Healing ties bind veterans

9News

 Christina Dickinson written by: Kim Christiansen

In the community center of Denver's Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Bob and Christine talk about Project Healing Waters. The program offers its services and program to active military personnel and veterans in Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals throughout the country. The project's program provides basic fly fishing, fly casting, fly tying and rod building classes and clinics for wounded and injured personnel, ranging from beginners to those with prior fly fishing and tying experience who are adapting their skills to their new abilities. All activities and services are provided to the participants at no cost. Fly fishing and tying equipment materials are provided to the participants, including equipment that accommodates their special needs.

The project relies on Federation of Fly Fishers, Trout Unlimited and independent fly fishing clubs to conduct the program at the DOD and DVA hospitals across the nation.

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=140078&catid=188

"Refresh" South Platte River

World Fishing Network Denver's Trout Unlimited chapter has embraced the Pepsi Refresh Project and has submitted their idea for "Refreshing" South Platte River.

This Pepsi program is helping organizations, groups and individuals do some good around their communities by supplying $1, 300, 000 in awards each month. At the beginning of the month "ideas" are submitted for each grant amount and the public is able to vote on the ones they would like to see succeed.

It is called the South Platte Project and their plans for restoring the river don't stop with the clean up. This Trout Unlimited chapter plans on making an environment that will encourage children and youth to get out doors and fishing.

After the area has been cleaned up and all the mandatory adjustments like bank stabilization and low flow channels for boating have been made they plan on stocking the river and with the help of volunteers they will monitor the river's improvement as well as working with the area's young people.

The Denver chapter of Trout Unlimited began the research and planning of the South Platte Project in the spring of 2009 and in February of this year the project was approved and is now underway. They need the financial support being awarded by Pepsi to be successful. You can find out more and help by voting here.

http://www.wfn.tv/news/index.php?blog=405038

Drilling sites garner little interest

BY BOBBY MAGILL

Coloradoan

Corey Fisher of Trout Unlimited said that might show there isn't much interest in new energy development in North Park and that the industry believes the area is an exploration zone. Despite the lack of interest, the parcels that sold are in sensitive trout habitat, he said.

One parcel straddles the North Platte River and one of its tributaries, while the others are near the headwaters of different tributary streams.

"Development on any of those leases could be problematic," Fisher said, calling those streams "irreplaceable fisheries."

http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20100524/NEWS01/5240307/Drilling-sites-garner-little-interest#pluckcomments

BLM targets Alpine Triangle recreation plan

by Dale Rodebaugh

Herald Staff Writer

"We believe the BLM does a fabulous job of managing the Alpine Triangle, especially given its limited budget," Ty Churchwell, with the Five Rivers chapter of Trout Unlimited, said Friday. "It does little to change the current management plan, while recognizing that the resource is under ever-increasing pressure from recreational users." Churchwell said the motto for the Trout Unlimited campaign is: Keep it like it is. He said his organization wants to give the BLM long-term direction on management and possibly funding.

The BLM can't advocate for or endorse any particular legislative action, Churchwell said. The land is public and self-governance is the cornerstone of discussions.

"It's up to citizens to direct the BLM as to how we'd like to see our public lands managed," Churchwell said. "The (BLM) recreational plan is a good indicator of the beliefs of Alpine Triangle stakeholders and a tool we can use as we start discussions about the future of the area."

http://durangoherald.com/sections/News/2010/05/23/BLM_targets_Alpine_Triangle_recreation_plan/

Tour reveals river damage in Edwards

Sarah MausolfVail Correspondent Post Independent

The Eagle River Watershed Council and Trout Unlimited invited stakeholders on a rafting trip to tour the length of river where the $4 million restoration project is taking place.

About two thirds of the river restoration project is complete, said Melissa Macdonald, executive director of the watershed council. In 2008, workers added stones along the banks that pinch the water into a narrower, deeper channel. That helps keep fish healthy when the river is low. This stretch of the river gets wide and hot during low flow times, which is bad for fish, Macdonald said.

“The fish will either die or leave,” she said.

As houses and parking lots proliferated upstream, Ash said water that would normally soak into the ground instead flowed into the river. That runoff carried extra sediment downstream, depositing it in this stretch of the river.

That sediment caused the river to widen out, and clogged pebbles along the bottom that are an important habitat for the bugs that fish eat.

The restoration project has been fixing those areas to make them more friendly for trout.

http://www.postindependent.com/article/20100522/VALLEYNEWS/100529972/1083&ParentProfile=1074

Thompson Valley students spawn successful Trout in the Classroom program

By Carl McCutchen • Loveland Connection Wednesday was a new day, a day to let go as the first year of the Trout in the Classroom program at Thompson Valley concluded.

Hewson and Carlson stood by Hunter as he prepared the fish for the move, as did wildlife biologist Dan Stubbs.

Even Sharon Lance, president of the Trout Unlimited Cutthroat Chapter, who sponsored the Trout in the Classroom project with the Division of Wildlife, was on hand to see the fish move on.

Lance said that because of the program’s success, Hewson and his students showed this year, she plans on launching five more Trout in the Classroom projects in the fall.

http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20100514/LOVELAND01/100513016

Plans to Open North Park for Drilling Fought

KUNC

Kirk Siegler

Most springs, when the snow melt is furious, Bill Dvorak grabs his raft and tackle and heads to a wild and remote stretch of the North Platte River northeast of Steamboat Springs. "It's one of those rivers that I really love," Dvorak says. "I've always described it as close as you can get to an Idaho river in Colorado."

He leads outfitting trips that start at 9,000 feet, winding through the Northgate Canyon Wilderness Area, eventually spilling out into a sparsely developed basin known colloquially as North Park.

"It's kind of like the Serengeti of Colorado," Dvorak says. "There's so many animals up in that North Park area, and it definitely deserves some sort of consideration before you would go in there and destroy some of that habitat."

Dvorak is an organizer with the National Wildlife Federation, which along with Colorado Trout Unlimited and other groups have filed formal protests against Thursday's lease auction. The auction includes about 11,000 acres in the North Park area. The groups worry roads and well pads necessary for oil and gas drilling will fragment habitat for wildlife such as the sage grouse, antelope and mule deer.

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kunc/news.newsmain/article/1/0/1647955/Regional/Plans.to.Open.North.Park.for.Drilling.Fought

Interior Department opening Colorado's North Park to gas and oil drilling

By Bruce Finley The Denver Post

Over the protests of conservation groups, federal land managers are moving to open 11,160 acres of North Park for gas and oil drilling.

The valley between the Zirkel and Medicine Bow mountains sustains antelope, elk, moose, bighorn sheep, raptors, trout and sage grouse.

But the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management — despite recent vows to emphasize conservation — decided the nation's need for domestic oil justified the decision to allow drilling in the North Park area.

Conservation groups protesting opening the North Park parcels for drilling include Colorado Trout Unlimited, the National Wildlife Federation, Western Resource Advocates, WildEarth Guardians, Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and the Colorado Environmental Coalition.

http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_15047935

Sportsmen object to hasty North Park oil and gas lease sale

Colorado Independent

By David O. Williams

“We’re not saying oil and gas development should be prohibited in North Park,” said Brad Powell, energy director for Trout Unlimited. “But we should let the planning process play out and ensure that proper protections are in place before making any long-term commitment to oil and gas development on these leases.” http://coloradoindependent.com/52517/sportsmen-object-to-hasty-north-park-oil-and-gas-lease-sale

South Platte River under siege by trash

By Scott WilloughbyThe Denver Post

"It's the most degraded river in the state for sure," Kahn said. "What this could be — should be — is a recreational paradise. It's right in the middle of town, and people should be out here able to use it without worrying about their kids getting sick and without seeing all kinds of nasty debris on the side of the river."

With that in mind, Confluence Kayaks has teamed up with Denver Parks and Recreation partners at The Greenway Foundation and river stakeholders such as Colorado Whitewater and Denver Trout Unlimited (TU) to form an entity known as Protect our Urban River Environment, or PURE. PURE has initiated efforts to work with municipal leaders along the South Platte in Arapahoe, Denver and Adams counties to increase the focus on preventing trash and debris from getting into the river and its tributaries, as well as the actual removal.

The first step, organizers say, is to retrofit sewage and storm-water outfall pipes with pollutant traps designed to collect the garbage before it flows into the river, rather than pulling it out piece by piece. The group has approached the state's Water Quality Control Commission about listing the river as "impaired" because of the amount of trash. The river is undergoing an EPA-enforced effort to reduce levels of E. coli and other pathogens, and PURE would like to see a similar Total Maximum Daily Load established for trash.

"We were encouraged by the momentum that these guys had established and encouraged them to work to develop an appropriate benchmark to list something for trash," said Andrew Todd, a Water Control Commissioner and TU member who took part in Sunday's cleanup.

http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_14964622