Dealing with river trash

Durango Telegraph by Missy Votel

Summer flows on the Animas have receded, but the trashed remains from one of the busiest river seasons in memory have hit an all-time high. At least that’s the feeling among several local river users who say unprecedented recreational use of the river this summer has taken its toll, and they are asking the city to step in.

“This was the busiest year I can remember in terms of boaters, and more importantly, tubers,” said Ty Churchwell, president of the Five Rivers Branch of Trout Unlimited. “And the trash along the river shows it.”

A member of the city’s Animas River Task Force, an advisory committee to the Durango City Council, Churchwell and other members of the Task Force met with the city this week to discuss options for alleviating the trash problem, most notably beer cans, bottles, orphaned flip flips, Styrofoam coolers, and popped tubes and other miscellaneous discarded river craft

“It’s on the minds of everyone on the task force, and we want to ask the city about what can be done,” he said.

http://www.durangotelegraph.com/telegraph.php?inc=/08-09-04/localnews.htm

It's not too late to save valued parts of Grand County

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Sky-Hi Daily News

There are organizations at work to preserve our natural and cultural resources.

Among them are the Middle Park Land Trust, Trout Unlimited, the Grand County Historical Association, Friends of the Fraser River, Colorado Cattlemen's Association, Colorado Riparian Association and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Depending on your interests, there are ways to get involved.

Grand County still has a window to control the look and feel of its own future. As we can see from our neighboring mountain communities, that window of opportunity doesn't stay open forever.

http://www.skyhidailynews.com/article/20080821/EDITORIALS/272343/1070/AE&parentprofile=-1

Grand County loses land, water as traditions fade

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Tonya Bina Sky-Hi Daily News

Development on the Front Range causes 100 percent loss to the rivers in Grand County.

It's a known fact that much of the water taken is used to keep residential landscapes alive.

“Truthfully, 50 percent of the water that they use in those municipalities is growing Kentucky bluegrass. That's not necessary,” said Kirk Klancke, Grand County’s foremost river-water advocate.

“So they take it from us and kill this natural environment to create an artificial one, to grow an imported grass from a humid environment in a high plains desert. It's completely illogical.”

http://www.skyhidailynews.com/article/20080821/NEWS/272332/1079&ParentProfile=1067

Fish feeling aftermath of metals spike

No brook trout found in latest round of sampling by state biologists in Snake River

By Bob Berwyn

summit daily news

SUMMIT COUNTY — Last summer's spike in zinc and other metals in the Snake River has persisted, spelling more trouble for trout in the polluted stream.

Colorado Division of Wildlife biologists were disappointed by the absence of brook trout when they surveyed a section of the Snake near Keystone last week.

“It’s definitely a step backwards,” said fisheries expert Jon Ewert, who had hoped that the brookies would re-establish themselves after last summer's gully-washing storm that sent a surge of poisonous metals down the drainage.

Since then, concentrations of zinc seeping from the abandoned Pennsylvania Mine high along Peru Creek have remained near double what they were before the storm, at about 1,200 parts per billion, far above levels deemed toxic for trout.

Zinc kills trout even at concentrations that aren't harmful to humans. Levels in the Snake River have long exceeded state and federal limits.

Some scientists studying potential cleanup options for the Snake River believe that the rainstorm last year may have fundamentally changed the drainage from the mine, leading to the chronically higher levels. Other experts think that the reported increase in zinc concentrations may be related to the way the monitoring data is being analyzed and interpreted by the labs, said Lane Wyatt, a Summit County water-quality expert.

“The zinc levels were a huge surprise,” said Trout Unlimited's Elizabeth Russell, one of the leaders of a task force looking at how to improve water quality in the Snake River. “We didn't think they’d stay that high over the winter.”

http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20080815/NEWS/104721337/1078&ParentProfile=1055

United by a split

By Gregory Moore | Herald Outdoors Editor August 8, 2008

A good measure of progress on the new proposal could be found in July at a gathering of wilderness proponents near Purgatory that was hosted by the Durango office of Trout Unlimited. Present at the weekend retreat were representatives of the San Juan National Forest, the Colorado Division of Wildlife, Trails 2000 and several journalists from around the state.

Also present were staff members from the local office of U.S. Rep. John Salazar and La Plata County Commissioner Wally White.

Everyone had something positive to say about the compromise proposal, and about the necessity of acting in a timely fashion to ensure the protection of the Hermosa drainage.

"This one's a winner," Chris Hunt of TU's Public Lands Initiative office said of the compromise proposal. "Let's come together on this one to protect the area for generations of hunters and anglers."

http://durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=out&article_path=/outdoors/08/out080808_1.htm

Proposed Hermosa Creek plan could create mixed population of trout

By DAVE BUCHANANThe Daily Sentinel

Ty Churchwell, president of the Five Rivers Chapter of TU, says the reintroduction will include about five miles of Hermosa Creek’s headwaters, leaving more than 20 miles downstream as a multi-species fishery.

“There still will be plenty of water for people who want to catch brook trout and rainbows,” said Churchwell, standing near the site of the fish barrier. “But when people come in here, they’ll experience the creek like it was 100 to 150 years ago.”

Cutthroat trout reintroductions began in the Hermosa drainage more than 20 years ago but that was before DNA testing could prove a trout’s genetics. This proposal would take DNA-tested fish raised from brood stock at the Pitkin Hatchery and put them in Hermosa Creek.

http://www.gjsentinel.com/hp/content/sports/stories/2008/07/29/073008_OUT_wild_and_scenic_WWW.html

Colorado's roadless forest plan to get fed review

Associated Press By JUDITH KOHLER

"I actually think it will be a lively give and take," Chris Wood, chief operating officer of Trout Unlimited, said of the federal advisory panel's meeting on Colorado's plan.

Wood is a member of the panel appointed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service. Speaking as a Trout Unlimited representative, Wood said he's concerned about some of the exceptions in Colorado's plan.

"I'm anxious to hear the state explain the significant number of exceptions," Wood said.

Under Colorado's plan, temporary roads would also be allowed for cutting trees to reduce wildfire risk and some land around ski areas would be removed from the inventory of roadless areas.

"We are comfortable and confident that we can resolve this in a way that preserves our initial understanding and intent for those areas to be kept roadless," said Dreyer, Ritter's spokesman.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/07/30/ap5270772.html

Outdoors enthusiats pushing for creation of West Hermosa Creek Wilderness

By DAVE BUCHANANThe Daily Sentinel

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

“This would be the first wilderness area in Colorado specifically pushed by hunters and anglers,”said Chris Hunt of Trout Unlimited’s Public Lands Initiative.

The east boundary would be Hermosa Creek, the west boundary along the ridge of the La Plata Mountains plus a portion of the Bear Creek drainage.

http://www.gjsentinel.com/hp/content/sports/stories/2008/07/29/073008_OUT_hermosa_WWW.html

Hermosa: Return of the Native

By Gregory Moore | Herald Outdoors Editor On July 17, Trout Unlimited (TU) sponsored a media tour of the western branch of the creek, which is scheduled to join the East Fork in the cutthroat-only club in the spring of 2009.

The tour gave TU a chance to tout its support of the creation of a wilderness area in the Hermosa Creek drainage, and show how the cutthroat restoration project could compliment any new wilderness proposal.

"Basically, this project is taking the upper reaches of this river and turning it from a multi-species river to a single-species river," said Ty Churchwell, president of the local Five Rivers chapter of TU.

"This is the kind of thing that can be done only in headwaters, and the result will be that anglers will be able to come up here and experience this water as it was a hundred or more years ago."

http://durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=out&article_path=/outdoors/08/out080725_1.htm

DENTRY: Sportsmen push Hermosa area for wilderness status

By Ed Dentry

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

About 28 miles of Hermosa Creek's main stem hold trout, but the native gem is the Colorado River cutthroat, which almost disappeared until a few pure specimens turned up in isolated headwaters.

Ty Churchwell, president of the Five Rivers chapter of TU, says chapter members will help the Division of Wildlife restore the upper five miles as an all-native trout fishery next spring.

"We want the general public to come in here and experience the river the way it was 100 to 150 years ago," Churchwell said.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jul/22/dentry-sportsmen-push-hermosa-area-for-status/?printer=1/