Revival within reach for South Platte River

Carp Slam will help breathe life into restoration plans for South Platte River

By Charlie Meyers The Denver Post

All of this serves chiefly as an angler's pow-wow for an initiative that began several years ago with a $400,000 grant to the Greenway Foundation to study what is called River North, from Confluence Park to the northern city limits.

More recently, Trout Unlimited announced a memorandum of understanding with South Suburban Parks and Recreation and the city of Littleton for a study of an extended reach of the river downstream from C-470.

North of this is a jumble of broken concrete, discarded tires and assorted trash that has plagued the river for as long as anyone can recall.

"We'd like to see the Platte turned into a recreational playground, a place that would attract tourists as well as residents, much like with Salida and Durango," said Michael Hobbs, president of the Denver Chapter.

http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_13154645

Cost estimates for Summit mine cleanup soar

  Experts trying to figure out workings of abandoned tunnels to treat Peru Creek heavy metals

By Bob Berwyn summit daily news

Some recent estimates for treating drainage from the abandoned mine range as high as $20 million, according to Trout Unlimited's Elizabeth Russell, who has been leading the effort the past couple of years. That amount includes construction and annual operations and maintenance for as long as 20 years, but it's still much higher than expected. When Trout Unlimited entered the picture, there was speculation that a treatment plant could be built for under $1 million.

“All the work that's been done up there paints a much more dire picture of what we need to do,” Russell said.

http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20090814/NEWS/908139987/1055

Saving South Boulder Creek

Daily Camera By Clay Evans Tuesday, August 11, 2009

The cities of Boulder and Lafayette and Trout Unlimited, the national conservation organization with an office in Boulder, aren't exactly thrilled with the idea of further allocating water from the Fraser. But if it's going to happen, as most expect it will, they'd like to see 5,000 acre-feet of storage added to the proposed 72,000-acre-feet expansion and use it to ensure adequate winter flow in South Boulder Creek.

"It's a stream that needs help," said Drew Peternell of Trout Unlimited.

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2009/aug/11/saving-south-boulder-creek/

Genetic study could make Grizzly Creek ideal for recovery

By Charlie Meyers The Denver Post

Funded in large part by MillerCoors, the Forest Service and Trout Unlimited and bolstered by a small army of volunteers, the effort will begin the first week of August with a launch of equipment and materials that will make the creek suitable for fish while erasing a rash of environmental scars.

A buck-and-rail fence will be installed to prevent motorized incursion, while a mile of unauthorized road will be obliterated to further aid in stream protection. At the same time, a single-track trail will be maintained for hiking and other backcountry uses.

Design and construction will be managed by Frontier Environmental Services, the firm that earlier was contracted by West Denver TU to design and build the so-called Golden Mile on Clear Creek.

The Clear Creek Watershed Foundation will oversee the project once it has been completed, an effort that includes on-ground remediation and metals reduction.

http://www.denverpost.com/extremes/ci_12933965

Commissioners OK storm-water changes

by Jason GonzalesHerald Staff Writer

Ty Churchwell, backcountry coordinator for Trout Unlimited, spoke during the public hearing and said the city is doing a great job keeping the Animas River clean.

"We had some good storm-water rules in effect, and this just steps things up a hair," he said.

http://durangoherald.com/sections/News/2009/07/29/Commissioners_OK_stormwater_changes/

Colorado River cutthroat story of isolation, unique genetics

By DAVE BUCHANAN/The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel Monday, July 13, 2009

These simply aren’t trout but rather Colorado River cutthroat trout, one of the state’s three existing native trout and special even beyond that.

“You figure this trout has been isolated up here for thousands of years and there’s no question it’s adapted to some unique environmental conditions, including higher water temperatures that would kill other trout,” said Corey Fisher, 30 minutes later as he quickly pulled a barbless fly from the jaw of a brightly colored 5-inch trout. “If these fish were lost, we’d lose genetics that took eons to develop.”

Which is one reason Fisher, energy field coordinator for the conservation group Trout Unlimited, and Hunt, with that group’s Sportsmen Conservation Project, talked two writers into clambering down a sage-covered cliffside into a jungle of riparian growth fed by Trapper and Northwater creeks that come together to form the East Middle Fork of Parachute Creek.

http://www.gjsentinel.com/rec/content/sports/stories/2009/07/13/070809_out_trout_www.html

Volunteers repair mine damage to Kerber Creek

By Joe Stone - Special to the Mountain Mail About 20 people installed nearly a mile of wattles in Kerber Creek west of Villa Grove in the San Luis Valley Saturday as continuing damage repair caused by upstream mining.

Volunteers from Collegiate Peaks Anglers chapter of Trout Unlimited worked with various agency employees and local land owners to repair damage that began at least 130 years ago in the Bonanza Mining District.

http://www.themountainmail.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=4&ArticleID=16670

Animas River Makeover

by Dale StrodeDurango Herald Outdoors Editor

A prime stretch of the Animas River in downtown Durango will get a new identity this summer.

The Animas River itself will get a bit of a new look, starting in mid-August.

The west-side riverbank will get a full-scale makeover - a retro renovation - between Ninth Street and the Highway 160 bridge.

The river and west-bank renovation project was announced recently when Durango received an $86,000 grant from the Colorado Division of Wildlife for bank stabilization and habitat improvement on that stretch of the Animas River.

The DOW grant was one of the final pieces of a 3½-year jigsaw puzzle, put together through the nonprofit efforts of Trout Unlimited and the Animas Riverkeepers.

Ty Churchwell, then the president of the Five Rivers Chapter of Trout Unlimited, sat as a member of the Animas River Task Force. With other Trout Unlimited local board members and board members from Animas Riverkeepers, the task force was asked to review an Animas River corridor assessment.

http://durangoherald.com/sections/Features/Outdoors/2009/05/01/Animas_River_Makeover/

Boulder Creek gets massive makeover for fish habitat

Boulder Daily Camera By Laura Snider (Contact) Tuesday, April 28, 2009

BOULDER, Colo. — As David Blauch stepped closer to the creek, he saw a couple of shadows dart under the eave of a big rock.

"That's exactly what you want," he said, pointing to the trout he'd just frightened into the shadows.

The massive rock now sitting in Boulder Creek, parting the frigid waters and creating an eddy of still water where a trout can hide, is new to the stream. Just a week ago, this section of the creek near the top of Boulder Canyon ran wide and shallow, with uniform ripples stretching for a half mile with barely a boulder in sight.

"All the larger rocks are placed to increase habitat," said Blauch, vice president and senior ecologist for Ecological Resource Consultants in Boulder.

The $234,000 restoration project is the result of three years of hard work by Boulder Flycasters, the local chapter of Trout Unlimited, to create a fish-friendly section of stream with stable banks, better recreational access and environmental education opportunities.

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2009/apr/28/restoration-project-rogers-park-boulder-creek-fish/

Proposal would kill, then restock fish in Long Draw

BY TREVOR HUGHES  March 26, 2009

Federal officials are proposing to spend tens of thousands of dollars to poison invasive fish and then restock streams with native trout above Long Draw Reservoir and in parts of Rocky Mountain National Park as part of plans to keep the reservoir open.

The 10,800-acre-foot reservoir, about 50 miles up the Poudre Canyon, supplies water to Front Range cities, including Greeley and Thornton, and to Fort Collins-area farmers.

Trout Unlimited in 2004 sued the U.S. Forest Service, which permits the reservoir, to force changes. Trout Unlimited argued the reservoir was harming fish and other wildlife downstream.

In response, the Forest Service is proposing mitigation efforts known as Alternative 3 that include killing all fish in sections of area streams and creeks, then replacing them with the threatened greenback cutthroat trout.

The Forest Service released a draft environmental impact statement about a year ago and has now issued a final statement, with a formal decision expected within the next few months.

http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20090326/NEWS01/903260325/1002/CUSTOMERSERVICE02