Salazar vows to protect habitat

by Emery CowanHerald Staff Writer

U.S. Rep. John Salazar on Friday announced plans to protect two areas of important wildlife habitat near Durango that have been considered recently for gas and oil development.

Under proposed legislation, Animas Mountain and Perins Peak wildlife areas would be protected from development for mineral extraction, Salazar, D-Manassa, said during a stop in Durango.

He also announced that he will draft legislation to protect the 155,000-acre Hermosa Creek watershed.

Trout Unlimited, in a news release Friday, lauded Salazar's announcement on protecting the Hermosa Creek watershed. The Five Rivers Chapter, based in Durango, said it has worked to balance local water and recreation concerns in the watershed and passed its recommendations on to Salazar.

http://durangoherald.com/sections/2010_Election/2010/10/09/Salazar_vows_to_protect_habitat/

State scrambles to find flows for fish

By CHRIS WOODKA

Pueblo Chieftain

Some of the raceways at the state fish hatchery have been shut down and thousands of fish stocked early in response to low flows in the Arkansas River. The Division of Wildlife scrambled this week to come up with a plan to keep a minimal amount of water in the Arkansas River below Pueblo Dam in order to save fish. Wildlife officials say cooperation helped, but a better solution is needed.

“There were some concerns from fishermen and Trout Unlimited about water temperature around Labor Day,” said Dan Prenzlow, southeastern regional manager for the DOW. “Here we are in a relatively good water year, seeing a drop in river levels.”

DOW purchased 1,000 acre-feet of water for $25,000 from Colorado Springs Utilities, but won’t begin releasing it until Saturday. In the meantime, State Parks continues to release water to keep flows up.

http://www.chieftain.com/news/local/article_d7fb9198-c7a9-11df-8bac-001cc4c002e0.html

Long Draw fight becoming more long, drawn-out

BY KEVIN DUGGAN

Coloradoan

A long-running battle over the management of Long Draw Reservoir and efforts to restore a native trout species to its waters appears likely to run even longer. Fort Collins-based Water Supply & Storage Co. plans to appeal a U.S. Forest Service decision released Sept. 3 that would make it fully responsible for implementing a 15-year plan to restore the greenback cutthroat trout in the reservoir and surrounding streams.

The mitigation program's cost could be considerably higher than the approximately $800,000 projected by the Forest Service in an environmental impact statement, said Dennis Harmon, general manager of the irrigation company.

But even that figure would be more than the company should have to pay in order to keep its permit to operate the reservoir, which was built in 1929 and expanded in 1974.

"We just think this is way out of line for something that is already permitted," he said. "We haven't changed how this facility operates since the '70s.

"We think this mitigation is more appropriate for a new reservoir in the wilderness than on 53 acres of existing reservoir."

Long Draw Reservoir sits below the east side of the Continental Divide, about 35 miles west of Fort Collins in the Roosevelt National Forest. Its water comes from the Grand River Ditch, which traverses a section of Rocky Mountain National Park, and tributary streams.

Water from the reservoir is released into La Poudre Pass Creek, a tributary to the Poudre River.

An effort to renew a Forest Service permit for the expanded portion of the reservoir turned into a decade-long fight when Colorado Trout Unlimited sued in 1994 over a plan that would keep La Poudre Pass Creek dry during the winter. In 2004, a U.S. District Court threw out the permit, forcing the Forest Service to start the permitting process over and to come up with a plan that would protect trout habitat.

http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20100912/NEWS01/9120334/Long-Draw-fight-becoming-more-long-drawn-out

EPA OKs mine cleanup in San Luis Valley

Summit County Citizens Voice

by Bob Berwyn

“This is great news—we have been working on this project for  years and are glad that the (EPA has provided TU with this additional protection,” said Elizabeth Russell, project manager. “The risk of a release of hazardous waste from the tailings was very minimal, but we are grateful for the agency’s faith in TU to achieve results,” Russell said. The Kerber Creek project is located at the north end of the San Luis Valley in Colorado. Historic mining along Kerber Creek led to metals pollution and a degraded stream channel, requiring it to be places on the list of Colorado’s most impaired waterways.

Since 2008, Trout Unlimited and its partners have spent more than $1.3 million on restoration efforts along Kerber Creek. Working with the Bureau of Land Management, Colorado’s Nonpoint Source Program, the Natural Resource Conservation Service, and local landowners, the goal is to treat 60 acres of mine tailings using lime, limestone and compost, and to restore the stream for fish and wildlife habitat.

http://summitcountyvoice.com/2010/08/25/epa-oks-mine-cleanup-in-san-luis-valley/

Trout Unlimited, EPA agree on creek cleanup

Pueblo Chieftain

By MATT HILDNER

Elizabeth Russell, who manages Trout Unlimited's efforts on Kerber Creek, said the mine tailings the group encountered on private lands were hazardous enough that it wanted protection from liability. That led to a year of negotiations that resulted in the draft, she said. If finalized, the agreement would cover Trout Unlimited's past actions. The  agreement is only the second of its kind, following on the heels of one the agency and Trout Unlimited signed to clean up the American Fork River in Utah.

http://www.chieftain.com/news/local/article_4a870758-acf0-11df-b597-001cc4c03286.html

Best Wild Places: Exploring the Alpine Triangle (Day Three)

Field & Stream I learned a very important lesson at the start of our third day in the Alpine Triangle:  We don’t have to move mountains to help trout streams recover from the effects of hard rock mining.

Moving west from Lake City toward the town of Ouray, we stopped along Henson Creek, where Tara Tafi, project manager and reclamation specialist for the Colorado Department of Natural Resources Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety, showed us around the Henson Creek Repository project.

Here’s a little “mine influence on trout water” primer:  Many of the mines left behind tailing piles. Those tailing piles contain a number of things that are harmful to the river (acids, heavy metals, etc.)  As the rains and snows fall over the tailings, the runoff mixes into the river, lowering pH levels (2-4).  In low pH, metals are easily mobilized.  When this happens, trout and the bugs they eat can’t survive in an essentially sterile environment.  And this can last for generations.

http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/where-fish-trout/2010/08/best-wild-places-exploring-alpine-triangle-day-three

Best Wild Places: Exploring the Alpine Triangle (Day Two)

Field & Stream Editor-at-Large Kirk Deeter and photographer Kevin Cooley spent three days with Trout Unlimited exploring the Alpine Triangle, a rugged expanse of the San Juan Mountains in southwestern Colorado, so named because the region is loosely contained within the shape made by connecting the towns of Ouray, Lake City, and Silverton. TU wants Congress to declare the place a National Conservation area to protect its streams from mining expansion and new road development. Here's what they found on day two.

http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/where-fish-trout/2010/08/best-wild-places-exploring-alpine-triangle-day-two

Best Wild Places: Exploring The Alpine Triangle

Field & Stream The “Alpine Triangle” is a rugged expanse of the San Juan Mountains in southwestern Colorado, so named by the Bureau of Land Management because the region is loosely contained within the shape made by connecting the towns of Ouray, Lake City, and Silverton. 

I jumped at the opportunity to cover this story when the Field & Stream editors were divvying up the “Best Wild Places” assignments, because the region has been my home away from home for 25 years.  It’s where many of my formative trout fishing adventures happened, and near where I still make an annual elk hunting camp.  It is, without question, my favorite wild place on earth. 

Yet, as familiar as I thought I was with the Alpine Triangle region, I had never experienced it from as many angles as I did on day one of the Trout Unlimited/Field & Stream adventure.  We kicked off the tour with a full-on “Planes, Trains, & Automobiles” agenda…

http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/where-fish-trout/2010/08/best-wild-places-exploring-alpine-triangle

An Overview of the Alpine Triangle

Field & Stream In the high-country heart of southwest Colorado’s San Juan Mountains rests 180,000 acres of alpine habitat that has sheltered some of the best big game hunting and wild trout fishing in the southern Rockies for thousands of years.

The Alpine Triangle, named because it rests between three communities at it’s “corners”—Lake City, Ouray and Silverton—is a rare stretch of Bureau of Land Management real estate in the heart of traditional “forest” country. Not only does it shelter outstanding wild and native trout habitat, and prime big-game habitat for mule deer, elk and especially bighorn sheep, it’s home to a unique cultural heritage that is truly “old Colorado.”

http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/hunting/2010/07/overview-alpine-triangle

Group continues scientific monitoring of West Creek

By Dave BuchananGrand Junction Sentinel

The brushy creek harbors a healthy population of wild brown trout, which are gifted with the ability to survive the warm water temperatures of summer and early fall.

All that brush makes West Creek challenging to fish, which is why you don’t see a whole lot of cars parked along the road.

What you might see, once or twice a year, are members of the Grand Valley Anglers Chapter of Trout Unlimited continuing a creek-monitoring project begun 13 years ago.

http://www.gjsentinel.com/outdoors/articles/group_continues_scientific_mon/