Chris Hunt of Trout Unlimited said 26 million acres nationally have conservation area status. The omnibus bill gives them permanent protection under law, rather than protection by order of presidential administrations, which can be reversed, Hunt said. Read More
Grand Junction Sentinel-
He conceded the rules — scheduled to take effect this spring if approved by the state Legislature — do add some expense. But he called them “a necessary cost of doing business.”
The Centennial resident, 61, is retired and active with Trout Unlimited. Trout Unlimited supports the new rules, which aim partly to protect fish and other wildlife habitat. Ives cites his industry background in expressing his belief that oil and gas companies can comply with what he considers to be flexible, fair and balanced rules Read More
New York Times by Andrew C. Revkin
Over all, though, he said, the biggest ecological impact around the delta has come from the depletion of the Colorado. For years, Dr. Flessa has, along with Mexican communities around the delta, been calling for the water planners doling out Colorado River quotas to leave just a little bit more to rejuvenate ecosystems downstream. He and other biologists pointed out to me how certain flora and fauna showed a remarkable ability to revive if just a small flow is allowed (like the Colorado River Delta clam). Read More
Green River water is being targeted by a Colorado entrepreneur who wants to pipe his state’s unappropriated water 560 miles from Flaming Gorge along I-80 to southeastern Wyoming and the Front Range. Read more
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From the start, the federal government has refused to produce something demanded by the Endangered Species Act: a realistic biological opinion that lays out a scientific strategy for preventing endangered salmon stocks from going extinct. All the while, as the passing years bore witness to $5 billion worth of legal logrolling that has tried everything but breaching the dams, the extinction clock has never missed a beat as it ticks toward the salmons' expected demise in 2017. Read More
Greeley Tribune
Senate Bill 165, co-sponsored by Sen. Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus, and Sen. Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction, and sponsored in the House by Reps. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, and Cathleen Curry, D-Gunnison, creates the Small Communities Drinking Water and Wastewater Grant Fund and directs up to $10 million a year to small communities across Colorado. It passed on second reading in the House last week. Read more
Mar 30, 2009 7:31 PM (1 day ago) AP
DENVER (Map, News) - State officials will test an abandoned gas well and test more operating wells in south Weld County where methane has been found in a water well and the family's tap water has caught fire.
Join Colorado's "Angler in Chief" Governor Bill Ritter at the CTU Dinner & Gala for an evening of camaraderie, great food, live music (including Schubert's "Trout" Quintet), lively auction bidding and a fantastic view of the mountains from the Grand Hyatt's Pinnacle Club - 17th and Welton in Denver. Admission ($100) includes dinner and complimentary beer and wine. Click here for an auction item preview. The auction is CTU's most important fund raiser. You can play a key role in helping us Protect, Preserve and Restore Colorado's Coldwater Fisheries and Their Watersheds.
Click here to purchase tickets
March 26, 11:03 AM
I caught up with Trout Unlimited's Western Water Project Director, Melinda Kassen, via telephone last week to discuss the March 16th Interbasin Compact Commitee Meeting and the presentation (pdf) detailing progress on the visioning process for Colorado's water needs that is being spearheaded by DNR Director Harris Sherman.
During the presentation, Kassen -- the only committee member representing the environmental community and recreation -- became alarmed by the Department of Natural Resources' emphasis on transmountain diversions and four pipeline projects as the solution to the Front Range water supply gap.
How did the plan presented mesh with Governor Ritter's, Colorado Promise, she asked herself? Where is conservation and reuse in the plan? What about the idea of smaller, incremental projects to satisfy future needs?
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
