For the next year, you'll receive all the benefits of a paid membership:
Here's an excerpt from Bob Berwyn's piece at Summit County Citizens Voice.
“We are testing totally new waters here,” trust director Amy Beatie said in an earlier interview when the program was announced. “We have our own cash we’re willing to put into the program and our goal is to raise $500,000...."
Read the entire story (3-4 minutes)
photo: courtesy Colorado Division of Parks & Wildlife: Kesha Hess
Anyone who is around non-profit funding knows that unrestricted grants are usually the toughest to get because they don’t have ‘strings’ attached – they can be used for just about anything (within reason) - to promote or sustain the mission of the organization.
This grant is particularly appreciated, because we were nominated by the employees of the Patagonia store…that’s right, the people who work in our community and see our positive work for Colorado’s rivers are the ones who nominated us for this significant gift. THAT is much appreciated!
As always, I encourage you to consider spending your hard-earned dollars to support the companies who support who support Colorado TU. Patagonia has been a supporter of Trout Unlimited for many years, but this most recent award reinforces my belief that our mission is sound, our execution is good, and people take notice when you accomplish good things.
Thank you, Patagonia Denver!!
Sinjin Eberle
Colorado TU President
Denver's Patagonia store is located at 1431 15th St. (15th & Blake)
When BLM gave the green light for gas drilling on 54,631 acres on the Roan Plateau in 2008 it looked like a slam dunk. But a federal judge says there was a foul on the play.Judge Marcia Kreiger says the agency didn't look hard enough at alternatives such as directional drilling that might have reduced impacts on the Roan, which harbors genetically pure populations of Colorado River Cutthroat Trout. Here's an excerpt from a piece by Dennis Webb in the Grand Junction Sentinel:"
"In a 38-page ruling in a lawsuit by conservation groups, U.S. District Court Judge Marcia Krieger ruled that the agency failed to adequately address an alternative that would have kept drilling off the plateau top by making use of directional drilling from surrounding lands. It also failed to sufficiently consider cumulative air quality impacts in conjunction with anticipated development in the region, or to adequately address ozone impacts."
Read: Judge's ruling means second look for Roan drilling plan from the Grand Junction Sentinel.
Read more about the Roan at Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development.
The Roan was featured by Field & Stream as one of its Best Wild Places in 2010. Read Part 1 of the 3-part series. Read Part 2. Read Part 3.
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation has approved a $125,000 grant to Colorado TU to support continued restoration atop the Roan Plateau, including fencing, restoring native vegetation, removing non-native fish and reintroducing native cutthroat trout.
We are joined in that opposition by a diverse group of fishermen, guides, lodge owners, Alaska Natives, scientists - and even chefs, restaurant owners and seafood lovers.
One of the world's most productive wild salmon strongholds, Bristol Bay supports a $500 million commercial and sport fishery. Few places like it remain. It is unspoiled, and it is vulnerable.
The Pebble Mine would be one of the largest in the world, spanning more than 20 square miles. Because of its size, geochemistry and location, there is a high risk that pollution from acid drainage and metal leaching will foul Bristol Bay.
In light of the recent release of a draft watershed assessment by the Environmental Assessment Agency, Chris Wood, President and CEO of trout Unlimited, has written a letter to TU members asking them to take action to protect Bristol Bay.
Here's his letter:
The EPA has released its draft watershed assessment for Bristol Bay. EPA, not surprisingly found that the rivers of Bristol Bay support the world’s largest sockeye salmon runs (46% of the “global abundance” of sockeye) and its Chinook runs are near the world’s largest every year. 
Did I mention the fact they also have 30” plus native rainbows?
The study notes that the fishery supports 14,000 sustainable jobs every year, and generates more than $600 million in total economic impact. And while the EPA makes no pronouncements or decisions through this document, one fact becomes very clear in reading through the document. Bristol Bay is the wrong place to allow industrial scale mining.
The Alaska program, led by Tim Bristol and Shoren Brown, has done a fantastic job of building support for protecting Bristol Bay. Unlike most Alaska conservation issues, the support for protecting the area starts with the affected Native Alaska villages, and resonates throughout the state. In fact, the strongest allies for protecting Bristol Bay are the native villages in the region and commercial fishermen.
Just yesterday, the Republican President of the State Senate called for EPA to do what is necessary to protect the area from industrial scale mining.
The job of convincing the Obama Administration to take action before January 20, 2013, now begins in earnest. Please take 5 minutes and go to...
http://www.capwiz.com/savebristolbay/issues/alert/?alertid=61010161&type=ML
... and ask the President to initiate the Clean Water Act process that will enable EPA to limit industrial scale mining in Bristol Bay. Ask your friends and family to do the same.
Chris Wood President and CEO Trout Unlimited
If you live in Denver, Boulder and many other cities on the front range, at least some of your water comes from the upper Colorado River Basin on the other side of the Continental Divide. As you'll recall from 6th grade or thereabouts, that water is supposed to flow to the Pacific Ocean.
But the front range has been pulling water out of the upper Colorado for decades - and now water providers are planning to take even more. The question is - how much can you take before the river starts to die?
Tapped Out: The Upper Colorado on the Brink is a short documentary designed to make people think about the effect our water use in cities has on rivers and economies many miles distant.
By Drew Peternell, Trout Unlimited
If you’ve driven down the hill on I-70 recently, perhaps after an escape to one of Colorado’s West Slope playgrounds, you might have seen a billboard near Golden that warns, “Don’t Suck the Upper Colorado River Dry.”
It’s a blunt wake-up call to state leaders, water utilities, Front Range residents, and all Coloradans who care about the future of our state’s namesake river.
The Colorado River, from its headwaters in Rocky Mountain National Park down through Granby, Kremmling, Glenwood Springs and beyond, has long been a favorite destination for Front Range residents. Generations of Coloradans have fished, hunted, hiked, camped and floated along the waters of the Colorado.
But most Front Range residents don't realize that much of the water they use at home comes directly from the streams and rivers of the upper Colorado River basin. A spider-web network of dams and pumps and pipelines delivers water from the Colorado and other West Slope rivers to showerheads and sprinklers in Denver and surrounding areas.
Already Front Range utilities take about 60 percent of the water that originates in the upper Colorado River basin, draining Grand County to the point that many of its once pristine streams now run dry.
The Fraser River, a Colorado tributary where President Eisenhower spent summers fishing, is among the hardest hit.
The low stream flows take a devastating toll on river health. Studies show dramatic declines in the size and health of trout, and entire classes of aquatic insects have disappeared from the river. Because of low stream flows and high water temperatures, the Colorado and several tributaries are choked with silt and algae.
More Proposed Diversions
And now, Front Range water providers are planning to drain the Colorado and Fraser rivers some more.
Two proposed water-diversion projects -- Denver Water's Moffat Collection System Project and the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District's Windy Gap Firming Project -- threaten to push the Colorado and Fraser rivers and their tributaries past the tipping point. Combined, the projects could leave as little as 25 percent of native upper Colorado River water on the West Slope.
A river with one quarter of its natural flow. If present trends continue, the mighty Colorado River could someday be called Colorado Creek -- or the Colorado Trickle.
How much water does a river need to stay alive? At what point does the upper Colorado cease to be a functioning river? We may be dangerously close to finding out.
The CPW Study
A 2011 report by the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife (CPW) underscores the poor ecological health of the upper Colorado River. Led by respected veteran CPW biologist Barry Nehring, the study documents a river in sharp decline, suffering from multiple maladies caused largely by water diversions to the Front Range (see sidebar).
The CPW study acknowledges that these problems are likely to worsen with additional water withdrawals. It outlines several measures needed to maintain the health of the Colorado River under the lower flow conditions that would result from the projects Denver Water and the Northern Water District are proposing.
The three key measures are: (1) preservation of higher spring flushing flows to help remove sediment that smothers fish and insect habitat; (2) stream reconfiguration to narrow the channel, so that the remaining water flows are deeper, cooler, and faster; and (3) construction of a bypass around Windy Gap Reservoir -- a source of silt, algae, thermal pollution, and the lethal rainbow trout whirling disease.
Current project plans do not include the protections the CPW report identified as necessary to maintain the health of the upper Colorado River under the increased diversions.
Insufficient Protections for the River
In a formal letter issued in February, the EPA listed a host of concerns about the river impacts of the Moffat and Windy Gap project proposals. Citing the CPW study at length, the EPA called for stronger protections than in the fish and wildlife mitigation plans the Colorado Wildlife Commission approved for the projects last summer.
But Governor Hickenlooper and other state officials responsible for protecting Colorado’s natural resources recently have distanced themselves from the CPW report, asserting that the present mitigation packages are sufficient to preserve the river -- notwithstanding the conclusions of state wildlife biologists and the EPA to the contrary.
There is no doubt that the Colorado Wildlife Commission and its staff reviewed the fish and wildlife mitigation plans carefully and secured as much protection for the Colorado and Fraser Rivers they thought they could. But state law -- as interpreted by the Colorado Attorney General’s Office -- limited the Wildlife Commission’s authority to demand broader protections. During the hearings, several wildlife commissioners publicly lamented that they could not do more.
Time for a Way Forward
Hickenlooper is rightfully proud of the so-called “Cooperative Agreement” he helped broker last year between Denver Water and a number of West Slope stakeholders. The agreement places some restrictions on future Denver Water projects that impact the Colorado River, and it requires Denver to increase its conservation efforts.
But let there be no confusion. The agreement does not address the Moffat and Windy Gap project proposals, and it does not fully resolve the problems facing the Colorado River.
Governor Hickenlooper has a golden opportunity to follow-up on his good work on the cooperative agreement. He should bring interested parties to the table to craft a final mitigation plan that fully addresses the impacts of the current water withdrawal proposals.
If state officials are unwilling or unable to join the effort to protect these important resources, they need to step aside and let the federal agencies do their job as they review the projects.
Much to Lose
No one would claim that finding a solution will be easy -- these are tough, complex challenges. But, with cooperation and leadership from the state, the project proponents and other interested parties, it should be possible to craft a way forward that supplies additional water to the Front Range while keeping the Colorado River healthy.
The West Slope rivers that we tap to deliver water to the Front Range are priceless. They are vital to the health of mountain communities, Colorado's $10 billion-a-year outdoor recreation economy, and the high quality of life Coloradans enjoy.
Given all we stand to lose, now is the time to find a solution that preserves the Colorado River as the state treasure that it is.
For more information and to add your voice to those calling for protection of the Colorado River, go to www.defendthecolorado.org.
A 2011 study by the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife found that water diversions to the Front Range have caused severe ecological damage to the upper Colorado River. The impacts to the river below Windy Gap Reservoir include:
The study concludes that additional water withdrawals from the proposed Moffat Collection System and Windy Gap Firming projects will make these problems worse.
Drew Peternell is director of the Colorado Water Project for Trout Unlimited, whose mission is to conserve, protect and restore North America’s coldwater fisheries and their watersheds.
And go to www.defendthecolorado.org to learn more and join the effort.
Presenter Walt Gasson, Trout Unlimited's endorsed business director, briefly invoked Dr. Seuss's Lorax in his impassioned plea to save the Green River.
"This is not a problem for people in Colorado or Thneedville who just want to wash their car or water their lawn," Gasson said. Instead, he said it is Wyoming and its $118 million local outdoor economy that will suffer the consequences of exporting 250,000 acre-feet of water annually. Of that water, 85,000 acre-feet would come from the Green River above Flaming Gorge while the rest would come from the reservoir itself. Read the full story by Mark Wilcox.
Green with Envy scheduled dates:
Steamboat Springs: May 15, 8 p.m., Community Center 1605 Lincoln Ave.
Grand Junction, Colorado: May 17, 7 p.m., Roper Music Ballroom, 130 N. 5th St.
"Now, as Colorado River Basin stakeholders contemplate possible solutions to long-term shortfalls in the balance between water supply and demand, a group of agricultural and conservation organizations have joined efforts in a ground-breaking new coalition."As you'd imagine, Trout Unlimited is part of this coalition featured in a piece on Natonal Geographic online by Jennifer Pitt. Read the article at nationalgeographic.com
There are those who differ:
“There are spills on a weekly basis that affect groundwater,” said Earthjustice attorney Mike Freeman, adding that state records show there were 58 spills from oil and gas operations in 2011."
That quote is one of several in a piece written by Bob Berwyn for the Summit County Citizen's Voice.
