as the fish turn in striking at the nymph rig. I quickly bring in a couple of small browns and have a few more strikes. They’re going for a small flashback prince.

Taking a break, I sit on the bank for a minute, where a stream of sunlight slants through the trees. The midday sun is piercingly warm on my neck and lulls me into a happy summerlike reverie. This is February? I should have brought a beer, I think. Hot and thirsty, I take some long swigs of water and drift away, watching the stream.

Then a man appears by my side, almost startling me. He is wearing glasses, a button-down work shirt and one of those government-issue looking name ID tags around his neck. He looks like a bureaucrat.

He introduces himself and says he fishes this stretch regularly on work breaks. Through the trees, I see the outlines of a large glassy building across the highway.

“I caught an 18-inch brown just past the bridge there,” he offers, nodding upstream. He caught it on a Tenkara rod, he says, and pantomimes the battle that ensued, trying to follow the fish up and down the stream with no extra line or drag help.

After a few minutes of angling chat, he wishes me luck and ambles upstream, stopping at different points to lean over and inspect the water.

He, too, is a fellow escapee, chasing this summer lark of an afternoon.

I walk upstream, fighting thick brush to get to glimpsed holes and runs, hoping to find the secret redoubt of one of those big brown outliers.

At one bend along a cutbank, I catch another small fry. And then a few casts later I break off my rig on a submerged inner tube—flotsam of lost summer fun. Maybe it’s a sign that I’ve pushed the day and my luck far enough. The sun is fast sinking in the sky, as I clamber through the brush and make my way back to the creek trail and then the concrete footpath, bicyclists whizzing past.

Tired, I walk lazily back to the car, across a major intersection, feeling the eyes of the lined-up commuters in their machines, seeing the cold blue clouds gathering in the mountains and eclipsing the retreating sun.

The big brown never reveals himself. Not today. And winter will return with a vengeance soon enough.

But that’s OK. Driving home, I know this afternoon is a stolen gift. I’ll take it.

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!