Colorado TU Gala: March 13, 2015

Reserve your seats for the Colorado TU River Stewardship Gala on Friday, March 13, and join us for an evening celebrating Colorado's rivers and helping raise funds for their conservation.  This year we will be honoring Richard Adkerson of Freeport-McMoRan with our River Stewardship Award, in recognition of his leadership and support in restoring streams impacted by abandoned mines.  The evening also features a wide-ranging live and silent auction, with trips and items for the angler and non-angler alike. Tickets to the Gala include admission, dinner, and complimentary beer and wine, and can be purchased online for $100 - table sponsorships (with reserved seating for 10) are also available for $1000.

The Gala will again take place at the Arvada Center, conveniently located by 68th and Wadsworth in Arvada, with ample free parking available on-site.

The Gala will feature an outstanding auction with diverse fishing and nonfishing experiences including a one-week trip for trophy brook trout in Labrador, a five day horsepack trip in the Yellowstone backcountry, a week-long Alaska fishing lodge experience, a five-day five-hunter package for wing shooting in Argentina, a one-week photo safari in South Africa and more!  Check out our Auction Sampler to see some of the great items that you can bid on.  Of course, along with our larger packages we'll also have a wide array of other items including regional fishing trips, performing arts tickets, ski packages, and more.

Make your plans to join us for an evening to remember on March 13!  Click here to reserve your tickets.

About Richard Adkerson and Freeport-McMoRan:

Richard Adkerson is the President, CEO, and Vice Chairman of Freeport-McMoRan Inc.  Under his leadership, the company has invested generously in restoration efforts aimed at healing rivers impacted by the west's legacy of abandoned mines - sites where no responsible party remains to clean up waters being impacted by mine tailings and drainage.  Among other projects, Freeport-McMoRan has helped TU, the Bureau of Land Management and other partners to advance an award-winning restoration partnership on Kerber Creek in Colorado's San Luis Valley - where a wild brook trout fishery again thrives in waters that were once too polluted to support self-sustaining fisheries.

Colorado TU Membership Survey

Click here to complete the 2015 Colorado TU Membership Survey.  

With over 10,000 Trout Unlimited members across the state, together we represent a strong voice for river conservation.  We are hoping to strengthen that voice by better understanding what is important to our members as individuals and as parts of the whole that is Colorado TU.  We have compiled a Membership Survey with questions ranging from your favorite river basins to the kinds of work, from water issues to public lands, that interest you most.  We want to know why you became a TU member, if there are ways you’d like to get more involved, and more.  Completing the survey should take less than 5 minutes of your time and will help us better tailor our communications to you.

Please consider taking a few minutes today to offer your feedback.  Thank you!

Click here to complete the 2015 Colorado TU Membership Survey.

Pat Dorsey - Guest Speaker (and Fly Tier) for West Denver’s Chapter Meeting on February 4th!

At West Denver Trout Unlimited's February 4^th Chapter Meeting, Pat Dorsey will be the main event!! Pat is the Guide Director and a partner at the Blue Quill Anglers Fly Shop, overseeing 30 plus guides.  He is the recipient of numerous awards and a prolific author—frequently appearing in national fly fishing magazines and writing several best-selling books on fly fishing and fly tying.   He is as native of Colorado, and has been guiding on the South Platte for more than 11 years, spending at least 200 days a year on this stream.

On February 4^th, Pat will talk about fly fishing tail waters, sharing his tips and tactics for fishing these types of waters, covering nymphing, dry fly and streamer fishing.   He’ll be doing double-duty that night and also serve as our guest fly tier as well.  Pat has been commercially tying flies for over 15 years, and he’ll be tying some flies that you’ll want to have in your arsenal.

Doors open at 6 PM at the American Mountaineering Center (10^th Street and Washington Avenue in Golden).  Pat will start tying at 6:30 PM.  We plan on having refreshments (soft drinks and beer).  Please plan on joining us on the 4^th.  A good and informative time should be had by all.

For additional information please contact Chapter President Tim Toohey at tim2e@comcast.net.

Former Congressman Hefley calls for Browns Canyon protection

Former US Congressman Joel Hefley (R-Colorado Springs) added his voice to those of sportsmen, local governments, business owners, Governor Hickenlooper and Senator Bennet, and Chaffee County citizens in supporting protection for Browns Canyon on the Arkansas River.  He authored an op-ed piece in the Denver Post that calls on the President and the Colorado Congressional delegation to move forward with protection for Browns. Browns Canyon is one of Colorado's natural treasures, with a Gold Medal reach of the Arkansas River as its centerpiece, outstanding big game habitat in the uplands, and world-class rafting opportunities that have made it one of America's most popular whitewater destinations.

In 2006, Congressman Hefley led a bipartisan effort to secure protections for the Browns Canyon area.  In 2013-14, Senator Mark Udall sponsored legislation for Browns that would both establish a National Monument and designated some additional wilderness.  Unfortunately, both efforts were caught up in Congressional gridlock and fell short.

As part of Sportsmen for Browns Canyon, TU has been working steadily to support National Monument protection for Browns; you can help by lending your voice through our action alert here - asking the President to give Browns the National Monument Protection it so richly deserves.

Chase Moore, Youth Education Coordinator, Colorado Trout Unlimited

Chase is excited to bring his leadership skills and background in environmental education to strengthen CTU’s youth education programs throughout the state.  While bicycle touring and backpacking have been Chase’s passion and means to explore the Pacific Northwest, Southwest deserts, and the great state of Colorado, he always watched anglers gracefully dot the stream banks along many of his adventures.  Curiosity and the necessity to see what the fuss was about led Chase to give fly fishing a chance via a Tenkara rod.  Simply put, he was hooked. Chase is now joining CTU to help youth across the state understand the importance of a healthy watershed, not just from an angling standpoint, but from a resource management perspective.  Not only trout but wildlife and people need access to clean, fresh, viable water.  Chase has been on the front lines helping people of all ages learn about their natural world and watershed, leading conservation projects and residential science camps in the Pacific Northwest, working on riparian restoration projects in central Oregon, and teaching environmental science in the Rocky Mountains. Most recently he worked with the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies – connecting kids with the great outdoors right in the heart of the famed Roaring Fork watershed.

A colleague and friend once pondered what makes Chase a great teacher and said “It has to do, I think, with making teaching a craft rather than a formula.”  Needless to say, Chase is looking forward to applying his craft – and more importantly getting young people excited about their waterways.  Who knows, maybe there will be more young anglers enjoying our streams as they learn to take a moment and slow down.  Chase and his saddle are glad he did, and are even more thankful to join the family at Colorado Trout Unlimited.

CTU Thanks Elected Officials for Supporting Balance on Roan

In November, Colorado TU and other conservation partners joined oil and gas companies and the Bureau of Land Management to announce a major settlement of the long-standing litigation over oil and gas development on and around the Roan Plateau in northwest Colorado. The deal strikes a true balance for protecting fish, wildlife, and wilderness lands and allowing responsible energy development.  At its core is an agreement to keep drilling off areas that, as Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell put it, are "too special to develop" - including native cutthroat watersheds atop the Roan - while allowing more timely movement to develop other areas that are less sensitive but can help meet our nation's future energy needs.

Reaching an agreement required outside of the box thinking - and that doesn't happen without political will and support from key elected officials and governmental leaders.  That's why CTU has taken out an ad in the 12/21 Grand Junction Daily Sentinel to thank some of the key governmental leaders whose support and hard work made the Roan agreement possible - Congressman Scott Tipton, Senators Michael Bennet and Mark Udall, Governor John Hickenlooper, and BLM Director Neil Kornze.  You can see a higher-resolution PDF version of the ad here, and read more about the Roan agreement here.

Not only is the agreement good news for the Roan as one of Colorado's best wild places, it can be a model for future efforts in other regions of the state.  The  BLM has tools, notably their master leasing plan process, that can allow for early dialogue among diverse interests to better understand the key resources at stake - and to use that dialogue to find balanced solutions that protect important watersheds from disturbance while enabling leasing and development to proceed responsibly in other appropriate sites.  Looking at that broader landscape level makes it easier to find those balance points, respecting the importance of both energy development and fish and wildlife conservation. CTU hopes to continue working with BLM, industry, and conservation partners to make master leasing plans successful in other key areas for Colorado sportsmen, including North Park and South Park.

Tell the Governor: Healthy Rivers Matter!

On  December 10, a draft of Colorado's Water Plan was formally presented to Governor Hickenlooper - and will no undergo a renewed round of public input and revision with plans to finalize it by late 2015.  The Plan talks about the strategies Colorado should use to meet its future water demands for cities, industry, agriculture, recreation and the environment.  It will set the tone for how Colorado addresses its water challenges - whether there is an emphasis on sustainability, aggressive water conservation, and healthy rivers and landscapes - or emphasis on more dry-up of Colorado's rivers and its irrigated farmlands.  Colorado's sportsmen want to see our values reflected in the Plan. Governor Hickenlooper has said that every conversation about water should start with conservation. Tell him yourself why conserving the health of rivers is important to you! Click here now to weigh in now on the vision for Colorado's water future that you want to support!

This is just the first draft of the first Colorado Water Plan. We have one year to try to secure a healthy future for our rivers for fish, and for people.

You can learn more and read the draft Colorado  Water Plan online by clicking here and by visiting Colorado's Water Plan website.

Small town turns out big for Browns Canyon

Public meeting in Salida with federal officials turns out hundreds in support of Browns Canyon National Monument By Kyle Perkins from www.sportsmenforbrowns.com

Hundreds of people turned out Saturday in Salida, Colorado, to show support for a Browns Canyon National Monument. The droves of green “I support a Browns Canyon National Monument” stickers were visible evidence of the overwhelming support, along with speaker after speaker urging administration officials to designate the canyon now.

Don’t let anyone tell you this is a top-down executive overreach. Local residents and stakeholders, frustrated by years of congressional fiddling, made it clear that this is a grassroots effort and that they want to get this special place protected.

The stretch of the Arkansas River that veers from the highway south of Buena Vista and rushes through a steep canyon full of Gold Medal Water fishing, amazing white water rafting, and a pristine backcountry habitat is truly a unique place. Floating and finding pocket water within the canyon can produce over 20” trout, and the population of elk, deer, bighorn sheep, mountain lion and black bear create a healthy habitat for hunting and wildlife in general. This 22,000-acre rugged canyon is a truly wild place that I have visited more times than I can remember.

For over 20 years, legislative efforts to protect this canyon have had local and state support, yet Congress has failed to act. From bills sponsored by former Colorado Senator Wayne Allard in 2006, and by current Senator Mark Udall in December of 2013, momentum has built—only to be thwarted by congressional inaction and gridlock. However, on November 25, an official letter from Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet requesting President Obama to declare Browns a national monument under the Antiquities Act of 1906 became headline news in the state. Local and state word spread fast with articles from all major state newspapers.

Rep. Doug Lamborn, one of the few opponents of the measure, claimed in a recent piece that there were many local opponents of the Browns designation. If that’s true, they failed to show up Saturday– supporters vastly outnumbered the handful of nay-sayers in the crowd.

In addition to the Colorado Senators, the public meeting was attended by administration officials and included Deputy Director of BLM Steve Ellis and U.S. Forest Service Chief Thomas Tidwell.

What I saw were individuals and groups from across the valley and state come together to protect a place they love and to support our valued public lands, fish and wildlife habitat and recreation opportunities. Indeed, local stakeholders in the Arkansas Valley reminded the Colorado delegation that this is a local effort, with bipartisan support from local elected officials and overwhelming support from the local business community.

“I take tourists and residents whitewater rafting and fishing through Browns Canyon, exposing them to the natural beauty that is at the heart of Colorado’s outdoor heritage,” said Joe Greiner, owner of Wilderness Aware Rafting in Buena Vista. “A lot of people put national monuments on their bucket list. A national monument designation will put Browns Canyon on the map and have an even bigger impact on our local economy.”

“Americans love our public lands and the rich outdoor experiences they provide,” said Jim Impara, vice president of the Collegiate Peaks Chapter of Trout Unlimited. “We also understand that there are highly valued, iconic wild places that are not yet protected. Browns Canyon is one of those special places. Let’s keep it the way it is.”

“It was a true showing of the local community and the support we have to protect Browns,” said local resident Susan Mayfield. “It was a large theater of about 400, and an overfill room of many more in support of finally and permanently protecting one of our local pride and joys. The people in Chaffee County have spoken. It’s time.”

The public meeting sent a strong, unequivocal message to the White House: Coloradans want to protect Browns Canyon—and it’s time to get this done. This is our best chance to do that in a generation.

Where Are They Now? Youth Camp Alumnus Collin Papuga

Collin Papuga has been living in Alaska and is living his dream; he has been an Alaska resident for the last 3 plus years where he just completed his first season running his own guiding company, Tightlines Alaska.  Collin graduated from Kenai Guide Academy last April and passed the test for his guide license in Coopers Landing, AK.  He is an alumnus from Colorado TU's 2^nd youth camp in 2007 held at Peace Ranch near Basalt, CO.   I remember Collin as a very passionate and experienced angler at the ripe young age of 14.  Growing up in Grand Lake, he had already spent some time working an internship for Mo Henry’s Fly Shop in Winter Park, where eventually guided for the shop as well.   Once at camp, Collin was happy to show all of his fellow campers his advanced double haul skills.  Collin was a natural leader during the camp and it is great to see him living his dream with his own Alaskan guide service. Fish on!  Collin fishing the Frying Pan during the 2007 camp.

The Colorado TU youth camp strives to ignite the passions of young men and women to become future stewards of our coldwater fisheries.  Here are a few of Collin’s accomplishments since attending the 2007 camp:

• Internship for MoHenry's Fly Shop in Winter Park as a Fly Fishing Guide
• Volunteered countless hours for the Colorado Division of Wildlife
• Youngest youth ever to electrofish on the Colorado River for the Division of Wildlife's annual fish count
• Selected to compete in America Cup Fly Fishing Tournament on the Youth Team
• Graduated from Kenai River Guide Academy in 2014.

Collin explains how he has grown as angler from a very early age:

"When I was 10 I found my Dad’s old fly rod and this was the point at which I put the spinning rod down and I was literally “hooked” on fly fishing! My Grandma bought me a fly tying kit and I began tying flies. I went fly fishing any chance that I could.

My Dad took me on my first trip to Alaska when I was 11 to go fishing, backpacking, hiking and touring the inside passage. When I returned home I told my Mom, “I’m going to move there someday”. I returned every summer thereafter to Alaska to continue this awesome experience of The Last Frontier. The day after I graduated from High School my parents put me on a plane to Alaska and I’ve been pursuing my passion and dream ever since."

Subsequently, Collin says: “I saved my money the last three years to enable myself to pursue my dream of starting my own business. I’m a well-rounded fisherman and Fishing truly is my passion. I would love the opportunity to share my craft with you and give you the thrill of catching an Alaska fish on the Kenai River. Let’s go have some fun together!”

Collin will be back in the Denver metro area attending the International Sportsman Show and will have a booth in front of the casting pond, booth #659.  Look for his banner name, Tightlines Alaska.   He will have many pictures of the first season hanging on display and two video slides shows of Alaska.   Collin will be tying flies he uses on the river and telling stories of his passion about Alaska, and rekindling old and new friendships.

- Story contributed by Larry Quilling, CTU Director at Large, founding camp director of the Colorado TU Youth Conservation and Fly Fishing Camp.

River Explorers continue their journey

Colorado Trout Unlimited is happy to say that the River Explorers program at the Mapleton School District in Thornton will be continuing into its second school year. This will be the beginning of the program’s vertical alignment in which students have different experiences in sequential years centered around healthy watersheds, in this case the South Platte, and fishing. We will also be bringing the program to the Adams-12 district for its first year in that district. As the years go by, we hope that this approach will be an ongoing success showing the value of consistent and stepwise programming to outdoor education. Students who are “River Explorers” will see four years of new activities. One step on the path is Trout in the Classroom. State-wide this year, Colorado Trout Unlimited and its chapters are sponsoring eleven tanks in which students raise trout from eggs to be released into the wild when they grow large enough in the spring. All classrooms have now received their eggs, and many have actively swimming and feeding fry.

River Watch is another piece of the River Explorers curriculum. As its own nonprofit, River Watch utilizes citizen science through school groups and volunteer organizations to collect and formulate water quality data from across the state. Colorado Trout Unlimited works with River Watch to host a few sites through partnering schools and local chapters. As a part of the River Explorers, students will become intimately familiar with the local water quality on the South Platte, and through River Watch provide that data to the public for anyone to use. This real world applicability is something CTU is proud to bring to the South Platte River Explorers, and we think the addition of two new monitoring sites is an exciting undertaking.

Rounding out the River Explorers experience are two more years of programming:  Stream Explorers, the introductory portion hosted at the middle school level, in which students learn the basics of a watershed, stream ecology, and fishing; and National Fishing in Schools Program where they hone their fly fishing skills. Connecting all of these pieces together we hope will foster students’ love of the outdoors, of fishing, and ultimately the desire to protect the places and resources they connect with. With generous support from local sponsors, Colorado Trout Unlimited is thrilled to be educating the next generation of river stewards through the continuation of River Explorers in the Mapleton School District, and the expansion to Adams-12 district.