Drainage project could hit a snag

February 3, 2009 - 9:56 PM

R. SCOTT RAPPOLD

THE GAZETTE

A $3.6 million project to improve drainage on Fountain Creek on the city's west side and keep mine tailings from Gold Hill Mesa out of the water is in jeopardy, caught between competing visions for the creek.

Should the creek be as natural as possible, capable of supporting a healthy fish population, or should it be an urban drainage channel, funneling water downstream as quickly as possible?

City officials say if they can't soon reach a consensus with the Colorado Division of Wildlife, which must issue a permit, the project may not happen.

The local chapter of Trout Unlimited, a conservation group that works to restore waterways, last week issued a news release objecting to the project. The group had been working with the Stormwater Enterprise on its design.

The DOW and Trout Unlimited have asked the city to not grout the boulders in the rip-rap, keep the creek narrower, deeper with more curves and bends, and to remove from the plan some of the cross-creek barriers.

http://www.gazette.com/articles/creek_47415___article.html/project_city.html

PitCo seeks to leave more water in Roaring Fork

by Brent Gardner-Smith, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

Pitkin County is taking unprecedented steps to keep more water flowing down the Roaring Fork River for environmental purposes.

In November, county voters approved a 0.1 percent sales tax worth $1 million a year to create a “healthy rivers and stream fund” to “secure, create, and augment minimum stream flows.”

“I am not aware of any other Colorado county putting in place a tax similar to what Pitkin County has done,” said Linda Bassi, the chief of the Stream and Lake Protection division of the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB). Ken Neubecker, the president of Colorado Trout Unlimited, also supported the trust agreement between the CWCB and Pitkin County.

“I do think it’s a good idea to have such a trust, whether it’s with the CWCB or the Colorado Water Trust,” Neubecker said. “We need to have financial vehicles where money can be raised for acquisition of in-stream flow water.“

http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/131954

A fine trout stream

Big Thompson’s catch-and-release water “right near the top” of its potential, DOW says

By Mike Oatley Friday, December 26, 2008

Things are quiet on the Big Thompson these days, or at least as quiet as the winter weather can make one of the most popular trout streams on the Front Range. With U.S. 34 snaking along just yards away and lots of public access, from Estes Park to Loveland, the Big T is about as accessible as a trout stream can get. Rarely is the river completely empty of anglers. Flows out of Olympus Dam keep at least a little water open year round, and if it's humanly possible to fish, there will be a truck in the parking lot of Wapiti Park, and at least one angler will be working the water that glides behind the go-cart tracks, batting cages and miniature golf courses that crowd along the north bank. It's as heavily fished as a trout stream can get. Names get attached to stretches of trout streams. Downstream, there is Cottonwood, Caddis Flats, Sleepy Hollow. The water right below the dam is a run of river some call The Petting Zoo.

http://www.eptrail.com/news/2008/dec/26/fine-trout-stream/

Thanks To Coyote Gulch for the link.

Forest Service echoes concern over Ritter plan

by David Frey, Aspen Daily News Correspondent

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Environmentalists have gotten some support from Forest Service officials who agree that the state’s plans to overhaul protections for roadless lands across the state could hurt wildlife.

“I think the state has been on a learning curve with this,” said Sloan Shoemaker, executive director of Carbondale-based Wilderness Workshop, which says the state’s roadless protections are too weak. “Initially Gov. Ritter and the Department of Natural Resources had the perception that this was a no-brainer because there was a perception of 100 percent consensus and buyoff from all the stakeholders, but in fact that wasn’t really the case.”

Environmental groups have panned Ritter’s proposed roadless rules, meant to replace federal rules that have been at least temporarily struck down by federal court, as too full of loopholes to adequately protect 4.4 million acres of Colorado forest land free from roads.

In recent weeks, Trout Unlimited and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP), both environmentally oriented sportsmen’s groups, have released studies critical of the plan.

“We are concerned that the current draft rule has too little focus on protecting these valuable areas and too much focus on granting exceptions — some exceptions that are very broadly worded and could significantly undermine conservation of backcountry habitat,” David Nickum, executive director of Colorado Trout Unlimited, wrote to the Forest Service.

http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/130451

Fish will be free to swim in south Boulder

Daily Camera By Laura Snider Sunday, November 9, 2008

A new concrete ramp covered in flowing water will let fish swim all the way from Valmont and Baseline Reservoirs in eastern Boulder to Eldorado Springs.

The city’s Open Space and Mountain Parks Department is working to install a “fish passage” at the McGinn Ditch diversion on South Boulder Creek just north of U.S. 36. When the passage is finished, the 20 or so species of fish that live in the creek will be able to move more freely across Boulder’s waterways.

“This will open up the whole area to spawning grounds,” said Larry Quilling, president of Boulder Flycasters.

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2008/nov/09/fish-will-be-free-swim-south-boulder/

Trees for Trout

A YouTube video from one of our partners, the Coalition for the Upper South Platte, and their Trees for Trout program. They take dead trees from the devastated Hayman fire area in central Colorado, and build trout habitat. The video is CUSP's entry in the Tom's of Maine River Stories video contest:

 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilHWCD2xUM8

Diversions

The Windy Gap water diversion project would deal a major blow to a portion of the Colorado River that is already struggling to survive.

Denver Post

By Gretchen Bergen

Article Last Updated: 10/26/2008

The Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District hopes to divert as much of its 30,000 acre-feet of water as possible from the Colorado River every year to the East Slope. Northern proposes building a reservoir near Carter Lake for storing Windy Gap water to serve cities like Loveland, Greeley, Fort Lupton, Broomfield and Longmont.

With about 60 percent of the upper Colorado already being diverted by Northern and Denver Water, this project would take another 20 percent of a river struggling to survive. When you dry up the rivers, you dry up a majority of our tourism industry and our economy. You dry up the reason anglers, rafters, kayakers, birders and picnickers spend their vacations in Colorado. You dry up critical riparian habitat, which makes up 2 percent of Colorado land yet supports 98 percent of its wildlife.

http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_10799046

Big rewards or big impact?

By Douglas CrowlLoveland Connection

Loveland officials say the proposed Chimney Hollow Reservoir could add enough to the city’s water supplies to guarantee coverage during a 100-year-drought at least until 2030.

But detractors wonder at what cost a 90,000-acre-foot reservoir filled with Windy Gap water will have on the already struggling Colorado River.

“We feel that Windy Gap is digging this hole deeper and not helping figure out the problem,” David Nickum, executive director of Colorado Trout Unlimited, said before a recent public hearing on the project.

Many people concerned about the proposed reservoir wanted to extend the public comment period for the Windy Gap Firming Project Draft Environmental Impact Statement, so they could review the 600-page document to see if it addresses Western Slope water concerns.

http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081017/LOVELAND01/81016038

New drilling technology aims to dodge pollution

9News Colorado Trout Unlimited's Executive Director David Nickum sums up the danger posed by energy development on the Roan: "You have an industry that, unfortunately, is chemical dependent and it's accident prone as we've seen by numerous spills in the area."

If inspections are the best defense, the odds don't seem to favor the environment.

http://www.9news.com/seenon9news/article.aspx?storyid=101835&catid=509

Fishers, hunters worry development could spoil Roan Plateau

9News.com Accidental spills are just one of the threats that wildlife on top of western Colorado's Roan Plateau might face, now that the federal government has opened the door to drilling there.

One of the species that could wind up living in the shadow of drilling is believed by many to be a state genetic treasure.

Fly fisherman Ken Neubecker describes catching Colorado River Cutthroat trout as "combat fishing."

"They like to stay undercover. It's a short cast. They're only a few feet away," he said.

The trout love to hide out under a line-snaring tangle of overhanging willow.

Neubecker talked to 9NEWS as he stood beside a 15 foot wide, 8 inch deep strip of clear stream, meandering at the base of a ridge. It's a dauntingly steep mile down from the top of the ridge, which like scores of others, forms the undulating top of the Roan Plateau.

http://www.9news.com/seenon9news/article.aspx?storyid=101766&catid=509