LAST CHANCE to register for the New Leaders Training!!

In Colorado there are 24 local Trout Unlimited chapters that are an essential piece to Trout Unlimted's mission of conserving cold water fisheries. Every chapter has its own leadership board, programs, dedicated volunteers and most of the time they raise their own money for operations. Running a chapter is extremely rewarding, but it can also be challenging. To help Colorado chapters be most effective, Colorado Trout Unlimited hosts an annual New Leaders Training for chapter leaders. Training is October 18th and 19th in Grand Junction!!

This training is for both new and old chapter leaders who are eager to learn how to be more effective leaders and build stronger chapters. The New Leaders Training Weekend will have numerous trainings, networking opportunities, and each attendee will walk away with resources to help their chapter reach its full potential. The Colorado Trout Unlimited Council's Fall board meeting is also held this same weekend in between training sessions. All participants are encouraged to attend the board meeting to become more familiar with the council and what their responsibilities are in Colorado.

Registration for the full weekend is $70.00; however to show our appreciation for new participants all first time attendees get their registration fees waived. To show our appreciation even more, this year Colorado Trout Unlimited is also providing a $100 scholarship for the first 10 chapters to have a first time leader attend to help with travel expenses.

Please contact Stephanie Scott (sscott@tu.org) or 720-354-2647 to apply for one of the scholarships or for general questions about the training.

Follow this link to see the agenda and register for the New Leaders Training: Register Here

Registration Deadline is October 13, 2014.

Browns Canyon Live! Downtown Denver Event!

Free and Open to the Public! Browns Canyon, a rugged wild canyon and popular fishing, hunting and recreation destination in western Colorado, will come to downtown Denver in “Browns Canyon Live”—a spectacular display of light and images on the exterior of McNichols Civic Center building on Friday, Oct. 17. The playful, eye-popping light and music show will transform the exterior of McNichols with oversized, colorful images and video that showcase the wonders of Browns Canyon and highlight efforts to protect it as a National Monument.

This free event, open to the public, is sponsored by Sportsmen for Browns Canyon, a grassroots coalition of hunters and anglers dedicated to protecting Browns Canyon, with support from our friends at Upslope Brewing.

Friday October 17th, 2014.

McNichols Civic Center

6pm-9pm

Share with friends and RSVP on Facebook Event Page

Sportsmen For Browns Canyon National Monument

Watch the video here.

2014 Trout Unlimited Photo Contest

Deadline for Entry is October 31, 2014!! Enter in categories for Best Fish, Best Angler, and Best Scenic!

And the winner is...

Jim Mills of Littleton, Colorado. Thank you to everyone who purchased tickets in our Colorado TU fall raffle!

Water Conservation Day at H2O Car Wash in Highlands Ranch!

That’s right, you can help protect rivers by washing your car, but only at H2OCar Wash in Highlands Ranch! Saturday, October 11 is Water Conservation Day at H2O Car Wash, the most water-efficient car wash in the state. Swing by from 10-2 pm, choose any self or full service wash, have your picture taken with Fraser the Fish, and get some goodies from river-conscious businesses. Join us for hot dogs and fun!

All proceeds go to Colorado TU to protect our rivers.

H2O Car Wash 1101 Town Center Drive Near the corner of Town Center Dr and Lucent Blvd. Highlands Ranch, CO

***Water Conservation Day is sponsored by:

2014 Camp Essay Contest -- Honorable Mention: Abby

Abby's home river is The Poudre, right here in Colorado.  Her essay highlights her experience at the TU Youth Camp this year.  Great job Abby!!  See you on the water...

West Denver Chapter cleans up Clear Creek

September 27^th saw several miles of Clear Creek Canyon made beautiful again, thanks to many volunteers organized through The West Denver Chapter. The effort brought help from Colorado Women Flyfishers, and youth from Achieve Academy of Mapleton School District.  These 6^th & 7^th graders got down and dirty as part of their involvement with the South Platte River Explorers Program.  This clean-up was the inaugural activity in a series of educational experiences centering on watershed science and fishing!  Volunteers gathered at Mountain Tool and Feed in Idaho Springs, who generously offered their site for parking, and a BBQ lunch following the clean-up. The West Denver Chapter does a great job organizing this clean-up annually in the fall.   Thanks to its proximity to the Front-Range, Clear Creek is second in the state for recreational users, including anglers, rafters, and kayakers.

For more information on Youth Education Programs, contact Garrett Hanks ghanks@TU.org

CTU Welcomes our new communications intern!!

Colorado Trout Unlimited is happy to introduce Rachel, our Fall Communications Intern.  She comes to us with passion and experience uniquely suited to TU’s mission. An avid angler and river enthusiast, she guides for ArkAnglers on The Arkansas River and studies Communication at Regis University. “Besides the obvious need for clean water for our own survival, I regard rivers as magical places. Fishing allows me to really be a part of that magic.”  Rachel recently took a leave from her position as a Lieutenant, Firefighter, and Paramedic at a large front-range fire department to follow her passions and complete her degree.  She is excited to expand her stewardship for trout and their hiding places in this new role.

Tyler Baskfield, Colorado Field Coordinator, SCP

Family, wildlife and wild places drive Tyler Baskfield. These influences took effect on Baskfield at an early age in the woods and on the lakes of Northern Minnesota. “We had this little duck hunting cabin on a lake in Northern Minnesota that had been in my family for a couple of generations,” said Baskfield. “We would go up there on weekends and take walks in the woods, fish or hunt together. There weren’t any distractions when we spent time there. The cabin taught me how wonderful my family was and how fascinating nature could be. Even as a young kid, I couldn’t imagine a lifestyle that didn’t have outdoor recreation or nature as a significant focus. ” After graduating from the University of Colorado in Boulder, Baskfield worked at the Craig Daily Press in Craig Colorado as the Outdoor Editor and Staff Reporter. After working for the newspaper for a couple of years honing his writing skills, he went to work for the Colorado Division of Wildlife in the media relations department. He spent the next 10 years at the Division working to educate the public about Colorado’s wildlife resources and promoting outdoor recreation opportunities in the state. By the time left the agency he managed the Public Affairs Department. “It was a great experience working for the Division of Wildlife,” said Baskfield. “There were a lot of great people who worked at the agency by design in order to dedicate their professional lives to enhancing the wildlife resources and opportunities in this state.”

Baskfield left the Division to start his own company, but didn’t cut ties with the outdoors. “I had this idea for a motion duck decoy,” said Baskfield. “I was consumed by it. I had to take a shot at putting it in the hands of duck hunters and Duck Creek Decoy Works was built to help people have more enjoyable hunts.” Baskfield has spent the last year obtaining a patent and engineering the decoy. It is expected to hit the market sometime this fall. “We have created a product that will help hunters be more successful,” said Baskfield. “It will be extremely rewarding to help an inexperienced hunter have a better day in the marsh and perpetuate the great tradition of waterfowl hunting.”

Baskfield looks to take his entrepreneurial spirit to his new role at Trout Unlimited as Colorado Sportsman’s Coordinator. “Working with the sportsman’s community to protect areas of the state that are cherished by hunters and anglers is a mission that I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of and TU is an effective organization that I am thrilled to work for,” said Baskfield. Baskfield’s long track record of communicating with hunters and anglers will help him be effective in his new role. His passion for the wild places and the people who enjoy them provides the motivation for getting some big conservation wins. “Hunters and anglers all have certain places that have given us wonderful memories and experiences,” said Baskfield. “There is an inherent bond among the sportsman’s community derived from our knowledge of how critical it is to protect these great places and the experiences they provide.”

Baskfield lives in Denver with his wife Heidi, their two boys, Gray, 3 and Hank, 1, Lou, a high-strung mutt that loves riding shotgun in the family pickup and Dutch, a bird hunting black lab who has Baskfield almost completely trained. When Baskfield isn’t hunting or fishing he enjoys working on his farm located on the Platte River south of the town of Platteville. “My family’s duck hunting cabin in Minnesota taught me how important it was to have a place where my family could go to focus on enjoying each other and the outdoors,” said Baskfield. “Before I even had kids, I wanted to provide them with a place where I could teach them a good work ethic and about nature first hand. I want my boys to learn about wildlife by holding a frog or a turkey feather in their own hand or seeing a deer or an owl in the river bottom, Not by looking at a photo on an iPad.”

Tyler Baskfield can be reached at Tbaskfield@tu.org.

Update: Hermosa Creek Bill

For those of you following the Hermosa Creek Watershed Protection Act, you may find the amendment made this week a little concerning. Read the press release from TU below for more information. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE      

Sept. 18, 2014

Contact: Ty Churchwell, 970-903-3010 or Keith Curley, 703-284-9428

Hermosa Creek bill passes House Natural Resources Committee        Congress alters bill, creating concern among stakeholders                           

DURANGO, Colo.— Trout Unlimited and other local stakeholders today expressed concern with a substitute amendment released on Tuesday, Sept. 16, that alters key provisions of the Hermosa Creek Watershed Protection Act of 2014.

The bill is slated for markup in the House Natural Resources Committee today, Sept. 18. The original bill, H.R. 1839, introduced in May 2013, was the product of years of collaboration and consensus among numerous stakeholder groups in Colorado—and the bill enjoyed strong bipartisan support from its Colorado sponsors, Rep. Scott Tipton and Sen. Michael Bennet. The bill was widely seen as noncontroversial, and a model of collaboration.

Then, two days before this week’s markup—without input from stakeholders—the bill was amended to alter key habitat protections.

“The version of the bill that went into committee was the product of years of hard work and consensus—and it had broad, bipartisan support among local stakeholders, from sportsmen’s and conservation groups to local businesses and county officials,” said Ty Churchwell, Hermosa coordinator for Trout Unlimited. “The amended bill raised a number of questions about whether the original consensus was still being honored.”

One of those questions concerns the 108,000-acre Watershed Protection Area to maintain the health of the Hermosa Creek watershed, safeguarding the purity of its water, its native trout fishery, and its recreational values (§4 of H.R. 1839). That provision was altered by committee to say the land “may be called” the Hermosa Creek Watershed Protection Area. “In the last 48 hours I have heard varying interpretations of the Watershed Protection Area language,” said Churchwell. “I hope there will be an opportunity to get clarity before the bill progresses further in Congress.”

The original bill also established a Special Management Area to be managed for conservation, protection and enhancement of watershed, cultural, recreational, and other values, and for the protection of the Colorado River cutthroat trout fishery. The new version of the bill released Tuesday removes that language and replaces it with a broader management approach.

“It takes hard work to reach consensus on a bill like this,” said Tim Brass, Southern Rockies coordinator of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. “Congress should make sure that the goal of the original bill is honored as it moves toward becoming law.”

“The Hermosa Creek proposal is the product of Westerners rolling up their sleeves and finding common ground,” said Joel Webster, director of western public lands for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “Sportsmen ask that the House Natural Resources Committee advance legislation that honors the intent of the original stakeholder proposal.”

Trout Unlimited and other stakeholders called on Congress to ensure that the Hermosa Creek Watershed Protection Act is true to the proposal put together over three years by a broad stakeholder process that was open, inclusive and transparent.

"Rep. Tipton has been a strong leader on the Hermosa Creek Watershed Protection Act since he introduced the bill early last year,” said Churchwell.  “We are talking with his office and gaining a better understanding of the changes, but we have remaining concerns with the language in Tuesday’s amendment. We look forward to working with Rep. Tipton and others in our congressional delegation as the bill moves through the legislative process to ensure that it fully reflects the stakeholder agreements.”

Trout Unlimited is the nation’s oldest and largest coldwater fisheries conservation organization dedicated to conserving, protecting and restoring North America’s trout and salmon and their watersheds. Follow TU on Facebook and Twitter, and visit us online at tu.org.