Sportsman's watchman

A tribute to outdoorsman/journalist charlie meyers

By Karl Licis Special to The Denver Post

On Saturday, the property through which the Dream Stream flows will be dedicated as the Charlie Meyers State Wildlife Area in his honor.

Following, in random order, are some shared thoughts from people with a connection to the stream of dreams.

* * *

"Completely sated." Roger Hill is an expert angler, innovator and author of "Fly Fishing the South Platte River: an Angler's Guide," the first insightful book addressing the Dream Stream. He lives in Colorado Springs and is credited with procuring 12 miles of barbed wire for the Cheyenne Mountain chapter of Trout Unlimited for fencing the property in order to keep out the cattle.

"It's always been a challenge, but also very rewarding. It's had great hatches and demanding fish, but when you were on them it was incredibly good. I have many fond memories of days when the fishing was so good I would leave the river completely sated by the early afternoon."

* * *

For future generations. Sinjin Eberle is board president for Colorado Trout Unlimited, which has been involved in every aspect of making the Dream Stream what it has become. Eberle has limited Dream Stream experience, but he coordinated CTU's Buffalo Peaks project in the upper South Platte drainage. There he met Meyers.

"I was telling him all about the project and he was listening, but he also was observing every mayfly and every rising trout. He was fully in tune with every bit of the nature that was all around him, and that really drove home the point to me about why we're doing these things — the need to pass it on for future generations.

"The Dream Stream, along with two or three other rivers in Colorado, is widely known nationally and internationally, and he was a big part of making it what it is."

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_15236345

Colorado River makes threatened list

By Bobby Magill

Coloradoan

The Colorado River through Rocky Mountain National Park and Grand and Eagle counties was highlighted this week as one of the most threatened rivers in the U.S. by environmental group American Rivers. The group creates an annual list of rivers it considers threatened by development, water depletion and other factors.

More than 60 percent of the water in the Colorado River's headwaters has been removed by water diversion projects, feeding growing cities on the Front Range and elsewhere in Colorado, harming the river's trout fisheries and riparian areas, said Ken Neubecker of Colorado Trout Unlimited.

"If you take all the water out, you kill the river," he said.

http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20100604/LOVELAND01/100604003

Front Range projects are river threats, group says

GJ Sentinel

By Gary Harmon

The upper reaches of the Colorado River are endangered by proposed expansions of two transmountain-diversion projects, an advocacy group said. The projects, the Windy Gap Firming Project and the Moffat Tunnel Collection System Project, would increase diversions from the upper Colorado River by at least 48,000 acre-feet a year.

The threat to the river’s fishery, boating and water supply to downstream users placed the Upper Colorado River at No. 6 in the 2010 list of the nation’s most-endangered rivers by American Rivers.

The American Rivers list puts a needed spotlight on how much water is taken from the Colorado River Basin, Ken Neubecker of Colorado Trout Unlimited said.

“We need to start looking at whole picture not just the balkanized water-supply picture” of the way the Colorado River is divided up between the Front Range and Western Slope, Neubecker said.

Trout Unlimited hopes it can use American Waters’ listing of the river as endangered “as a vehicle to raise awareness on the Front Range about the cost of their water” in terms of water quality and quantity on the other side of the mountains, Neubecker said.

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/articles/front_range_projects_are_river/

Upper Colorado River makes list of endangered rivers

By Tonya BinaSky-Hi Daily News

The Upper Colorado River has secured a spot on America's Most Endangered Rivers list, released today by American Rivers.

The threat of two new water diversion projects that could “sap the life from the Upper Colorado” was a main reason the river was chosen for the report's No. 6 spot.

“The most endangered river listings get the attention of media and policy-makers,” said Randy Scholfield, spokesperson of Trout Unlimited's Western Water Project. “It does help to highlight some of the threats facing these rivers and helps them get the grassroots support they need.”

http://www.skyhidailynews.com/article/20100602/NEWS/100609984/1079&ParentProfile=1067

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