Colorado River District funds first West Slope water project after passage of 7A

Windy Gap Connectivity Channel is the first project funded by the River District’s new Partnership Project Funding Program

Glenwood Springs, CO — The Colorado River District’s Board of Directors finalized a new program that will fund West Slope water projects and approved funding for the program’s first-ever project.

The Partnership Project Funding Program will fund multi-purpose water projects on the Western Slope in five project categories: productive agriculture, infrastructure, healthy rivers, watershed health and water quality, and conservation and efficiency. Funding for the program was approved by Western Colorado voters as part of Ballot Question 7A in November 2020. These District funds will be directed to projects identified as priorities by communities, water users, and Basin Roundtables in the District.  Importantly, the funds may catalyze additional investment from state, federal and private sources.

The board also approved $1 million towards the first project funded by the program: the Colorado River Connectivity Channel near Windy Gap Reservoir in Grand County. The long-planned yet underfunded project will receive $1 million in support of healthy rivers, watershed health and water quality. The Colorado River District’s financial commitment will allow project proponents to successfully leverage additional funding sources.

“The projects supported by the Partnership Project Funding Program will protect and sustain West Slope water for all of us who rely on it,” said River District General Manager Andy Mueller. “In launching this program and funding our first project, we’re fulfilling our promise to the voters who make our work possible. This and future projects will help build a brighter water future for Western Colorado.”

“On behalf of the citizens of Grand County, we thank our partners at the Colorado River District for their decision to fund $1 toward the Windy Gap Reservoir Connectivity Channel Project,” said Grand County Commissioner Kristen Manguso.

“These funds will help leverage the remaining dollars needed to construct this much needed project that will reconnect the Colorado River around Windy Gap Reservoir and provide so many environmental and hydrological benefits to the Colorado River and Fraser River in Grand County, and downriver, said Grand County Commissioner Richard Cimino.

“Thank you to all that are working so hard to get funding for this important project. This million-dollar award is exactly the kind of project these funds are to be used for,” said Grand County Commissioner Merrit Linke.

The goal of the Connectivity Channel is to establish a reconstructed river channel around Windy Gap Reservoir to reconnect the Colorado River and eliminate the reservoir’s negative impacts. Upon completion, the project is expected to improve river health and habitat and provide significant economic benefits to Grand County communities that rely on recreation. The channel is also expected to improve water quality for agricultural irrigators downstream.

“This infusion of funding for the Colorado River Connectivity Channel is imperative to the health of the upper Colorado River and our work at Trout Unlimited to see this project to completion," said Mely Whiting, Colorado water project legal counsel for TU. "Seeing a healthy river flowing with improved habitat for trout and other wildlife and increasing the economic opportunities for this region will be a dream realized as this funding will help leverage the final push to complete this crucial project.”

Windy Gap Reservoir is a shallow, on-channel reservoir that obstructs the movement of fish and other aquatic organisms in the Colorado River and degrades downstream habitat. The health of the river below the reservoir has been in decline since the reservoir was built in the mid-1980s, with documented losses of 38% of macroinvertebrate diversity – including the complete loss of giant stoneflies (a major food source for trout), the loss of native sculpin populations and a decline in trout biomass in this Gold Medal Trout fishery.

The project consists of four components:

1. Modification of the Windy Gap Reservoir to create room for the construction of the connectivity channel;

2. A natural channel, approximately one mile long, that connects the Colorado River around the newly configured reservoir;

3. A diversion structure that will divert water from the connectivity channel into the reservoir; and

4. Removal or alternative means to improve fish passage at a weir upstream of the reservoir.

For more information, you can read Partnership Project Funding Program documents presented to the board by clicking here. You can read the Windy Gap Connectivity Channel documents presented to the board by clicking here.

January Currents: A voice for Colorado's rivers

Currents is Colorado Trout Unlimited’s monthly newsletter. We feature stories about our work, chapters, and partners. You can also learn more about upcoming events and ways to participate across the state. This month’s issue includes:

• Some ways to start your new year off right

•  New Year, new gravel mine defeated along the Colorado

• 2021 Virtual River Stewardship Gala - tickets now available!

• Fly Tying: The old becomes new again

• How conservation can save our politics and save America

• PODCAST AUDIO: Big Win for Responsible Oil and Gas Development

• NEW Winter 2021 High Country Angler and more!

New Year, new gravel mine defeated along the Colorado

Pictured: Hillside on the left is the approximate area on the Colorado River that would have been turned into a gravel mine.

by Scott Willoughby, Colorado Coordinator for TU’s Angler Conservation Program

Colorado Trout Unlimited rang in the New Year by playing a prominent role in pushing back a proposed industrial gravel mine along a section of the upper Colorado River that many anglers, hunters and wildlife watchers consider nothing short of “sacred."

“It’s an open landscape, it feels untouched,” Ben McCormick, TU member and owner of the Cutthroat Anglers fly fishing shop in Silverthorne told the Eagle County Planning Commission during a 6-hour Zoom meeting to determine the fate of the Colorado River near Dotsero on January 6. “When you think about the pressure and the crowds and everything that’s going on on the upper Colorado, it couldn’t be more important that we protect this section. It truly is sacred.”

McCormick was one of almost 40 locals who endured the marathon meeting to speak out against the plan by a newly formed company known as Rincon Materials to remove some 225,000 tons of gravel per year from a privately owned 107-acre parcel abutting the popular Dotsero Landing boat launch purchased through Eagle County Open Space tax funding and managed for recreational access by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. McCormick said that Cutthroat Anglers runs 200 float fishing trips per year down the Colorado River to Dotsero, and he is hardly alone.

Encouraged by the local Eagle Valley Trout Unlimited chapter, which submitted written comments along with verbal testimony in opposition to the mine, several members of the surrounding angling and guiding community spoke out against the plan to dig multiple pits along the river corridor adjacent to the 38-acre Dewey Park conservation easement just downstream from the mouth of the Deep Creek Wild & Scenic River nomination. Among them, Confluence Casting guide service owner Jack Bombardier, who lives and works just upstream of the proposed mine site, offered a passionate emotional plea published in the local Vail Daily newspaper noting that the Rincon Mine proposal “crosses a line.”

“Considering the outdoor recreation and agricultural value of this area, putting an industrial site at its gateway makes no sense,” Bombardier stated. “It will permanently alter the landscape while benefiting very few.”

Ultimately, the Eagle County Planning Commission agreed, voting 4-2 against awarding both a special use permit for the sand and gravel pit that would scar the hillside for decades to come and an exemption from the Dotsero Area Community Plan guiding land use in the area as part of the Eagle County Comprehensive Plan. Eagle County staff had previously recommended denial of the special use permit and exemption, stating that the proposed mine was not in conformance with the plan’s stated intention of maintaining the open nature and agricultural character of the river corridor in an effort to promote conservation and recreation over industrial uses.

Since 2011, the Eagle County Open Space program has invested more than $10 million in local property tax revenue to acquire multiple parcels of now public lands and boat launches along the Colorado River between Dotsero and State Bridge, coordinating complex deals with ranching landowners as well as state and federal agencies with the promise of enhanced recreational access and an emphasis on conservation throughout the popular trout fishery.

But it was local community activism largely led by members of the angling community that ultimately sealed the deal.

“I was not in agreement with the county staff report the last time we met on this,” Eagle County Planning Commissioner Tim Carpenter said before voting to deny the required permit. “With all the public comment I have heard, I have reevaluated my first view on this.”

PODCAST AUDIO: Big Win for Responsible Oil and Gas Development

Oil Development in Colorado. Josh Duplechian/Trout Unlimited

As the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) passed new regulations, Colorado TU and National TU worked in harmony to secure groundbreaking changes for protecting aquatic and riparian habitat. We join Barbara Sheedlo, Chair of CTU's Bull Moose Advocacy Committee and Corey Fisher, the Public Lands Policy Director for TU's Angler Conservation Program for a discussion about the COGCC's new regulations and how Trout Unlimited was involved in the process.

Learn More about this Ruling:

Repost from TU.org by Kara Armano

Colorado TU and national TU worked in harmony to pass groundbreaking changes to Colorado’s oil and gas drilling regulations.  

Starting in 2014, Trout Unlimited initiated conversations with the oil and gas industry and conservation partners to establish more robust protections for Colorado’s most important fisheries. The idea was simple: prohibit stream-side oil and gas development and require spill protection measures for development within a quarter of a mile of native trout streams and Gold Medal fisheries. This effort smoldered until 2019 when a law passed the Colorado Legislature requiring a rewrite of its rules.  

Colorado Senate Bill 19-181 required the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) to expand the agency’s mission to safeguard wildlife and its habitat against potential adverse impacts of oil and gas development. This provided a once-in-a-decade opportunity to ensure strong protections for wildlife and its habitat, which include cold-water fisheries, streams and riparian zones across the state. 

Massive stakeholder input started in November 2019 and concluded last month. The rulemaking hearings spanned 180 hours of presentations, witness testimonies and deliberations. Colorado TU joined as a formal party to the hearings as part of a coalition with aligned sporting conservation groups, which included Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, the National Wildlife Federation and Colorado Wildlife Federation. CTU members provided expert witness testimony, wrote letters to publications and sent in over 500 written comments to the COGCC in support of additional protections for cold-water fisheries.  

CTU stakeholders advocated for expanded “no drill” buffer zones and spill protection measures around high priority aquatic habitat, including Gold Medal and native cutthroat trout streams. This input, aligned with voices from our partner conservation organizations, helped inform the commission’s rulemaking and resulted in significantly improved protections for valuable fisheries and aquatic habitats.  

To that end, the Commission voted unanimously to adopt revisions to its rules to:  

• Increase buffers from 300’ avoidance to 500’ protection around important aquatic habitats–––a 980 percent increase around cutthroat and Gold Medal waters.

• Create 500-foot No Surface Occupancy buffers for all aquatic High Priority Habitat streams identified by Colorado Parks and Wildlife, including designated cutthroat trout habitat, Gold Medal streams, sportfish-managed waters and native species conservation waters. Nearly all of Colorado’s trout habitat will enjoy this increased protection.

• Requires stronger spill prevention measures within 1,000 feet of aquatic High Priority Habitat.

• Mandates to bore beneath streams in aquatic High Priority Habitat areas rather than trenching across it, which will help avoid impacts to fish habitat.

Click here to view CPW map layers of protected habitat

In addition, COGCC will require operators to consult with Colorado Parks and Wildlife for locations proposed in migration corridors for elk, mule deer, bighorn sheep, and pronghorn. They also must prepare Wildlife Mitigation Plans if approved to operate in migration corridors, which should plan to minimize impacts on wildlife and habitat and offset adverse impacts through mitigation projects or fees.  

The new rule marks the end of a six-year effort to protect Colorado’s most valuable waters. Wins like this don’t come easy, but we don’t give up on good ideas, and we leverage the power of TU staff and grassroots to finish the job when we have an opportunity to succeed. We do this hard work for the fish, the streams and rivers and for anglers everywhere.  

Winter 2021 High Country Angler E-Zine

Check out the new Winter 2020 issue of High Country Angler e-zine! Featuring articles on fishing for Pike at Rocky Mountain Arsenal, a story about responsible oil and gas development from the Bull Moose Committee, a recap on CTU's digital Rendezvous including chapter and volunteer recognitions, CTU's STREAM Girls program, a story about the Rio Grande Cutthroat restoration on Sand Creek, and much more, including the regular columns:

• THE OLD BECOMES NEW AGAIN by Joel Evans

• SUN AND ICE IN NOVEMBER by Hayden Mellsop

• HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH YOUR CATCH WITHOUT HURTING THE FISH by Peter Stitcher

• ANTERO RESERVOIR’S MARVELOUS DRAUGHT OF FISHES by James W. White and more!

December Currents: A voice for Colorado's Rivers

Happy December! As we head into the new year, check out the latest from CTU. Stories include:

• End of Year Gift Giving

• Pebble Mine stopped

• Support local businesses that value healthy rivers

• STREAM Girls builds confidence in STEM and the outdoors despite COVID

• Tension is the key to every cast

• Big Win for Responsible Oil and Gas Development

• NEW Winter 2020 High Country Angler

and more!

Today is Colorado Gives Day - Support coldwater conservation!

Gives Day 2020 is here! Give to Colorado TU today and know your support for healthy watersheds and wild trout goes further. Every donation helps us to increase our portion of the Colorado Gives Day Incentive Fund. And every new or increased donation helps us to meet the Freestone Aquatics match. Today is a great day to support the rivers you love and the incredible fishing opportunities our beautiful state offers!

Your Gives Day donation to Colorado TU supports… 

STREAM Girls – a watershed education program that combines STEM-learning with fly fishing and outdoor education on a local watershed

Native trout restoration like the Sand Creek project in Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve

Grassroots advocacy that gets results

Chapter projects that benefit watersheds and communities around the state

Give where you live and fish! Help us make 2021 a great year for healthy rivers and wild trout with your generous donation to Colorado TU TODAY!

Wishing you health and wellness!

--- the Colorado TU team

Rocky Mountain Flycasters Holiday Raffle

Rocky Mountain Flycasters is a local chapter of the national (Trout Unlimited) and state organization (Colorado Trout Unlimited) sharing the same purpose and goals.

Raffle ticket entries will help them in their mission to conserve, protect, sustain, and restore Northern Colorado's cold-water fisheries and their watersheds for current and future generations.

Share the raffle link with your family and friends telling them about the work Rocky Mountain Flycasters does for outdoor recreation and the restoration work upcoming in the Cameron Peak and Big Thompson Canyon burn areas.  They will need many volunteers and funds to accomplish these projects, so visit our website at rmftu.org often to sign up and see how you can help.  Thank you for supporting the Rocky Mountain Flycasters Chapter.

STREAM Girls in 2020

STREAM Girls is a watershed education program created through a partnership between Girls Scouts of USA and Trout Unlimited with the goal of engaging elementary and middle school girls in STEM-based exploration. In addition to STREAM Girls getting its name from the focus on watersheds, STREAM also stands for Science, Technology, Recreation, Engineering, Art, and Math. The program is divided into eight activities highlighting each of these subjects. Girls learn about stream flow measurements, aquatic macroinvertebrate life, riparian habitats, and fly fishing throughout the program. Through inquiry-based learning, Girl Scouts get to know their local watersheds, develop new outdoor skills, and increase their understanding of real work applications of STEM.

After a successful year of hosting 6 STREAM Girls events in 2019, Colorado Trout Unlimited was excited to carry the momentum into 2020 with six more scheduled programs. Unfortunately, 2020 plans were stifled by the COVID-19 global pandemic. With public health orders restricting group size and concerns surrounding shared gear utilized during in-person programming, CTU shifted STREAM Girls to a virtual platform. To facilitate this transition, CTU staff and volunteers created several videos and sourced additional existing educational resources to support the STREAM Girls activities.

Over the course of fall, CTU hosted STREAM Girls programming through four virtual/self-guided events with the support of local Trout Unlimited chapters. The four STREAM Girls programs engaged 59 girl scouts from across Colorado. Beyond the Girl Scouts who received STREAM Girls patches, the virtual programming engaged entire families in getting outdoors to explore and learn about local watersheds.

To understand the efficacy and impact of the virtual STREAM Girls program, CTU asked Girls Scouts and their parents to complete a post-program survey. Colorado Trout Unlimited was pleased to have 100% of respondents note increased knowledge of their local watersheds, heightened interest in STEM-subjects, activities, and careers, desire to further develop fishing skills, and recommendation of the program to other girl scouts. Participants provided additional positive feedback, which included:

• “This is a great program to introduce girls to fly-fishing and knowledge of local streams. It was a well-thought out, self-guided program that covered a great deal of information. We had a fun time doing all of the steps.”

• “It is a wonderful break from our overwhelmingly electronic world! I thought it was a great way to introduce different aspects of stream science so that have it in their head as they are thinking about future endeavors.”

• “It is a great activity to get outside and bond/enjoy the time with your girl.”

• “A great way to get involved with your Girl Scout and learn as a family with specific detailed tasks to help you learn about rivers, fly fishing, etc.”

• “It was really fun and would like to do it again in person. All the activities were awesome!”

A big THANK YOU goes out to Girls Scouts of Colorado, Pikes Peak Chapter, St. Vrain Anglers, Rocky Mountain Flycasters, Gunnison Gorge Anglers, Grand Valley Anglers, and all of the volunteers who helped support these events! Additionally, we would like to acknowledge Orvis, New Jersey Audubon, The Stroud Water Research Center, Arizona Department of Water Quality, and Arizona Game and Fish for allowing Colorado Trout Unlimited to use educational videos for STREAM Girls.

Colorado TU was the first to pilot and host virtual/self-guided STREAM Girls events across the country. CTU is proud to have shared our success and lessons learned with Trout Unlimited staff and volunteers

across the country. We look forward to further developing these resources to help support STREAM Girls events in the future!

By Geoff Elliott, CTU Youth Education Coordinator

Rio Grande Cutthroat Restoration on Sand Creek

Written by Kevin Terry

When I first heard about Sand Creek, I was in my first year of my first real job as a fisheries biologist. I was hired to manage the fisheries program for the Jicarilla Apache Nation in northern New Mexico, and the tribe is a signatory to the range-wide conservation agreement for Rio Grande cutthroat trout. I was at my first annual meeting of the group and it was my first introduction to Fred Bunch of the Great Sand Dunes and John Alves, who at that time was the fish biologist in the Rio Grande for Colorado Parks and Wildlife ( CDOW back then). That was 15 years ago. That’s right, the Sand Creek reintroduction project has been in the works for over 15 years!

When I first saw Sand Creek from the top of Music Pass, I knew instantly that it would occupy a space in my heart for the rest of my life. Why, you might ask, but to understand, you need to stand in that very spot too, as there are no words. This was 2014, a full 9 years after I had first learned of the effort to bring back Rio Grande cutthroat to Sand Creek, and the beginning of year 2 with my job at Trout Unlimited as the Rio Grande Basin Project Manager in the San Luis Valley. I was there as part of a team of researchers alongside Andrew Todd and Ben McGee of the USGS, and our task was to characterize the physical and biological attributes of the watershed through the lens of a fisheries reclamation scope. As we stood there, just before our first of many nights spent in the watershed over the next 5 years, I was overwhelmed with our task but incredibly motivated that such a thing might actually be possible, in a place as pristine and intact as Sand Creek. The first few trips were daunting, the watershed huge and intimidating. But we got to work and slowly chipped away at the tasks. We outfitted streams and tributaries with temperature and intermittency loggers, battling through the lush healthy riparian jungle and mosquito swarms that could carry a baby away. We explored tributaries in near vertical climbs to map the perennial sections and determine if fish were present. We used electrofishing and environmental DNA sampling to determine fish species distributions. We captured fish from the lakes and streams and sent in tissue samples for genetics testing. Through the process our team grew, adding Dewane Mosher, the newly hired biologist from Great Sand Dunes National Park and getting staff support from CPW for mapping the lake bathymetry amongst other tasks.

Each year we became more familiar with the lay of the land, finally wrapping our minds around the expansive watershed and gaining confidence in the physical space. The data was adding to our confidence on the biological side of things too. We learned that most of the tributaries were unoccupied by fish, but instead they contributed clean, super cold water, that was even too cold for successful cutthroat reproduction and recruitment. That meant we didn’t have to treat most of the tribs with

rotenone, securing source populations of aquatic invertebrates to recolonize Sand Creek. This information demonstrates the watersheds resiliency in the face of climate change. Ultimately, this became a driving factor for why Sand Creek is so well suited for re-introduction. Even though the tributaries were found to be too cold, the mainstem was just right as goldilocks would say, benefitting from solar thermal gain at the two lakes in the uppermost sections of the watershed at 12,000 feet in elevation. These lakes are very productive, and our genetics work showed that fish could also reproduce successfully in them. Successful reproduction in lakes is very rare throughout the range of the species, and again added positively to the project’s potential. In fact, the information was so promising, that even before the study was fully complete, the Sand Creek project elevated to the top of the list for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and the stage was set for a monumental undertaking.

In 2018, our study complete, the details of a treatment plan in the works, the decision was made to attempt to treat the upper portion of Sand Creek in the fall of 2019. Then we got snow, lots and lots of snow, a winter like we hadn’t seen for a long while. This 30-year event was a challenge to say the least, and the lakes didn’t even ice-out until July. A valiant and sincere effort was taken up to try to get it done anyway, but it was just not in the cards in 2019, and the decision was made to postpone.

In 2020 the pressure was on. These projects take so much time and effort (sweat and $$$$$) and we all felt an urgency to get this phase done. CPW, NPS, and TU staff joined up for most of the summer to prepare. We cut trails and flagged routes, identifying springs and seeps. We installed a gauge system and monitored stream flows. Every inch of flowing water was scoured for the presences of fish and importantly the young of year fish emerging from the gravel. Outfitter tents were installed by the Laske family, in preparation of the treatment week. The work was hard, but the team stuck it out. Finally, it was go-time, and 44 people, mostly from Colorado Parks and Wildlife journeyed into Sand Creek during the first week of September 2020. We had a challenging start, with helicopters not able to fly the first day. Plans were modified and there was no giving up. The second day we got after it, treating all of the streams above the waterfall barrier, while the helicopters got running, delivering boats and motors and barrels of Rotenone to the Lakes and base camp. Day three was a repeat of the stream treatment and both of the lakes were treated as well. It was finally done, and all went as planned. An enormous sigh of relief rippled through the troops and we celebrated in exhaustion with a little Colorado whiskey donated by Laws Whiskey. Day 4 was clean-up and de-mobilization, helicopters buzzing around in a flurry and people gathering the gear for the years last trip out.

Personally, this was the single most meaningful and important project that I have been part of in my career. I believe with all of my heart, that Sand Creek will hold this incredible native trout for centuries to come. This is for our children and their children and everyone can experience it, because it belongs to all of us. It is our public land, managed diligently by our National Park Service and the amazing men and women who serve us all in their vital work.

There are too many people to thank for making this a reality. Fred Bunch has been an incredible leader, patiently waiting and guiding a slow-moving ship. Without Fred, this project would never have happened, plain and simple. Dewane Mosher has been an amazing right hand for Fred and the NPS. Dewane and his crew worked tirelessly over the years getting ready for this Project. Nic Medley the NPS fisheries biologist for the region provided incredible support, authoring the fisheries management plan for the park. John Alves, now the senior biologist for CPW, was here in the beginning and he was here in the end too. John and his staff have always kept the door open on this huge project, and when it came down to it, they brought out every tool in the shed and then some. It was incredibly rewarding to share this with John in Sand Creek itself. Mark Seaton and the rest of the San Luis Valley TU chapter team have been incredibly supportive of the project and I am so proud of my chapter for their unwavering support. Raising the money to hire the Laske’s outfitting services was the perfect contribution and a fitting role for good old Valley hospitality. Thanks to Colorado Trout Unlimited and their generous supporters too, for helping the chapter leverage chapter dollars to raise money online. The Laske Family went above and beyond, making things so comfortable, and serving delicious food in a rough place during Co-Vid. There are too many CPW staff to name here, but I need to call out Kevin Rogers for his support over the years. Kevin mapped the lakes, and guided research efforts. My colleagues and friends Andrew Todd and Ben McGee did a fantastic job with the characterization study, which teed it all up. I am incredibly proud of Running Rivers too. This unique non-profit raised over $20,000 for this project! Carrie Tucker, the CPW fish bio in the SE, alongside her crew, did an incredible job co-piloting this project. Lastly, Estevan Vigil, our Rio Grande fish biologist for CPW and his tremendous crew have done an enormous amount of work (and suffered incomprehensible stress loads) to get this project to the finish line. Estevan inherited this huge project and I can’t imagine what was going through his mind the first time we took him into the watershed. Estevan endured with grace under pressure (my high school English teacher would appreciate this Hemingway tribute) dealing with plenty of setbacks and hoops, but he never wavered once. Estevan and his crew should be unbelievably proud. I am so grateful to the entire CPW fish crew. The effort they put forth in the midst of Co-Vid, to bring 40 plus people from around the entire state is simply astonishing. I am so proud of Colorado Parks and Wildlife and thankful to the amazing staff we have in this great state. Because of them, we just might be able to keep our beautiful native fish around after all.

For more information on the Sand Creek Characterization Study, please click here.