By TRACY HARMONTHE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
Thanks to three local Trout Unlimited Chapters, the Canon City Recreation and Park District and the Colorado Division of Wildlife, the $20,000 trout habitat improvement project should be done by Wednesday.
http://www.chieftain.com/articles/2008/11/16/news/region/doc491fbde45d97b128839957.txt
Chris Wood is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High Çountry News (hcn.org). He is a former Forest Service staffer who's now the chief operating officer of Trout Unlimited. He lives in Washington, D.C.
Since 2001, stopping fire has grown from about 15 percent of the agency's budget to nearly 50 percent today. Without forward-thinking leadership, the Forest Service agenda will continue to focus primarily on this one reactionary activity. Yet there is enormous potential for the agency and its 35,000 employees who manage public lands that exceed the size of Texas. Agency staffers could be turned loose to do good work on the ground.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008, 11:00 AMLory Student Center, Room 213
Guest Lecturer, Robert A. Longenbaugh, Consultant Water Engineer is a two-time CSU Alumni and ex-professor. He has over 47 years experience working in the ground water profession with 19 years teaching and applied groundwater research at Colorado State University (1960-1980); followed by 11 years (1981-91) as Assistant State Engineer for groundwater for Colorado.
As Assistant State Engineer he coordinated the Engineering data analyses and testimony in the US Supreme Court Law suite by Kansas against Colorado on the Arkansas River Basin. Since 1991, he has done part time groundwater consulting and conducted a variety of educational classes.
Lecture topics
Description of the major aquifers in Colorado and current issues controlling their use
History and issues of conjunctive use in Colorado
Focus on alluvial aquifers, such as the South Platte
Need for legislative and administrative change to allow us to optimize the use of both ground and surface water
Discussion on potential employment for both graduate and undergraduate students in the ground and surface water fields
Event Contact: Domenico Bau can be reached at (970) 491-6060
Sponsored by Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Opinion piece from Drew Peternell, Director of TU's Colorado Water Project: Re: “Diversions,” Oct. 26 Perspective article.
As the state’s leading coldwater fisheries conservation group, Trout Unlimited shares the concerns expressed in Gretchen Bergen’s commentary about the potential impact of the Windy Gap and Moffat Tunnel water diversion schemes on the health of the Colorado and Fraser Rivers and the wildlife and communities that depend on them.
http://blogs.denverpost.com/eletters/2008/11/10/every-coloradan-has-a-stake-in-healthy-rivers/
by David Frey, Aspen Daily News Correspondent
“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.
A Trout Unlimited analysis found that 75 of the 79 areas in the state with the best water quality for Colorado cutthroat trout are in roadless areas.
By Mark Jaffe The Denver Post
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_10943765
Jeanne McGovernThe Aspen Times Aspen, CO Colorado
As approved, Referendum 1A will raise the county’s sales tax rate by one-tenth of 1 percent, or one penny for every $100 purchased, to keep local lakes, rivers and streams healthy and clean.
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/
North Park braces for clash over sage grouse, drilling territory By Todd Hartman, Rocky Mountain News (Contact) - Published November 8, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.
A western coalition of hunters, anglers and some businesses called Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development has made North Park a priority for protection...
.... "For a species on the decline, this seems to be an important piece of habitat, really a stronghold," said Corey Fisher, a Montana-based activist with the sportsmen group Trout Unlimited.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/nov/08/walden-hears-rumble-of-energy-boom/
Grand Junction Sentinel Opinion
From a local’s standpoint, one of the more important decisions resulting from Tuesday’s presidential election will be the person tabbed for the Secretary of the Department of Interior.......One name missing from Barker’s list is that of Colorado’s senior Democratic senator, Ken Salazar of Alamosa.
http://www.gjsentinel.com/hp/content/sports/stories/2008/11/08/110908_6B_OUT_column.html
