Learn the history and accomplishments of Trout Unlimited’s first 50 years.By BETH DURIS
Read all about it in: Trout Magazine
Development leases retired on Front
June 17, 2009Great Falls Tribune (MT)
Another 19,000 acres of oil and natural gas leases have been retired on the Rocky Mountain Front. Curry & Thornton and David R. Wilson have transfer leases in the Badger-Two Medicine area to Trout Unlimited, which plans to turn them over to the Bureau of Land Management to be permanently retired, said Chris Hunt, a Trout Unlimited spokesman. The conservation group previously received 50,000 acres in transfers located on the Front. Read more
Holland & Hart’s Castle named to Interior Department post
Denver Business Journal
Castle will oversee water and science policy for the sprawling land-use agency, and will be responsible for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Geological Survey. Read more, including a bio.
Groups turn up pressure on roadless forest plan
Associated PressFriday, June 19, 2009
Chris Wood, Trout Unlimited's national chief operating officer, said Idaho's experience shows that a state roadless policy can work. Not all conservation groups support Idaho's plan, Wood said, but it was developed after a lot of collaboration and has broad public support.
"I don't know of any conservation group that supports the Colorado plan," said Wood, an architect of the 2001 roadless rule while with the Forest Service. Read more
Western water in the age of climate change
Book Review by Kyle Boelte, High Country News Saturday, 20 June 2009 Dead Pool: Lake Powell, Global Warming, and the Future of Water in the West James Lawrence Powell 304 pages, hardcover: $27.50. University of California, 2008.
At once a suspense thriller, a history in the tradition of Marc Reisner's Cadillac Desert, and an informed warning, Dead Pool deserves to be read now, before we make even more mistakes. With both temperatures and the demand for water rising, it's tempting to see dams as a source of salvation. But, argues Powell, dams only increase Westerners' demand for water and, in so doing, make our problems even worse. Read more
$2.7 million Fountain Creek cleanup effort begins
By Danielle Leigh - ColoradoConnection.com
"Anything we can do to get that out of the creek and help out water quality because we have a plant habitat and wildlife habitat, fish habitat that depend on good water quality," said Stormwater Enterprise Manager Ken Sampley. Read more
Animas River: Colorado Trout Unlimited’s 2009 Volunteer of the Year
From Coyote Gulch / Durango Telegraph
Churchwell commented that he volunteers out of a sense of obligation both to the Durango community and the Animas watershed. “Those trout keep me sane and our rivers are my ‘church,’” he said. “Healthy rivers are the lifeblood of our communities, and I’m thankful Durango recognizes the value of the Animas to our community.” Read more
Notes: Clean water act gets bad rap; film stop gets rave review
david.hendee@owh.com - Omaha World Herald
Hunters and anglers heard the horror stories.No more building duck blinds on private land without a costly and time-consuming permit.
No more firing over or near wetlands, ponds, lakes or rivers because even non-toxic shot would be considered a pollutant.
No more driving all-terrain vehicles to transport gear to off-road hunting or fishing spots without at least a special permit.
Farmers heard that a puddle of rainwater on their land would fall under control of federal bureaucrats.
But these perceived threats by a revitalized federal clean water law to sportsmens' cherished pastimes and farmers' routine farming operations are bogus, say conservationists.....
The Clean Water Act did not apply to gutters, puddles or other insignificant accumulations of water and neither would the new bill. The new act also preserves all existing agricultural exemptions under the law, such as for return flows and construction and maintenance of irrigation ditches and farm ponds. Read more
New Wrinkle For Proposed Colo. Water Pipeline
cbs4.com
Pueblo County's district attorney has written to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers asking them not to issue a permit for the $1.1 billion pipeline. Bill Thiebaut says Colorado Springs Utilities has environmental problems to fix before the utility should be allowed to expand. Read more
Without storage, state is losing water it has rights to
Rebecca BoyleFor The [Greeley] Tribune
NISP is intended to capture excess water to which Colorado can lay claim. Detractors say it would do too much harm to the Poudre River; supporters say it would allow thirsty, growing cities another supply of water that could prevent drying up more agricultural land. Read more
