Chapter Spotlight: Canyon Reach project on Mayhem Gulch

By Glen Edwards, West Denver TU Chapter On Friday, Oct. 28, 2011, the West Denver chapter held a brief dedication ceremony at Mayhem Gulch for the recently completed WDTU Canyon Reach project on Clear Creek. This project concentrated on safe access for young families and marginally mobile adults, both relative to the busy highway, and relative to the stream. Three separate stretches received major winter habitat and feeding lane structures, as well as boulder clusters for easy fishing access, constructed by the contractor, Frontier Environmental Services. The lowest stretch is at Mayhem Gulch, located 9.5 miles up Clear Creek Canyon from the intersection of Highways 6 and 93 just west of Golden, or just below Mile Marker 262. The middle stretch is upstream at a large unpaved parking area just below MM 261, and the upper stretch is further upstream near the Canyon Park Open Space sign just below MM 260.5.

Contributions to the project from CDPW's "Fishing is Fun" program, the Jefferson County's Conservation Trust Fund, the Colorado Water Conservation Board, Alfred Frei and Sons quarry, CTU's GoMo Grant, the Henderson Mine, the Trask Family Foundation, as well as several private donors and our own WDTU chapter, totaled approximately $300,000. Educational signage for the project is planned, but not yet installed.

Jefferson County Comission Chairperson Faye Griffin spoke briefly at the Oct. 28 Canyon Reach Project dedication ceremony, and the Director of the new Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife, Rick Cables, was the keynote speaker. Cables impressed the audience with his down-to-earth enthusiasm for efforts like the Canyon Reach Project , and for his obvious support for conservation groups like Trout Unlimited.

Support the San Juan Wilderness

Durango, Colo. — Trout Unlimited announced today its strong support for S. 1635, the San Juan Mountains Wilderness Act of 2011. The bill, authored by Sen. Mark Udall and co-sponsored by Sen. Michael Bennet, would conserve more than 60,000 acres of outstanding fish and wildlife habitat on public land in Southwest Colorado, and with it, countless opportunities for sportsmen and women to hunt, fish and provide sustainable economic benefits to the communities in the region. “This is a beautiful, high-altitude area that is heavily used by both local sportsmen and visitors to our area,” said Marshall Pendergrass, current president of TU’s Gunnison Gorge Anglers chapter and resident of Montrose. “It’s the key to the tourism economy of Telluride and Ouray.”

Local TU members worked with fellow residents and several conservation organizations to help craft the legislation, which has the support of a wide variety of stakeholders in the area.

“I’ve attended meetings on this proposal from the beginning, and this bill is not a surprise coming down on this area from federal officials. This bill was crafted from the grassroots,” said Ouray resident Tony Chelf, an active member of the Gunnison Gorge Anglers chapter. “It wasn’t easy, but now that the work is done, the bill ought to be passed quickly.”

Both Pendergrass and Chelf, joined by the 10,000 members of Colorado Trout Unlimited, called on Colorado Rep. Scott Tipton to support a twin measure in the House of Representatives to ensure the bill’s speedy passage through Congress.

“This isn’t a partisan measure,” Chelf said. “It’s not only what the majority of people in this area want to see, it’s a win-win for everyone.”

See also:

• Senators Udall and Bennet Introduce San Juan Wilderness Bill
• San Juan Mountains Wilderness - Protecting 33,000 acres has broad support

Watershed restoration efforts continue

The Mountain Mail by Joe Stone

Environmental restoration is complete in two-thirds of the Kerber Creek watershed, extending from north of Bonanza to San Luis Creek near Villa Grove in the northern San Luis Valley.

Aarón Mohammadi, Kerber Creek Restoration Project coordinator with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, said the project focused on private land lower reaches of the watershed.

Project success, he said, is the result of collaboration among 40 landowners and 16 entities – including federal, state and local, and nonprofit groups including Collegiate Peaks Chapter of Trout Unlimited and Southwest Conservation Corps.

Kerber Creek is a 19-mile-long waterway contaminated by decades of mining that began in 1880 when prospectors discovered gold and silver in Bonanza Mining District in the northern San Juan Mountains.

Within a few years, tainted runoff began to affect ranchers downstream in the San Luis Valley, and as mining activity increased, so did pollution – toxic metals and sulfuric acid, a by-product of the sulfide ore tailings.

Click to read more...

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.