Innovative proposal will protect Dominguez waters

GJ Sentinel Regarding the March 11 editorial by The Daily Sentinel, “Future may be clear for Dominguez waters:” Trout Unlimited applauds the Sentinel for supporting a balanced, innovative plan to meet the water needs of the Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area and Dominguez Canyons Wilderness Area.

Healthy wilderness rivers and streams require more than minimal flows. They also require larger “flushing” flows in the spring to ensure that natural stream processes and hydrology are maintained. In last year’s Black Canyon of the Gunnison settlement, for instance, all parties agreed on the need for flushing flows to mimic the flow variability that occurs under natural conditions

In the Dominguez case, the BLM plan is innovative in calling for the state to claim water rights to meet the flow needs of the federal wilderness area.  This arrangement allows Colorado to maintain control over the water resource while satisfying the purposes of the federal wilderness designation which, as the Sentinel points out, resulted from a constructive, cooperative effort

The Colorado Water Conservation Board should approve this plan to keep the Big and Little Dominguez creeks running wild

Drew Peternell, Director

Colorado Water Project

Trout Unlimited

West Slope questions Denver Water plan

By Bob Berwyn

Summit County Citizens Voice

Similar concerns were repeated by Erica Stock, an outreach coordinator with Colorado Trout Unlimited.The fisheries conservation group has specific ecological concerns related to lower flows, including warmer water that harms fish and higher concentrations of toxic metals. All those issues need to be addressed in the environmental study, she said. “We need minimum flows, flushing flows, adaptive management and monitoring. If we see the river is starting to collapse, we need to stop doing what we’re doing,” she concluded.

Check out the TU action page on the project for more information on how to comment before the March 17 deadline.

http://summitcountyvoice.com/2010/03/09/west-slope-raises-more-questions-about-denver-water-plan/

Projects mean better floating, fishing

By TRACY HARMONTHE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

Three Trout Unlimited chapters and the Colorado Division of Wildlife headed the Trout Home Improvement project which provided strategically placed boulders where brown trout can rest from the strong current, feed and reproduce on their own to maintain the population naturally. Bushes and vegetation planted along the banks are vital for shade for the fish and also support insect life.

Sillox said Trout Unlimited members will be back this spring to conduct more plantings where some of the willows died. The members also helped with the informational signs that explain the benefits of the project.

 "Southern Colorado Greenback chapter paid for the three bases — about $1,000. Pueblo Community college's student welding program constructed the bases," Sillox said.The Canon City Recreation and Park District paid for the powder coating of the bases and installed them, while the Division of Wildlife paid for the informational panels recently installed on the bases.

"There was a whole bunch of different groups involved in the project and it is nice to see a lot of people involved," Sillox said.

http://www.chieftain.com/articles/2010/03/07/news/local/doc4b933fc3e9dbb021565462.txt

Alpine Triangle

Protection plan an intriguing proposal Durango Herald

Ty Churchwell, who is leading the effort for Trout Unlimited, put it this way: “We want to form a coalition that includes counties and municipalities, watershed groups, sportsmen, private landowners, recreational-vehicle groups and the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. They all have an interest in preserving our heritage and our economic viability."

It is an ambitious goal and a worthy one. But by taking an inclusive approach, both with the supporters he wants to attract and by not neglecting any current users' interest in the land, it may well be achievable.

For good reason, some things are banned in some places. True wilderness, for example, is incompatible with motorized traffic. But preserving the Alpine Triangle does not mean locking it away or curtailing its use by the public. Preservation in this context means just what its supporters say: Keep it like it is.

It is a goal that deserves support.

http://durangoherald.com/sections/Opinion/2010/03/05/Alpine_Triangle/

Plotting the Alpine Triangle

Trout Unlimited looks for support in protecting 126,000 acres in San Juans

by Dale Rodebaugh Herald Staff Writer

A national river-conservation group is drumming up broad support for congressional protection of 126,000 acres in the San Juan Mountains where, a spokesman says, spectacular scenery, remnants of a rough-and-tumble past and recreational opportunities make the area a virtual paradise on Earth.

“The area is one of Colorado's most unique off-road and backcountry resources," said Ty Churchwell with the Five Rivers chapter of Trout Unlimited in Durango, who is heading the preservation campaign. “Our motto is 'Keep It Like It Is.'"

The target area - anchored by the towns of Silverton, Ouray and Lake City - is called the Alpine Triangle, although the shape more resembles a polliwog, with a long tail heading northeast down the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River. This high-country terrain, Churchwell said, attracts 300,000 visitors annually who hunt and fish, admire towering peaks and wildflowers, explore 195 miles of four-wheel-drive roads, camp and backpack and visit old ghost towns and abandoned mines. The number of visitors doesn't include those who arrive in Silverton by train, he said.

“We want to form a coalition that includes counties and municipalities, watershed groups, sportsmen, private landowners, recreational-vehicle groups and the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad," Churchwell said. “They all have an interest in conserving our heritage and our economic viability."

http://durangoherald.com/sections/News/Earth/2010/03/04/Plotting_the_Alpine_Triangle/

National Conservation Areas: A primer

by Dale RodebaughHerald Staff Writer

National Conservation Areas, designed to protect cultural, historical and recreational assets, range in size from 19 acres to 799,000 acres. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management's 10-year-old National Landscape Conservation System, which includes the conservation areas as well as national monuments, wilderness areas and wild and scenic rivers, protects 27 million acres at almost 900 sites.

The National Conservation Area label that Trout Unlimited wants for 126,000 acres near Silverton called the Alpine Triangle would be the fourth such area in Colorado overseen by the BLM.

http://durangoherald.com/sections/News/Earth/2010/03/04/National_Conservation_Areas_A_primer/

Surmounting the snow pile

Durango Telegraph by Missy Votel

As the giant mound at the city of Durango’s snow-storage site at Cundiff Park begins to melt, it also gives rise to worries over water quality. The 17-acre snow storage site just south of town, which the city has been using for the last eight years, sits adjacent to the Animas River. And come springtime, Mount Durango, as some locals have taken to calling it, creates a steady stream of murky brown run-off that concerns residents and river advocacy groups alike.

“I applaud the City’s snow removal team and recognize they do a great job during large snow events. However, there are certainly water-quality issues related to the current snow storage location(s),” said Ty Churchwell, former president of the Five Rivers Chapter of Trout Unlimited and member of the Animas River Task Force.

http://www.durangotelegraph.com/telegraph.php?inc=/10-03-04/coverstory.htm

Land preservation

By DP Opinion The Obama administration has proposed increasing the amount of funding available for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a 45-year-old program that has protected wildlife habitat and provided recreational opportunities in national parks, national forests, and national wildlife refuges across the country.

Instead of using taxpayers’ money, LWCF protects federal lands and provides grants to communities for local parks and trails using a small portion of royalties paid by companies conducting offshore drilling. This common-sense approach to land conservation benefits anglers and hunters because conservation creates opportunity. The opportunity to hunt, fish, hike, bike and ski in these wild places is increasingly at risk from an array of land-use threats, and must be protected as a part of our national heritage.

It simply makes sense to use funds generated from natural resources extraction to invest back in America’s natural places — protecting and promoting another kind of resource, open space and clean water, that benefits each of us.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Sen. Mark Udall, and other advocates for LWCF in Congress and the administration are on the right track to see that we meet our responsibility to protect America’s great outdoors for future generations.

Sinjin Eberle, Vice President, Colorado Trout Unlimited, Denver

Building a better habitat

Eagle Valley Enterprise

Derek Franz

That is the kind of support that has been snowballing for the watershed council. That is also why the river restoration project, which is divided into five reaches, has expanded since it began in the fall of 2008. Local, state and national entities including Edwards Metropolitan District, Eagle River Foundation, Eagle County, Colorado Department of Health and Environment, Trout Unlimited and others have contributed grant money to the efforts. http://www.eaglevalleyenterprise.com/article/20100127/NEWS/100129974/1054&ParentProfile=1001

Environmentalists oppose Denver project to divert more water from Western Slope

By Bruce Finley The Denver Post

Denver has not managed to push through a project on this scale since construction of Dillon Reservoir in 1963. The Environmental Protection Agency's 1990 veto of Denver's proposed $1 billion Two Forks Dam still looms in water-authority boardrooms. That project, backed by developers and opposed by environmentalists, also was aimed at preventing shortages.

The $225 million cost is already covered by a recently approved rate hike for Denver Water customers, which will raise typical water bills by about $40 a year.

Denver already owns rights to the water it would divert from the upper Colorado River basin — from the Blue River in Summit County and from the Fraser and Williams Fork rivers and dozens of streams in Grand County.

But Trout Unlimited sportsmen's advocates said that stream flows there already are dangerously low, threatening aquatic life, with algae increasing and once-clear Grand Lake turning cloudy. Boulder-area residents warned of harm to wildlife and lifestyle disruptions during construction to raise the dam and clear trees in expanding Gross Reservoir.

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_13956553