Another reason to visit Patagonia's Denver store this month: For every pair of shoes sold at their Denver retail location from June 1st - 30th, Patagonia will donate $10 directly to ColoradoTU's coldwater conservation programs through their foundation, 1% for the Planet. No strings attached (ahem, no pun intended).
You can view their footwear selection by clicking here, BUT REMEMBER ColoradoTU only gets the $10 if you get off the couch and walk down to Patagonia Denver to make your purchase.
Erica Stock Angling Trade Magazine The Colorado River is Dying … and the fly fishing community must help save it. If this doesn’t upset you, I don’t know what would. As you may or may not be aware – at its headwaters in Grand County, over 50 percent of the Colorado River’s historic annual flows are removed and diverted across the Continental Divide to Front Range cities like Denver, Broomfield, Arvada, and Longmont through the Moffat Tunnel and Colorado Big Thompson Project (aka, the “CBT”). Once it reemerges through spigots and spouts, OVER HALF of that water is used outdoors to sustain lawns and thirsty landscaping.
Read the full article here: http://www.anglingtrade.com/2011/05/25/tu-says-the-colorado-river-is-%E2%80%9Cdying%E2%80%9D/
Colorado TU's summer Board meeting will be held at the Scenic Mesa Ranch near Hochkiss on Saturday, July 9th. This event is free and intended for Colorado TU chapter leaders and board members.
In addition to the meeting during the day, we will be holding a special bluegrass and barbecue dinner on Saturday evening. A big thanks to our two host chapters - Gunnison Gorge Anglers and Grand Valley Anglers - and to Scenic Mesa Ranch.
To RSVP, please send an email to John Gamble at john.gamble@coloradotu.org. If you are bringing a spouse or guest to the evening barbecue dinner, please include that information in your email so we have an accurate headcount.
Meeting attendees are responsible for booking and paying for their own lodging. The closet lodging is the Hotchkiss Inn 970-872-2200. We were unable to reserve a block of rooms for members, so call soon to book your room. Other lodging options are available about 20 miles from Scenic Mesa Ranch in Delta at the Rodeway Inn 970-874-9726, Comfort Inn 970-874-1000, and Sundance Motor Inn 970-874-978.
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PUEBLO — As much as 100 million gallons a day of Arkansas River water trapped in a reservoir for southern Colorado and downriver states is about to take a left turn — to Colorado's biggest water project in decades.
Construction crews this week began work on the $2.3 billion Southern Delivery System. It is designed to pump water uphill and north from Pueblo Reservoir — through a 62-mile pipeline — to sustain Colorado Springs, which owns the rights to the river water, and other growing Front Range cities.
Environmental groups "are generally satisfied," as long as Colorado Springs live up to its commitments to ensure appropriate water levels in the Arkansas River above and below the reservoir, Trout Unlimited water project director Drew Peternell said.
Huge amounts of energy required to pump water uphill, however, looms as "a greenhouse gas issue," Peternell said. "We'd encourage them to consider renewable sources" of electricity, he said.
Read more: Colorado's biggest water project in decades under construction - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_18110888#ixzz1NBzCScuo
Scott WilloughbyThe Denver Post
Representatives from Grand County, Trout Unlimited, Northwest Colorado Council of Governments, Colorado River Landowners and Western Resource Advocates expressed concerns over the proposals by the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District to annually draw thousands of acre-feet more water from Windy Gap Reservoir for Front Range storage and by Denver Water to increase diversions through the Moffat Tunnel to an enlarged Gross Reservoir near Boulder.
One challenge is measuring the effectiveness of proposed enhancement and mitigation, said Mely Whiting, of Trout Unlimited. “There are some minimum things that need to go into adaptive management,” she said. “Right now, there are no requirements for baseline monitoring. If you’re going to use (adaptive management) as a vehicle for mitigation, you have to have minimum elements … you need to have an enforcement mechanism that becomes part of the federal permit and you have to have public accountability. The public has to have the ability to say, “‘Hey, you’re not doing it right.’ You have to up the ante,” she said.
Trout Unlimited also says there needs to be more money in the mitigation pot to address future impacts and to ensure adequate resources for the long-term monitoring that will be needed. Read this Colorado Trout Unlimited blog post by Whiting to get a good overview of the issues from the conservation group’s perspective.
http://summitcountyvoice.com/2011/05/07/colorado-river-it-shouldnt-be-about-power-and-money/
Together with the current Windy Gap and Moffat operations, the projects threaten to collectively reduce the Fraser River and Upper Colorado River to less than 25 percent of their historic flows, a press release from Trout Unlimited states.
TU members seek to encourage keeping more water in the streams to mitigate increasing stream temperatures, algae blooms and declines in fish populations, and are urging the public to attend the meeting to discuss the fate of the rivers. Guides and outfitters should also be present to discuss the economic impacts of dewatered rivers.
Agreeing to adequate mitigation plans would be a way for Denver Water to live up to its recent statements that that it has acknowledged the impacts of its operations on West Slope streams and is committed to addressing those impacts, said Mely Whiting, with TU’s Colorado Water Project. “We think what we’re asking for is pretty reasonable,” Whiting said. “This is the only chance we’re going get to address some of these impacts. We need to have an insurance policy,” she added.
Whiting said the environmental studies for the Moffat and Windy Gap projects dealt with some of the anticipated impacts in a speculative way, and that there’s no way of knowing exactly how the increased diversions — planned during the peak flow season — will play out.
If the money currently earmarked toward enhancements is sufficient, great. But if not, there needs to be a pot of money in reserve to do the needed work, she said.
Specifically, Trout Unlimited said that significant restoration work and monitoring will be needed to ensure healthy aquatic ecosystems on the Fraser and Upper Colorado rivers. The group estimates that it will cost about $14 million for the needed work, yet only a fraction of that funding is included in the mitigation plans.
The group will also push to include specific monitoring plans to gather the scientific data that’s needed to make adaptive management work. River temperatures, fish populations and river flows have to be tracked carefully and on an ongoing basis, requiring a sustained commitment to science.
Trout Unlimited also wants the Front Range utilities to make a commitment to stop diversions when the water gets too warm or flows drop too low. Removing too much water from the river during runoff or during critical hot summer months raises stream temperatures and eliminates flushing flows that are needed to keep river ecosystems alive.
If flushing flows are not occurring or if temperatures rise above state standards, fish can die. Water providers need to make a commitment to stop diversions when stream temperatures approach state standards or if flushing flows are not occurring in accordance with the community-led Grand County Stream Management Plan. These commitments, combined with ongoing monitoring, are what is referred to by the concept of ‘Adaptive Management.'
http://summitcountyvoice.com/2011/05/05/anglers-want-insurance-policy-for-colorado-river-projects/
