Trout Unlimited's Elizabeth Russell advocates for federal “Good Samaritan legislation,” laws that would relieve groups like Lake Fork Watershed from liability. She said that in Pennsylvania, the only state with such laws, “clean ups are happening left and right.” http://coloradoindependent.com/38169/colo-water-cleanup-projects-hobbled-by-%E2%80%98good-samaritan%E2%80%99-legal-risks
By CHRIS WOODKATHE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
And speaking of the environment, a statewide plan is only effective when each piece of river it touches can be accounted for, said Melinda Kassen of Trout Unlimited.
Kassen said the nine basin roundtables that feed into the IBCC have yet to complete the analysis of nonconsumptive water needs throughout the state. Even then, each project will have to be decided on a case-by-case basis, since recreation interests
- rafting vs. fishing, for example - are often at cross-purposes.
Some reaches are fine, some need protection and some need restoration, Kassen said.
“We need to make sure we use the money available for environmental protection to protect those areas we know will have problems,” Kassen said.
http://www.chieftain.com/articles/2009/09/20/news/local/doc4ab5bc15852b1824827984.txt
By CHRIS WOODKATHE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
Melinda Kassen of Trout Unlimited said the overall goal of meeting water needs is not as important to the environment as when and where the water is used.
“It’s about ecosystems,” she said. “What do we have to do to protect the important ecosystems of the state?”
http://www.chieftain.com/articles/2009/09/15/news/local/doc4aaf1b996005b080031227.txt
By DENNIS WEBB/The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel Friday, September 11, 2009
John Trammel, of the Grand Valley Anglers chapter of Trout Unlimited, is quoted in the report as saying, “It would be a serious mistake to jeopardize the irreplaceable values of native fish on the Roan by drilling in their watersheds.”
http://www.gjsentinel.com/hp/content/news/stories/2009/09/11/091209_3A_roan_sportsmen.html
“There are projects that have significant adverse environmental impact that we could not support,” said Melinda Kassen, managing director of the Western Water Project for Trout Unlimited. “And there are projects that have substantially fewer environmental impacts that we can support,” she said, if mitigation measures are included. http://www.telluridewatch.com/pages/full_story/push?article-State+Faces+Future+With+More+People-+Less+Water%20&id=3559823-State+Faces+Future+With+More+People-+Less+Water&instance=secondary_stories_left_column
by Garrett AndrewsHerald Staff Writer
"We're losing that riverbank," said former president of the Five Rivers Chapter of Trout Unlimited Ty Churchwell. "Eventually it will eat its way through Roosa Avenue."
He said that part of the problem is the unstoppable force of nature, the other is human. River users who utilize the free parking along Roosa Avenue often don't walk to a trail to get to the river but forge their own through the native vegetation.
The repair measures have been designed to withstand a 50-year flood, and should be around "for decades," said Churchwell.
by DP Opinion on August 20, 2009
In your article, Parker water manager Frank Jaeger asserted that “We’re going to have to have more water. It’s going to have to be imported.” Jaeger called the scheme to pipe water 500 miles from Flaming Gorge Reservoir across Wyoming to the Front Range the “least intrusive of anything you could do.”
The truth is, a pipeline of this magnitude would be highly intrusive and damaging to the natural environment, depleting flows in the Green River and destroying habitat for the world-famous trout fishery below the reservoir and for the endangered warm-water fish species farther downstream. Moreover, the monetary and energy costs of building the project and pumping water 500 miles to the Front Range would be staggering.
There are better options. Smart water strategies — like water conservation, reuse, small-scale storage, aquifer recharge and water sharing arrangements — carry a fraction of the cost and environmental impact of transbasin pipelines. Together, these smart strategies would eliminate the need for a Flaming Gorge pipeline or other costly and environmentally damaging transbasin diversion.
Drew Peternell, Boulder
The writer is director of Trout Unlimited’s Colorado Water Project.
http://blogs.denverpost.com/eletters/2009/08/20/colorado-cities-eyeing-wyoming-water-2-letters/
All of this serves chiefly as an angler's pow-wow for an initiative that began several years ago with a $400,000 grant to the Greenway Foundation to study what is called River North, from Confluence Park to the northern city limits.
More recently, Trout Unlimited announced a memorandum of understanding with South Suburban Parks and Recreation and the city of Littleton for a study of an extended reach of the river downstream from C-470.
North of this is a jumble of broken concrete, discarded tires and assorted trash that has plagued the river for as long as anyone can recall.
"We'd like to see the Platte turned into a recreational playground, a place that would attract tourists as well as residents, much like with Salida and Durango," said Michael Hobbs, president of the Denver Chapter.
Written by Environmental Specialist Paul Day
DENVER (CBS4)
Why, some might ask, would competent fly fishers pay good money to catch something in downtown Denver as ugly as a carp? The answer lies several miles upriver on the urban South Platte.
Todd Fehr is with the environmental group Trout Unlimited.
"Today, the river in many places is thin, too shallow for trout to live in," said Fehr, an officer with the Denver Chapter of TU.
TU has plans for turning the marginal water into a recreational fishery.
http://cbs4denver.com/entertainment/fly.fishing.carp.2.1132797.html
Experts trying to figure out workings of abandoned tunnels to treat Peru Creek heavy metals
By Bob Berwyn summit daily news
Some recent estimates for treating drainage from the abandoned mine range as high as $20 million, according to Trout Unlimited's Elizabeth Russell, who has been leading the effort the past couple of years. That amount includes construction and annual operations and maintenance for as long as 20 years, but it's still much higher than expected. When Trout Unlimited entered the picture, there was speculation that a treatment plant could be built for under $1 million.
“All the work that's been done up there paints a much more dire picture of what we need to do,” Russell said.
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20090814/NEWS/908139987/1055
