San Miguel remains free flowing

A western slope river as old as the Rocky Mountains will live on. One of the last free-flowing rivers in Colorado, the San Miguel will continue to course through the western slope unchecked by mankind, thanks to a May 20 Colorado Water Court ruling granting it protected status. Granted "in-stream flow protection," the San Miguel will continue to be a natural habitat for three fish species, as well as fuel the down-stream rafting economy, said John Fielder, a landscape photographer and champion of natural resources preservation.

"Like the Yampa (River), the San Miguel is one of the last undammed major rivers in the state," Fielder said.

Read more about the ruling protecting the San Miguel in The Gazette.

Brian Hodge, Project Coordinator, Yampa and White River Basins

As a member of TU’s Colorado Water Project, I work to meet TU’s mission through on-the-ground projects.  My goal is to plan and implement projects that benefit coldwater fish and landowner alike.  By helping to improve irrigation efficiency, for example, we can, under the right circumstances, both improve ranch operations and increase stream flows for trout.  I frequently work with private landowners and agency partners to reach conservation goals. Here’s a flavor of happenings in the northwest Colorado:

In 2012, I worked with Yampa River Ranch and Partners for Fish and Wildlife (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) to protect a 1.6-mile segment of the Yampa River. The Ranch wanted both to run cattle and to maximize habitat for brown trout.  So we constructed a riparian fence that enhanced the ranch’s ability to concurrently manage for a livestock operation and trout fishery.

I’m currently working with the U.S. Forest Service to reconnect Poose Creek.  Poose Creek is occupied by native Colorado River Cutthroat Trout.  However, since the 1960s a large culvert under a county road has prevented cutthroat and other fishes from accessing the headwaters.  We’re installing a fish ladder to restore fish passage in Poose Creek.

This year, I continued working with Colorado Parks and Wildlife and others on multi-phase efforts to restore Armstrong and Milk creeks.  Both streams are home to native cutthroat trout and to two lesser-known native, coldwater fishes: mountain sucker and mottled sculpin.  Additional information is available at the following links:

Armstrong Creek.   http://www.tu.org/blog-posts/a-small-creek-a-grand-vision-of-restoration

Milk Creek.  http://troutunlimitedblog.com/climate-adaptation-one-stream-at-a-time/

We’ve implemented successful projects and developed valuable partnerships in northwest Colorado. Additional opportunities await.

Brian Hodge - bhodge@tu.org

Aaron Kindle, Colorado Field Coordinator, SCP

My name is Aaron Kindle. I am the Colorado Field Coordinator for National Trout Unlimited's Sportsmen's Conservation Project or SCP. The SCP is essentially the public lands protection arm of TU. We work in three main program areas: energy development, off-highway vehicles (OHVs) and backcountry protection. I have been with TU for three years now and have worked on several issues you are probably familiar with - the Colorado Roadless Rule, energy development in the White River Basin, and travel management planning across the state. I'm currently engaged in efforts across Colorado in all three of our program areas. One you may have heard of is the Thompson Divide. This area is a unique 200,000 plus acre landscape just west of Carbondale. We are engaged there due to the outstanding fish and wildlife habitat, including several cutthroat trout populations, and the potential for energy development. Our goal is to pass legislation to permanently withdraw the area from future development and to broker deals with energy companies to buy, retire or exchange currently held leases.

I also work just south of the Thompson Divide in Gunnison County. Last year Senator Michael Bennet began a process to examine the potential for protective designations for federal lands in the county. Gunnsion County is a sportsmen's haven, boasting abundant world class fish and wildlife habitat. We are working to with a broad spectrum of stakeholders to determine the most appropriate ways to protect the outstanding values of the area. Keep an eye out for more on this effort in the coming months.

In the realm of off-highway vehicles, I have two main campaigns. The first one is working in the state legislature to pass a bill requiring that all OHVs have visibly identifiable license plates. We regularly hear from wildlife officials and sportsmen that they witness off-highway users violate laws but lack a mechanism for identifying these violators. We want to change that and believe that visible identification in the form of license plates is the  essential tool to effective management of OHVs.  The second campaign I work on is Bear Creek. Bear Creek is a small stream near Colorado Springs that holds the one and only population of wild greenback cutthroat trout. Poor management and user abuse, including poorly managed OHV use, has caused the degradation of this stream. We are working diligently with trail users, agency officials and members of the Cheyenne Mountain Chapter of TU to correct the problems, restore the stream and implement a sustainable management scheme to ensure the persistence of these rare fish. TU has also developed a nationally recognized OHV program, dubbed Sportsmen Ride Right, to address many issues related to OHV use on public lands. Look for us at rideright.org.

If you have any questions or comments about the work I do, please do not hesitate to contact me. I enjoy working with chapter members across the state and find their knowledge invaluable to many of my campaigns so please do get in touch when a public lands issue arises in your neck of the woods.

Aaron Kindle - akindle@tu.org or 303-868-2859

TU hires new Rio Grande basin project manager

Trout Unlimited today announced the hiring of Kevin Terry as project manager for the Rio Grande basin in southern Colorado.  Terry will develop projects that preserve and improve trout habitat on the Rio Grande River and its tributaries. Terry will work closely with agency staff, water users, and private land owners, and he will seek projects that benefit both stream habitat and agricultural operations.  Projects may include removal of fish barriers, instream and riparian habitat restoration, irrigation infrastructure upgrades, or stream flow improvements. All projects will be cooperative and undertaken with support from the community and local landowners.

“The Rio Grande River is an important resource that serves many needs, from recreation to agriculture,” said Drew Peternell, director of TU’s Colorado Water Project. “With this position, TU is making a commitment to do collaborative conservation work to promote the health of  the Rio Grande and its tributaries.”

Prior to joining TU, Terry worked as a fish biologist for the Jicarilla Apache Tribe Fish and Game Department, where he managed the recreational fishing program and oversaw habitat restoration and conservation projects. He has worked extensively with private landowners and irrigators.

“Kevin Terry understands the Rio Grande basin and the communities there, and he’s passionate about working with landowners to improve habitat,” said Peternell. “Kevin brings a wealth of fisheries experience and practical problem-solving skills to his new position.”

The Rio Grande is one of the largest river systems in Colorado. In recent years, Trout Unlimited, a grassroots sportsmen’s conservation organization, has expanded its river restoration work in several river basins within Colorado, including the Yampa, Gunnison and Dolores basins. TU has completed scores of successful restoration projects with ranchers and landowners across the West.

“I grew up on the Rio Grande, and I’m excited about the opportunity to do restoration work on my home waters,” said Terry. “I look forward to working with landowners and local partners to protect and enhance this incredible resource that we all depend on.”

For more information, contact Kevin Terry at (970) 799-7682, kterry@tu.org.

Boulder Flycasters get Fairview High School On the Water

Fairview High School in Boulder, Colorado recently began implementing the National Fishing in Schools Program through their Physical Education Department. In order to enrich the program experience, the Boulder Flycasters got involved by offering additional instruction and education opportunities. Our support of this program got the kids outdoors seven days working on casting, fishing & streamside entomology. This is six more days than they had been outdoors all semester!  Two days were spent on the school softball field receiving casting lessons from Bruning Rangel, Manager of the Boulder Orvis store, and a casting competition led by Larry Quilling.

Wallace Westfeldt from Front Range Anglers and Jim Shelly from the City of Boulder Water Treatment Department, tag-teamed for great sessions on entomology. Wallace taught the classroom basics and shared samples while Jim led a stream side collection day on South Boulder Creek near the McGinn ditch diversion. It was a strategically placed sampling location close to the US 36 highway bridge where students could escape the persistent rain showers. This is a great learning experience for the students. The biggest disappointment was running out of time to sample more than one location.

Ron Donahue, Drew Thomas and Larry Quilling led the students through fly tying. Ron is the expert demonstrator, Drew is a natural teacher and I am a hack! The cool part of these sessions is the concentration and focus the students have during their tying sessions. The flies they tied were used by the students to catch fish later at Viele Lake.

George Gumerman, Robert McCormack, Jake Lemon and Larry Quilling all helped the students test their skills at Viele Lake. There were four days the students spent at the lake and each day 5 to 6 fish were caught. It was not always pretty but the fishing caught the attention and interest of many of the kids. With high schoolers in the last two weeks of the spring semester, this is quite an accomplishment.

In summary, this program takes a lot of work and coordination but it is fully worth the outreach effort. We may only teach twenty-seven students in the class but the effect of our class goes well beyond the classroom. Other teachers and administrative staff know who we are and what we are doing for their school. Principal Don Stensrud asked that I thank our board for the program. Students shared their experiences with other students and other teachers noticed our presence. I am glad we have been able to re-establish this program and look forward to the fall when we can hopefully connect the class with a fishing field trip on the Poudre as we have done in past years.

---by Larry Quilling

The National Fishing in Schools Program (NFSP) has added numerous school sites throughout Colorado over the past year and will continue to expand with assistance from Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation. This program provides a great first touch that gets students excited about fly fishing. TU can be a great partner by enriching the programs as detailed above. To bring NFSP to your school or find existing NFSP programs in your area, please contact Jake Lemon, Colorado TU Youth Education Coordinator at 720-354-2646 or jake.lemon@coloradotu.org.

Denver Water and Colorado TU

Jim Lochhead is chief executive of Denver Water. David Nickum is executive director of Colorado Trout Unlimited. They represent groups that often have opposing views, but worked together on an opinion piece in the June 1, 2013 edition of the Denver Post. Conservation groups and water utilities don't always see eye-to-eye on every water resource issue.

A case in point: Trout Unlimited and Denver Water have yet to agree on what constitutes an adequate package of protections for the Fraser River, a Colorado River tributary and stellar trout fishery that is also an important source of water for metro Denver. We're trying to find a package of protections that keeps the river healthy while ensuring that Denver Water's need for system reliability are met through the Moffat Firming Project.

We face tough, complicated issues. What we agree on, though, is the need to preserve the long-term health of the Fraser and Colorado Rivers, and the value of working toward collaborative solutions.

Read the full article, "Together, we can meet Colorado River challenges," in The Denver Post.

Jason Willis, Mine Restoration Project Manager, Western Restoration

I grew up about 30 minutes east of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  It was along the mighty Youghiogheny River that I learned how to fish and developed a passion for outdoor activities.  Summer days were spent fishing for catfish and smallmouth while spring was reserved for trout.  Driving across the state to different fishing spots increased my desire to learn more about the environmental processes and hydrology that composed my local river and stream networks.  I eventually was able to steer these personal interests into a career choice after completing graduate school in the field of Environmental Engineering.  A previous road trip had me longing for a relocation to the West, particularly either Colorado, Montana, or Oregon.  It’s been about 3.5 years since Colorado became home and I started my initial work for TU as a contractor based out of Saguache, Colorado. It was here that I was introduced to the Kerber Creek Restoration Project, which has been one of TU’s most successful abandoned mine clean-up projects in Colorado.  Needless to say, the transition from Pittsburgh to Saguache was quite a shock, but I embraced the Western way of life and became well versed in stream restoration practices and soil improvement.

After 9 months in Saguache and 6 months on Pikes Peak, I was brought on full time for TU in 2012 to work on mine restoration projects with a home base in Salida, Colorado along the Arkansas River.  Being centrally located in Salida allows me to work on projects across the state giving the program wide-reaching capabilities.  The focus of my program is to help restore watersheds affected by historic hardrock mining.  Mining played such a large part in the development of Colorado, and it is evident today by the degraded water and soil quality left behind at these sites.  Specifically, over 80% of Colorado’s most-impaired waterways are a result of past mining operations.  Typically, these are the type of streams where I work to improve stream channel health and adjacent soil quality by raising pH and adding nutrients to the soil.  This process of adding calculated amounts of soil amendments promotes future riparian and upland vegetation growth, which stabilizes stream banks and reduces heavy metal runoff into our surface and ground waters.  The end goal is to meet state standards for water quality in these streams, while improving habitat to sustain a reproducing trout population.

Some watersheds where I currently work are the Kerber Creek watershed outside of Villa Grove, Evans Gulch east of Leadville, Leavenworth Creek outside of Georgetown, Willow Creek near Creede, and a local project on the South Arkansas River in Poncha Springs.  I also assist in water quality studies on various projects, as well as working with watershed groups and TU chapters from Cortez to Trinidad.  I am privileged to work at such a great organization with like-minded people who are passionate about conservation.  I look forward to continuing to expand and improve TU’s restoration work across the state of Colorado for years to come.  If you have any questions or comments about the projects I work on, please don’t hesitate to contact me at jwillis@tu.org.

Bennet & Tipton Bills = Good News for Hermosa Creek!

In a true “One TU” effort, a cutthroat stronghold may soon have a permanently protected home. The Hermosa Creek basin has long been a focus area for southwest Colorado’s 5 Rivers chapter and staff from TU’s Sportsmen’s Conservation Project and Colorado Water Project. Now, U.S. Senator Michael Bennet and U.S. Representative Scott Tipton have introduced a bill to protect more than 107,000 acres of the Hermosa Creek Watershed, an area in the San Juan National Forest north of Durango. The “Hermosa Creek Watershed Protection Act” would establish management for the Hermosa Creek Watershed based on recommendations from the Hermosa Creek River Protection Workgroup, which included local water officials, conservationists, sportsmen, mountain bikers, off-highway-vehicle users, outfitters, property owners, grazing permit holders and other interested citizens.

“We are lucky in Colorado to be able to enjoy many of the country’s most beautiful landscapes in our backyards. The Hermosa Creek Watershed represents some of the best Colorado has to offer,” Bennet said. “This bill will protect this land for our outdoor recreation economy and for future generations of Coloradans and Americans to enjoy. It is the result of a local effort that took into account the varied interests of the community, and that cooperation helped us put together a strong bill with the community’s input.”

Senator Bennet’s sentiments were mirrored by Representative Tipton in a joint press release on April 25^th.

“As one of Colorado’s most scenic areas, Hermosa Creek has long been treasured by the local community and by countless visitors who have explored all that the region has to offer,” Tipton said. “Local stakeholders including snowmobilers, anglers, hunters, other outdoor enthusiasts, elected officials, miners and Southwest Colorado residents have voiced their support to preserve the Hermosa Creek watershed and the multiple use recreation opportunities it provides. In response to this locally driven effort, Senator Bennet and I have joined together to put forward legislation to protect and preserve this special place, and ensure that Coloradans as well as visitors to our great state have the opportunity to experience Hermosa Creek’s abundant natural beauty for generations to come.”

The bill would designate certain public lands in SW Colorado as the Hermosa Creek Watershed Protection Area.  In accordance with the consensus recommendations of the Hermosa Creek Workgroup, roughly 38,000 acres of the watershed would be set aside as wilderness, to protect some of the finest elk habitat in Colorado.  Of particular interest to TU, a Special Management Area would be established to protect a Colorado Parks and Wildlife Colorado River cutthroat trout reintroduction program.

Click here to learn more about Sportsmen for Hermosa, or if you prefer visit us on Facebook.  To get involved with TU's work for Hermosa, you can contact Ty Churchwell at tchurchwell@tu.org.

Coloradoans LOVE their Trout!

The results are in, and apparently Colorado fishermen prefer their trout with a side of trout. And a trout chaser. So say the 1,404 respondents out of 3,000 licensed anglers asked to take part  in the  2012 Colorado Angler Survey commissioned by Colorado Parks and  Wildlife. Among residents and nonresidents who replied, the four most  commonly targeted species of fish were rainbow trout (23 percent), brown trout  (17 percent), cutthroat trout (12 percent) and lake trout (11 percent). And  while it might seem like those cold-water fish were selected because they're the  ones anglers have the greatest opportunity to fish,  the survey compiled by CPW  human dimensions specialist Stacy Lischka indicates that those who fish in  Colorado really can't get enough trout.

Forty-six percent of resident anglers surveyed wanted additional fishing  opportunities for rainbow, brown and cutthroat trout. Nonresidents favored  brown, cutthroat and lake trout, with 64 percent desiring additional  opportunities to fish for those species.

One of the coolest things about fishing in Colorado is the opportunity to  catch nearly 30 species of game fish. The vast majority of them are stocked by  CPW, with rainbow, cutthroat and brown trout making up most of the agency's  hatchery fish. Out of 17 CPW hatcheries, 13 focus almost entirely on trout.

Read the rest from Scott Willoughby in The Denver Post.

CSEF River Conservation Awards Announced

For the past several years, Trout Unlimited has sponsored a Special Award for River Conservation at the Colorado Science and Engineering Fair (CSEF).  Colorado Trout Unlimited and Boulder Flycasters jointly contribute and provide judges for the Award. This year's winners were:

First Place went to Rachel Rossi, from Durango, for her project "Endocrine Disruptor Remediation in Water: Exploration of Mycoremediation Capabilities of Fungi".

The TU award for First place was a Scholarship to CTU's River Conservation and Fly Fishing Youth Camp plus a check for $100.  Rachel also finished in 1st Place in the CSEF Senior Division Environmental Sciences.  Also at the CSEF, Rachel won scholarships to University of Colorado, Colorado State University and Colorado School of Mines.  She also won Special Awards from five other organizations.  At the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, she placed second in the Environmental Management category and won a full tuition scholarship ($150,000) from Drexel University.

Second Place went to Tayler Rocha, from Monte Vista, for her project "Successional Sequence of Water Quality and Macroinvertebrates in a Playa Wetland System".

The TU award for 1st Runner up was a check for $75 and serve as an alternate to attend the CTU Summer Camp if the First Place winner cannot attend.  Tayler also finished 3rd in the CESF Senior Division Environmental Sciences and won three Special Awards.  At the ISEF, she won 2nd Place from the American Geosciences Institute and a full tuition scholarship ($150,000) from Drexel University.

Third Place went to Sarah Stalcup, from Delta, for her project "Riparian Area Multiple Indicator Monitoring".

The TU award for 2nd Runner up was a check for $50 and serve as an alternate to attend the CTU Summer Camp if the First Place and 1st Runner up winners cannot attend.  At the ISEF Sarah won a full tuition scholarship ($150,000) from Drexel University.

Congratulations to these students for their fine projects!