Roadless Areas Win Big Victory – But Future for Colorado Still at Risk

Those who care about roadless areas nationwide can rest a bit easier, knowing that the law is indeed on their side.  As reported in the Denver Post, on October 21, the 10^th Circuit federal appeals court issued a ruling affirming the 2001 roadless rule and reversing and injunction against the rule that had been issued in the District Court.  The ruling puts the national roadless rule back on firm legal ground.  However, the US Forest Service and Colorado Department of Natural Resources intend to continue forward with a Colorado-specific rule, so we still do not know the protections that will ultimately apply to 4.2 million acres of outstanding Colorado backcountry. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell said that while the Obama Administration "strongly supports [the] court decision … we also remain committed to moving forward with the Colorado Roadless Rule for National Forests there."

The most recent draft of the Colorado Rule, while improved from earlier drafts, still is weaker on balance than the 2001 rule which was just reaffirmed in court.  To offset parts of the rule that weaken backcountry protection – such as allowances for coal mining and ski areas – Colorado TU and other sportsmen have called for a number of changes that would strengthen the rule and help it reach a balance that is as strong or stronger than the 2001 rule.  Specific points of concern include:

• Since some areas enjoy weaker protections, other areas should receive stronger, “Upper Tier” protection.  This status needs to be meaningful, with extra protections such as no surface occupancy stipulations to ensure that energy development takes place without harming habitat, and needs to apply to more of Colorado's backcountry than in the current proposal.
• Protections need to be strengthened so that Colorado’s native cutthroat trout, which depend heavily on habitat in roadless areas, are adequately protected when activities (such as logging or building of temporary roads) are allowed within roadless backcountry.
• “Linear construction zones” – a euphemism for a temporary road along the path of a linear facility such as power lines or a pipeline – need to be more tightly restricted to ensure that they do not become a huge loophole that undermines backcountry protection.

Colorado TU has called on the Forest Service to adopt changes to address these concerns and ensure that any Colorado rule is as strong on balance as the 2001 rule.  The fish, wildlife, and recreational economies that rely on healthy Colorado backcountry should enjoy protections every bit as strong as those that apply throughout the rest of the country.

While Colorado’s roadless future remains uncertain, for roadless areas nationwide there is reason to celebrate.  The 10th Circuit decision is a clear rejection of Wyoming's legal arguments against the rule -- the appeals court simply disagreed with the lower court's conclusion that Wyoming's legal arguments were valid. For those who like reading legal decisions, the “money” quote from the decision is:  "Wyoming failed to demonstrate that the Forest Service's promulgation of the Roadless Rule violated the Wilderness Act, NEPA, MUSYA, or NFMA."

Why We Love What We Do

A few weeks ago, The Greenbacks group of Colorado Trout Unlimited put on the Colorado Premier of Connect. During intermission, a lot of raffle items from out great sponsors were given away. One happened to be a rod/reel combo from Redington. The Greenbacks recently received this email from the winner, Andrew Medina:

"My name is Andrew and I’m the 14 year old who won the rod, reel, hat, and vest at the connect premier. I just wanted to thank you for putting on the whole event, I really had fun at it. I have been fishing the rod a lot on the south platte in Denver and used the reel on the Arkansas. I have caught around 20 fish on the south platte in 2 trips. I have already put the rod to good use! thanks again."

This is exactly why we love what we do, and we're so happy this landed in the hands of a young man that is putting the gear to work.

Cheers Andrew - keep it up!

Thanks again to Redington for helping with the event - it means all the world to us, and apparently Andrew, too.

Fraser River gets a boost

by Bob Berwyn Summit County Citizen's Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — With its flows reduced by upstream tributary diversions, and its river-bottom cobbles choked by highway traction sand, the Fraser River has long been a symbol of the imbalance between resource protection and other uses of water in Colorado.

But the Grand County stream will soon get partial relief, as various agencies from both sides of the Continental Divide teamed up to construct a settling pond near the entrance to the Mary Jane ski area in a project tha symbolizes an emerging spirit of tran-smountain cooperation.

Better maintenance and capture of highway sand can help reduce impacts to tiny aquatic organisms that form the base of the food chain in the river, helping to sustain healthy fisheries. The larvae of the aquatic insects need a coarse bed of rocks at the bottom of the stream to thrive. When the sand fills in all the gaps between the rocks, the bugs have nowhere to go.

The settling pond will also protect municipal and resort water infrastructure and equipment.

Read more

U.S. Senate honors Fraser's Kirk Klancke

By Tonya BinaSky-Hi News

U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., recognized Fraser resident Kirk Klancke on the senate floor in Washington D.C. on Oct. 12 for Klancke's “commitment to preserving our environment and making Colorado a better place to live, work and play.” In his speech to members of the 112th Congress, Udall highlighted the fact that Klancke, president of Grand County's chapter of Trout Unlimited, was recently selected a finalist for Field and Stream's “Heroes of Conservation” Award. “Both Kirk and I have spent time enjoying the natural beauty of our state while appreciating the value of preserving it for future generations,” Udall stated. “His work embodies what I have long held to be true — we don't inherit the Earth from our parents; we borrow it from our children and the generations that will follow.”

Read the full article

Learn more about Colorado TU's efforts to Defend the Colorado River

Great Alaskan fishery faces crippling threat

 

Scott Willoughby: Denver Post:

For those unfamiliar with SaveBristolBay.org and its tour featuring the locally produced film "Red Gold," its mission is to educate folks on the threat of the gargantuan Pebble Mine proposed to be built at the headwaters of Bristol Bay, the world's greatest salmon fishery.

The rivers of Bristol Bay make up the world's largest commercial sockeye salmon fishery and arguably its top sport fishery, accounting for a $360 million annual economy. People, like me, travel from afar to take part in the annual upstream migration, whether for work or wild adventure.

After recently discovering the world's second-largest copper and gold resource at the river headwaters, a multinational mining corporation known as Pebble Limited Partnership (PLP) has applied for permits to develop one of the largest mines on the planet, an open-pit mine estimated at 55 square miles and producing several billion tons of toxic waste requiring treatment and storage in perpetuity.

Needless to say, the Pebble Mine proposal isn't sitting well with the massive fishing industry, given the potential for seepage into ground and surface water in the seismically active area surrounding the vital and pristine Kvichak and Nushagak rivers. That's just the sort of thing that devastates fisheries, and leads to my stories.

Read the entire story here.

Guest Commentary: We don't need to drill it all

Denver Post Bill Fales and Auden Schendler

What a thing it was. Seven green John Deere​ tractors, buckets skyward, hundreds of thousands of dollars in farm ordinance, rolling down Main Street in Carbondale on a beautiful Saturday earlier this month. The tractors, in the height of fall roundup, were on the way to ... a street protest.

Really.

These tractor owners are not Occupy Wall Street types. They wear crushed and filthy felt cowboy hats. They have no iPhones. They don't use Soft Soap. Lotion is as foreign an idea as complaining. And yet here they were, in these fractious times, going to meet their friends -- 300 of them, in fact: the hippies and the hunters, the drummers and the Republicans, the women in long flowing dresses, the businessmen and the children, fellow cattlemen and grandparents.

They gathered under the name the Thompson Divide Coalition (TDC), organized more than three years ago to protect 221,000 acres of Forest Service land just outside of Carbondale from gas drilling. Thompson Divide is a place for all people: It's the town's viewshed; it hosts a popular climbing area; offers five months of grazing for cattle owned by local ranchers who provide an important and growing source of healthy local food; it includes hiking trails around a pristine creek; an incredible nonprofit Nordic ski area; one of the best game management units for hunting elk and deer in the nation; and a vast system of snowmobile trails.

Because these uses touch everyone, it's hard to find anyone in the Crystal or Roaring Fork Valleys who doesn't support the coalition. The signs speak to that: Tractors for Thompson Divide. Ranchers for Thompson Divide. Save It For the Kids. Cows Need Grass, Not Gas. Clean Air, Clean Water = Priceless.

And the message from this group was, in short, that we don't need to drill it all. While gas is useful and necessary, and the business provides jobs and food for families, we don't have to drill every square inch. Today, Western Colorado is seeing some of the highest wellhead density in the West. And we as a state are going to town on our bountiful reserves, no question.

Read more here...

Bill Fales is a rancher and owner of Cold Mountain Ranch. Auden Schendler is a vice president at Aspen Skiing Company​.

Study: Climate Change Threatens Trout Habitat

  From Colorado Public Radio - Please take a moment to listen:

Drive past a river in Colorado’s mountains and there’s a good chance you’ll see someone trying to land a trout. But now, scientists say, Colorado’s best trout-fishing rivers are in jeopardy because of climate change. A new study says trout habitat in the West will shrink by about half over the next 70 years. Kurt Fausch is a professor of fish biology at Colorado State University, and a co-author of the study. He speaks with Ryan Warner.

Click here to visit CPR and listen to the podcast.

First Annual Casting For Recover Event from the Cheyenne Mountain Chapter

From Erik Heikennenen, President CMCTU: CMCTU’s First Annual Tying and Giving Back fly tying event is scheduled for October 25, 2011 7pm-9pm. Here’s your opportunity to sit down and tie flies with some of “best of the best” professional fly tiers, guides and authors.

The event is also a great way to acknowledge Breast Cancer Awareness Month and help Casting for Recovery. All flies tied by you and our guests will benefit breast cancer survivors attending Casting for Recovery fly fishing retreats!

With and through the guidance of former Chapter Board Member, Jim Williams, CMCTU members have tied and donated 92 dozen flies this year and over 250 dozen in the past 5 years to Casting for Recovery.

Don’t forget this is your chance to sit down, at our member / audience tying table, next to professionals and tie up a few flies of your own.

Are you ready to show the folks at Casting for Recovery we have a few more flies to tie for them?

Join us at Tying and Giving Back!

Don't Forget - CONNECT Premier This Thurday!

  Don't forget folks - The Greenbacks and Colorado Trout Unlimited is presenting the Colorado premier of CONNECT, a Confluence Film production this Thursday, October 20th at the Oriental Theater located at 44th & Tennyson. We're looking at a large crowd, so get your tickets and we'll see you there.

We have a lot of door prizes and cash raffle items, so get there early!

Thank you to all the companies that donated products that go directly to Colorado Trout Unlimited and The Greenbacks.

Check out the trailer - this is going to be a great event!

FERC Finds Million Application Deficient

An application for an environmental review of the proposed Flaming Gorge pipeline, submitted by Aaron Million's Wyco Power and Water Inc., has been found deficent by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. In requesting that Mr. Million provide greater specificity in his plans and fill-in gaps in information, the agency also appears to question the appropriateness of being the lead agency for the project's review: "Because the Commission would only have jurisdiction with regard to the proposed hydroelectric development, which is only one component of the proposed 501-mile-long water supply pipeline project, construction of substantial parts of the overall project may require permits from other federal agencies. For the 3,212 acres of federal land you identify in exhibit 3, please identify the responsible federal agencies that manage those lands."

The Flaming Gorge Pipeline, estimated by the Colorado Water Conservation Board to cost nearly $9 billion to build, is known by its detractors as the "most expensive water in Colorado history."

See complete coverage of the Flaming Gorge Pipeline by Western Resource Advocates.

See the actual FERC letter to Wyco Power and Water.

See the video about the Flaming Gorge Pipeline shot by Pete McBride.