Executive Director of Colorado Trout Unlimited David Nickum joins The Fan 104.3 with Terry Wickstrom to talk about CPW funding to renew places to fish, as well as to update Terry on warm water river flows. Listen to the full interview below or read the article here.
Tell Congress: take action before America's most successful access and recreation program expires
From crown jewels like the Great Sand Dunes and Black Canyon of the Gunnison, to access on the Colorado River, to community parks and trails in our own backyards, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) has set aside and protected special places in Colorado and nationwide for more than 50 years. If you've gone fishing, hiking or camping on public lands, or picnicked at a community park in your area, there's a good chance the LWCF helped protect it. But despite more than 50 years of success, the program will expire on September 30 if Congress doesn’t take action to renew it.
Senators Bennet and Gardner have both been leaders in supporting LWCF – but we need Colorado’s House delegation to also step up so that this successful program isn't lost to Congressional gridlock.
A legislative trifecta for natural resources
It's about time we all pat ourselves on the back for a job well done! In Colorado, we have seen an upswell of advocates that care about our natural resources and the investment in our lands.
TU praises passage of bill to support wildlife and recreation
Trout Unlimited praises passage of bill to support wildlife and outdoor recreation
(Denver)—Trout Unlimited praised the passage of the Hunting, Fishing, and Parks for Future Generations Act (SB18-143) today in the Colorado General Assembly – creating a sustainable funding stream for Colorado Parks and Wildlife that will help fund efforts to preserve the state’s prized fish and wildlife populations and support outdoor recreation opportunities.
In recent years, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) has seen its resources increasingly squeezed. The last resident license fee increase took place in 2005—and since that time, expenses have climbed by more than 25 percent and Colorado’s population has grown rapidly, putting more and more pressure on fish, wildlife, and their habitat as well as on the state’s recreation infrastructure.
Moreover, the budget squeeze has forced the agency to cut or defund 50 positions and slice $40 million from its wildlife budget—and without new funding, further cuts would be required. The bill passed today by the Colorado legislature will give CPW authority to raise hunting and fishing license fees to offset the rising costs of inflation. The modest fee increase ($8 for resident fishing licenses) will begin in 2019, with any future increases tied to the consumer price index. CPW is also looking at other revenue sources to support conservation priorities.
“Sportsmen and women have always taken pride in supporting our state’s outstanding outdoor resources and hunting and fishing opportunities,” said David Nickum, executive director of Colorado Trout Unlimited. “Hunters and anglers understand that Colorado’s wildlife and natural spaces are among our most valuable resources—and that we need to invest in our outdoor quality of life. This fee authority will help ensure that future generations have access to the same quality hunting, fishing and recreational opportunities available today.”
The enhanced revenue stream will help CPW invest in a range of sportsmen’s programs and initiatives, including:
- Providing more funds for critical programs like hunter education and Fishing is Fun;
- Expanding access for hunters and anglers by renewing high-priority leases and access programs on private land;
- Repairing CPW’s aging dams and reservoir infrastructure to keep them open for fishing;
- Modernizing hatcheries to increase the number of fish stocked in those Colorado waters that can’t support robust wild populations.
“TU is grateful to have been afforded a seat on the CPW ‘Sportsmen’s Roundtable’—a collaborative, statewide forum to engage sportsmen and women on the agency’s strategic plans and financial issues,” said Ty Churchwell, TU’s San Juan Mountains coordinator. “We applaud the CPW for involving sportsmen’s conservation organizations in development of this bill, and holding dozens of public meetings across the state. Their commitment to broad, extensive, debated input on development of this bill has helped secure support for its passage.”
Trout Unlimited thanks Colorado Parks and Wildlife Director Bob Broscheid for his leadership as well as the bill sponsors, state Senators Stephen Fenberg and Don Coram, and Representatives Jeni Arndt and James Wilson.
Download the Press Release here.
Save Bristol Bay!
Pebble Limited Partnerships recently applied for one of the major permits they’ll need to mine in Bristol Bay. Filing that application is huge news because it brings their catastrophic proposal one step closer to becoming a reality. Now, we have the first chance for you to weigh in on this process.
Pebble Limited Partnerships wants to develop an open-pit mine in southwest Alaska, approximately 17 miles west/northwest of the villages of Iliamna, Newhalen, and Nondalton. They also are proposing a 188-mile natural gas pipeline from the Kenai Peninsula across the Cook Inlet to the mine site as their proposed energy source. These developments would dramatically affect Bristol Bay’s fisheries which are critical to Alaska's economy and culture. Speak up and let The Army Corps of Engineers know that we should protect Bristol Bay, and the businesses and communities these waters support.
Add your name and comment below to tell the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reject Pebble's proposal as incomplete. Feel free to edit the suggested content. Click the button to take action!
Trout Unlimited in Colorado 2017 Annual Report
We are happy to announce that our 2017 Annual Report is live and available for your viewing. Last year was filled with great work across the whole state and the finishing up of many restoration projects and continuing others! Thank you to everyone who supported Trout Unlimited in Colorado last year.
Click here to read the CTU 2017 Annual Report
High Country Angler spring issue released!
The High Country Angler (HCA) is the official digital magazine of Colorado Trout Unlimited! HCA is published 4 times a year by High Country Publications, LLC., in cooperation with Colorado Trout Unlimited, the 3rd largest TU Chapter in the nation.
Read the Spring 2018 Issues for free here.
Colorado voters consider themselves to be conservationists - Not a surprise to us.
A new bipartisan study, the Conservation in the West Poll, was released January 25, 2018 by the State of the Rockies Project, in conjunction with Lori Weigel, Public Opinion Strategies and Dave Metz, Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, and Metz & Associates. The survey, conducted in eight western states, explores bi-partisan opinions in each state and for the Rocky Mountain West region concerning conservation, environment, energy, the role of government, trade-offs with economies, and citizen priorities. The survey now includes polling in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
Colorado College in Colorado Springs has released all of the polls publications broken up by state, topic, and additional reports about Sportsmen and Agriculture. You can go through them all here, but we are going to take you through some of the most interesting results.
One demographic that we are very familiar with is those who identify as a sportsman or woman. The poll found that 79% are the most likely vote sub-group to identify as a conservationist which is a 4% increase from last year. Among that voter group, 58% preferred that the Trump Administration would focus on protecting clean water, air quality, and wildlife habitats on public lands.
In relation to the recent national monuments and public lands reductions happening to Utah's Grand Staircase and Bear's Ears, a majority of those who identify as a hunter or angler found this to be a largely bad idea and that any future reductions or stripping of other Monuments was also a bad idea.
Currently, there is legislation around our national monuments and you can speak up against it with our current action alert.
Another demographic that is extremely involved in the water issues of Colorado are voters who identify as being part of a rural or small town. Now some might think they don't share the same values as those in the growing cities of the Front Range, but that notion couldn't be farther from the truth. Rural communities overwhelmingly share similar values in regards to conservation, development, and public lands.
And to sum up the state's opinions as a whole, below is an infographic showing the support for different initiatives regarding water conservation, national monuments, and outdoor recreation. If you would like a closer look at the reports shown here or any of the images in this post, see the links at the bottom of the page.
Takeaway from the Data
The results of this poll are encouraging and also not unexpected. As part of Trout Unlimited, we know that our members who identify as sportsmen/women, farmers, activists, and outdoor recreationists are and have always been conservationists. This poll just further proves that we are a strong majority of people who believe in the future of clean water, access to public lands, and healthy fisheries. We stand together as a collaborative and influential community that puts conservation first.
Resources and References:
Funding the Future of Conservation
Colorado Parks and Wildlife is looking for the legislature to provide it with authority to increase hunting and fishing license fees for the first time in more than a decade, and we expect to see legislation along those lines during the 2018 legislative session. At one level, the reason for such an increase is very simple - the revenue generated by license fees has been eroded by inflation since the last increase, and in order to deliver the same kinds of service the agency needs to have the funding to keep up with those escalating costs.
But the most frequent question we've heard from anglers and sportsmen generally has been to hear more of the story: what are these funds needed for, and what types of investments specifically will the state make if anglers and hunters increase what we pay for licenses?
The most recent issue of High Country Angler offers some answers. Needs run the gamut from modernizing fish hatcheries, to restoring funds for the "Fishing is Fun" program to improve habitat and create new fishing access, to completing needed maintenance on fishing reservoirs that otherwise could be forced to be drained for dam safety reasons.
Read all about it here - and decide for yourself - are these investments good reasons to pay more on my fishing license? You'll have the chance to speak up on that question with your legislators this year.
Stand Up for Your National Monuments
The Antiquities Act was put in place to protect America’s special outdoor sites. Sixteen presidents, both Republican and Democrat, have used the Antiquities Act to establish National Monuments to be enjoyed by all, now and in the future.
