Behind the Fin: Scott Schreiber

How long have you been a TU member? 18 years (I started when I was 15)!

Why did you become a member and what chapter are you involved with?

When I first found TU as a teenager, it was a cool non-profit that paired with my passion for fly fishing. While that's still a priority, I've paired my interest in creating sustainable fishing for generations to come with my professional background as a hydraulic engineer with focus in stream restoration. I am currently president of the Denver Chapter, where we focus on the South Platte River, but we also team with other chapters for projects throughout the state.

What made you want to become involved with TU? I grew up loving to volunteer and help others; during my involvement with the Boy Scouts of America from Cub Scout to Eagle Scout and beyond, I get a great sense of satisfaction from philanthropic endeavors. Oh- and I love to fish, so I should do my part to keep our waters clean, cold and fishable for generations to come. There is nothing better than a day on the river, (besides a day on the river catching fish) so I love being part of an organization where our work benefits my favorite pastime!.

What is your favorite activity or project that you have done with TU? Developing funding and studies to support the Chatfield Reallocation Environmental Pool, which will put additional water into the South Platte during the 70 zero flow days seem along the South Platte, along with developing the future Denver Metro South Platte Fishing Map.

I know you won’t tell me your top spot, so what is your second favorite fishing spot or favorite fishing story? Eagle River Rodeo Lot, Christmas Day, dumping snow...15 trout, all greater than 22 inches in 2 hours. I have no problem giving away my top spot as other anglers shouldn’t, spread the love. When you have that kind of a day, you totally forget about your freezing fingers!

What does being a part of TU mean to you? It means giving back to the community, doing my part to protect the places we love to play and spreading that awareness to others.

What else do you do in your spare time or for work? I am a water resource engineer and I specialize in stream restoration and watershed management. If I am not fishing I am skiing. My entire life from professionally to personally revolves around water. My wife and I love backpacking, hiking to cool spots and exploring our amazing state with our dogs.

National Poll Shows Hunters & Anglers Support Conservation

Our partners at the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership recently released results from a nationwide survey of hunters and anglers on key conservation issues. The results show that sportsmen and women care deeply about habitat quality and public lands, and on a bipartisan basis - a perspective that hopefully will inform the Trump Administration and decision-makers in Congress as they take up issues affecting water quality, public lands, and conservation funding. A few of the key findings in the survey include:

• Four in five sportsmen support Clean Water Act protection for small headwater streams and wetlands - at a time when EPA is looking at whether to keep such waterways under the Act's protection
• 77% of Republican sportsmen and 80% of Democratic sportsmen support keeping the number and size of National Monuments that have protected lands for hunting and fishing - making sportsmen a key voice as the Interior Department reviews those monument designation
• 80% of Republican sportsmen and 77% of Democractic sportsmen want to see fees from offshore drilling used for conservation and access to public lands

You can click below to visit TRCP's interactive page with details from the survey, including downloadable PDF summaries on different survey topics.

http://www.trcp.org/trcp-national-sportsmens-survey/

Revegetation at Lower Creek Site

By Lauren Duncan On June 14^th, Trout Unlimited’s Abandoned Mine Lands team joined up with Colorado Trout Unlimited volunteers and US Forest Service staff and volunteers for a successful revegetation workday at the Lower Creek project site.

The Lower Creek site is located approximately 9 miles northwest of Boulder within the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests and Pawnee National Grassland in Boulder County, Colorado. Lower Creek (formerly known as Carnage Creek), is a tributary to Left Hand Creek in Boulder County and drains into the South Platte River is the prior to the 2013 floods, the area was used as an unregulated, undesignated shooting area for several decades. The accumulation of lead and target debris within the site became apparent during the flood event of 2013. In 2015, Trout Unlimited, the US Forest Service and RMC Consultants remediated the site to reduce concentrations of lead in soil, surface water, and streambed sediment.

The project team had the opportunity this year to revisit the site to complete follow up sampling to ensure the success of 2015 construction and to revegetate the site in areas where vegetation was struggling. This year’s efforts were extremely successful! Lefthand Watershed Oversight Group has conducted water quality sampling at the site, and their efforts have revealed greatly reduced lead levels across the site.

The revegetation work day included upwards of 20 staff and volunteers and, in several hours, we incorporated 600 pounds of fertilizer, 1,350 pounds of Biochar and 4,200 pounds of compost across the site. This was a tough day of work, but because of the efforts of everyone involved in the day, it was a great success.

Throughout this summer and early fall, Trout Unlimited and the Lefthand Watershed Oversight Group will continue to monitor revegetation success and perform water quality sampling under different flow conditions. We look forward to the future success of this site and are thankful to all our volunteers, project partners and for our continued programmatic support from Newmont Mining and Freeport-McMoRan.

Lauren Duncan is a projects manager for Trout Unlimited's Abandoned Mine Lands program in Colorado. 

Greenback Spawning at Zimmerman Lake - Success!

FORT COLLINS, CO – It was still dark out when I threw the thermos of coffee into the truck and left Denver for the Zimmerman Lake Trailhead just east of Cameron Pass.  The goal for the day was to join two other fellow TU volunteers and work alongside Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) biologists to help with Greenback Cutthroat spawning at the pristine high alpine lake. Since 2013, CPW and Colorado Trout Unlimited have worked together to establish a population of Greenback broodstock up at Zimmerman Lake that can be used to help populate other streams throughout the cutthroat’s native range.  The recent spawning project took place over four days and engaged a handful of CPW staff along with eight CTU volunteers from various Front Range Chapters.

The spawning process was pretty straightforward and designed by CPW staff to expand the genetic pool of Greenback Cutthroat Trout.  The pictures below highlight much of the process that took place over the four days.  A big THANK YOU to all the volunteers who came out to support this important recovery effort!

CPW set up at the Zimmerman Lake inlet to capture spawning Greenbacks.

Fish were collected with a large net and put into a pen to be sorted and categorized by CPW staff and volunteers.

Fish were sorted based on their gender and stocking year.

RFID chips in the fish help to identify the stocking year and other critical data.

After the fish were sorted, CPW milked the males and females - making targeted genetic crosses among the various lineages to expand the genetic diversity.  The eggs and sperm were combined in bowls, packed into small coolers, put on ice, and shipped to the local fish hatchery in Leadville, CO for breeding.

This process is a critical step in the long-term recovery of the native Greenback Cutthroat Trout.  CTU is proud of the great work that its volunteers provided during these long days up at the lake.  The work undertaken at Zimmerman will help ensure that future fishermen and women are able to chase these rare fish throughout the Front Range for decades to come.

For more information on the project or to get involved with other upcoming Greenback recovery projects, contact Dan Omasta, CTU Grassroots Coordinator (domasta@tu.org).

Corps approves permit for Moffat Project in Colorado headwaters

The Army Corps of Engineers gave its approval to Denver Water's proposal to expand Gross Reservoir in Boulder County in order to firm its Moffat System water supplies from Grand County. While the project will increase total diversions from the Colorado headwaters, Denver Water has incorporated mitigation and enhancement measures to the project that local TU members in Grand County believe can actually improve the Fraser River's health. As part of its commitments under this permit and the associated mitigation and enhancement plans, Denver Water will manage diversions to help provide needed flushing flows on the Fraser and its tributaries, complete habitat and native trout restoration work in the Williams Fork basin, and contribute funds toward ongoing habitat improvement efforts like the Fraser Flats project.

“The Fraser is a river beloved by generations of anglers, boaters and other outdoor enthusiasts —it’s the lifeblood of our community,” said Kirk Klancke, president of TU’s Colorado River Headwaters chapter in Fraser and a longtime advocate for the river. “As an angler and Fraser Valley resident, I’m gratified that this agreement keeps our home waters healthy and flowing.”

Most significantly, Denver Water will participate in an adaptive management program called "Learning by Doing" through which Denver, Grand County, Trout Unlimited, and other local stakeholders are cooperating to apply mitigation and enhancement resources, monitor river and watershed conditions, and make adjustments to achieve the best results over time. "Rather than remaining an adversary, Denver Water has joined us and our west slope partners as a partner working to improve conditions in the Fraser watershed," explained Colorado TU Executive Director David Nickum.

In addition to the Learning by Doing effort, Denver Water has also pledged resources for improvement work on South Boulder Creek and on the North Fork South Platte (which will be impacted by ripple effects from Gross Reservoir expansion on Denver's systemwide operations, including the Roberts Tunnel). 5000 acre-feet in the enlarged reservoir will also be reserved as an environmental pool to be managed to help provide instream flows at key times to downstream reaches of South Boulder Creek.

Behind the Fin: Blake Fanning

How long have you been a TU member?I’ve been a member for 8 years, joining after moving to Colorado.  However, I really only started getting active in the past few years.

Why did you become a member and what chapter are you involved with? My grandfather taught me to fly fish when I was 8, learning on the streams in the Silverton, CO area. And my mother taught me to be in tune with the environment and how harshly man has treated it.  So TU was a natural fit with those passions.  I’m a member of the Collegiate Peaks Chapter in the Arkansas valley.

What made you want to become involved with TU? In addition to my lifelong pursuit of fly fishing for trout, and love of mother nature, it was a selfish reason. I wanted to learn how to fish the Arkansas river and figured the folks at our chapter could show me how to do so.  It’s not the easiest of rivers to catch fish on.

What is your favorite activity or project that you have done with TU? I’m going to the CTU youth conservation and fly fishing camp in June as a volunteer. I think it will be awesome learning from many experts on river ecology, as well as helping excite the next generation on river conservation and fly fishing.

I know you won’t tell me your top spot, so what is your second favorite fishing spot or favorite fishing story? I’ve really started to love high alpine lakes, particularly backpacking into them. The solitude and natural beauty always recharges my batteries.  Plus I have learned enough to usually catch some wild trout for supper.  My favorite river fishing is on a stretch of the Colorado River, where my brother and I catch 18-20+ inch rainbow and brown trout.  I will leave that stretch unidentified per my brother’s request.

What does being a part of TU mean to you? It means being involved in a community of men and women whom share the common goals of conservation and fly fishing. Youth education and teaching kids to fish is a definite plus.

What else do you do in your spare time or for work? Since moving into the mountains, I have started a new career in elder care, trying to keep folks in their homes.  A new focus of my fishing is the 9 wt rod I recently purchased.  I’m getting into kayak fly fishing for larger fish in the Florida flats and will be fishing for some pike this summer on the Rio Grande.  Love new adventures.

A rancher’s vision of home waters

Home waters.

For Colorado rancher Paul Bruchez, the phrase means more than a favorite local fishing stretch, although that’s part of it.

His home waters encompass a larger vision of waters that bind a community, and a way of life.

He’s spent much of his life along the Upper Colorado River, which winds through his family’s ranch near Kremmling and waters the pasture that supports the family’s cattle operation.

Paul also is a part-time fishing guide in the valley. “Only a rancher would be smart enough to supplement their income by being a fly-fishing guide,” he deadpans.

He loves ranching and fishing, and grew up immersed in both, but he knows this way of life depends on the river—and for decades, the Colorado River here has been in decline. Because of transmountain diversions to Front Range cities, drought, and other factors, he watched as the river dropped, leaving local ranchers’ irrigation pumps high and dry.

To his credit, Bruchez quickly realized that this was more than an irrigation problem. He found a study by a Colorado parks biologist that described seriously degraded river habitat in this stretch, including the loss of key health indicators such as riffle structures and stoneflies. In recent decades, the riffles and bugs had disappeared and been replaced with silt, steep eroded banks and what Bruchez calls “frog water”—slow, murky and mossy.

Looking at the degraded stretch left Bruchez wondering, “What happened to our river?”

So, a few years ago, he decided to do something about it. He talked with his neighbors about not just fixing their irrigation systems but actually fixing the river. Instead of replumbing the irrigation down to reach the river, he had the audacious idea of bringing the river levels back up. He wanted to restore flows and habitat for miles in the valley. He wanted a healthy river.

He began talking with Trout Unlimited and American Rivers. They put their heads together and came up with some innovative ideas. They launched a pilot project: on a neighbor’s ranch just outside of Kremmling, the partners brought in gravel and rocks to rebuild a point bar and reconstruct a riffle: the idea was to boost the oxygen in the water and provide cooler refuge for trout in the pool. Upstream of the riffle V, the narrower channel would back up the water, raising levels and making it more available for irrigation intakes.

At least that was the idea. Then they built it, and surprise—it worked.

The new riffle. 

Bruchez likes to look at the riffle, which froths and rattles over gravel and then slides into a deep long run and is a thing of beauty. “It looks fishy now,” he says.

Almost immediately, the bugs came back. In fact, he recently scooped up a Mason jar of the big stoneflies and other bugs—like some homegrown canned goods—and took them to a meeting of the Colorado Basin Roundtable, a local water planning group for the state. Paul held up the jar and said: This is what river conservation success looks like. With a little help, he told them, the bugs will return, and with them, the foundation of the entire food chain in the river.

He and his neighbors now have funding to improve 10 miles of the river with riffle-pool structures and other habitat projects.

“These bugs will replenish themselves fairly quickly once the river is restored,” he says. And the trout will follow.

It’s working—in fact, it’s astonished him how quickly nature has responded to their efforts. A few weeks back, he took a Colorado senator to the original riffle project. As they looked at the rippling water and tailout, trout began popping everywhere on the surface, rising to a prolific bug hatch.

It was incredible timing. The senator was impressed.

Those rising trout were a vision of the future.

He holds on to those moments, because restoring home waters isn’t always glamorous work. He’s put in countless hours in recent years attending godawfully long planning meetings and crunching the mind-numbing details of construction budgets. He credits his family for covering for him on some of the ranching duties, allowing him to pursue his river work. His wife has been patient.

They understand it’s about keeping their family in this valley. Home waters.

Paul knows that their life here always comes back to the river. He wants to keep it flowing. He wants to keep it fishing. He wants to turn over rocks at the riffle’s edge and find crawling signs of life. That’s what victory looks like.

For more pictures and story on the Bruchez ranch project, read the upcoming issue of This is Fly Magazine.

The author of this piece, Randy Scholfield, is TU's director of communications for the Southwest.

Clean Water Rule Unraveled

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officially proposed today to rescind the so-called Clean Water Rule, established under President Obama in 2015. This action begins a process of unraveling years of work to protect some of the most critical streams and wetlands in our country. The agency is giving Americans only 30 days to weigh in on a rule that took years to craft. The Clean Water Rule was a scientifically sound set of regulations that made clear America’s headwater streams would be protected for water quality under the federal Clean Water Act. The rule also would have reaffirmed exemptions in existing law for landowners and agricultural operations. It was strongly supported by the vast majority of Americans who commented on it during its multi-year development process..

In contrast, today's action to rescind the rule jeopardizes 60 percent of stream miles in the U.S., those small tributaries (sometimes ephemeral) to larger rivers which provide important habitat for fish and wildlife and deliver clean water to some of our most treasured fishing grounds.

[STAND UP FOR CLEAN WATER]

But fishing isn't the only thing at stake. This move impacts the sources of drinking water for 117 million people. That's one in three Americans whose drinking water originates in a stream that may no longer be protected.

Our access to clean water in this country is one of the things that sets us apart from many nations in the world. And it is up to protect the places that supply high quality water.

There's no doubt the Clean Water Rule has created much division. Trout Unlimited has seen that first-hand in working with many of our partners in agriculture. We understand and agree with the importance of getting this rule right, and support the exemptions granted to the ag community.

[STAND UP FOR CLEAN WATER]

But as an organization that works daily to fix polluted streams and rivers -- and the fisheries such pollution has degraded or ruined -- we know too well how hard and expensive it is to fix something rather than protect it in the first place.

"Clean water is not a political issue," said Chris Wood, President and CEO of Trout Unlimited. "It is a basic right of every American. Water runs downhill and gravity works cheap, and never takes a day off. We all live downstream. To be effective, the Clean Water Act must be able to control pollution at its source, upstream in the headwaters and wetlands that flow downstream through communities to our major lakes, rivers, and bays. EPA’s action places the health of 60 percent of the stream miles in the U.S. at risk. Trout Unlimited intends to work with our hundreds of thousands of members and supporters to reverse course on this misguided direction."

The Clean Water Rule is a foundational American law, one meant to protect the health of our nation's citizens. It also helps ensure that our remaining cold water habitat can provide good habitat and fishing opportunity. Time is short: Let's get to work.

[STAND UP FOR CLEAN WATER]

Trout Unlimited Recipient of WaterSMART Watershed Management Projects

The Bureau of Reclamation has awarded $664,754 to seven entities to implement watershed management projects in five states. Trout Unlimited received funds for three different projects including two in Colorado. In cooperation with the Five Rivers Chapter of Trout Unlimited, the Animas Watershed Partnership will receive $83,137 for a total project cost of $167,169 to conduct stream restoration projects in the lower Animas River near Farmington, New Mexico. Others providing contributions to this project are the Ranchmans-Terrell Ditch Association, San Juan Soil and Water Conservation District, and Basin Hydrology Inc.

The Eagle River Watershed Council, Inc., will receive $90,000 for a total project cost of $1,363,500 to improve instream flows in Abrams Creek, southwest of Eagle, Colorado. This project is being completed in conjunction with Trout Unlimited, Colorado Parks and Wildlife and Buckhorn Valley Metropolitan District.

In Idaho, Trout Unlimited also partnered with the Boise River Enhancement Network which will receive $100,000 for a total project cost of $398,845 will expose the lower 440 feet of Cottonwood Creek that flows through downtown Boise. The City of Boise, Land Trust of Treasure Valley, Intermountain Bird Observatory and the Ada County Highway District are contributing to the non-federal cost share.

The funding will be used for projects that enhance water conservation, improve water quality and ecological resilience, reduce water conflicts, and advance goals related to water quality and quantity. The entities that received the funds are also contributing funds to complete these projects.

"Cooperative watershed groups bring together diverse partners to address water management needs in their local communities," Bureau of Reclamation Acting Commissioner, Alan Mikkelsen, said. "The projects announced today will help restore watersheds and reduce water conflicts that were collaboratively developed within their communities."

Read about the other project recipients here.

WaterSMART is the U.S. Department of the Interior’s sustainable water initiative that uses the best available science to improve water conservation and help water resource managers identify strategies to narrow the gap between supply and demand. To learn more about WaterSMART, please visit https://www.usbr.gov/watersmart.