As Colorado Legislature kicks off, here are bills we’re watching

repost from TU.org, by Kara Armano

Trout Unlimited is known for its rock-rolling work where we are often found wearing waders and making rivers and streams better for trout and salmon, and of course, anglers. But we also spend plenty of time in our finest attire in the halls of state and federal legislative buildings advocating for smart water policies, protecting public lands, and funding allocations to continue our on-the-ground efforts.  

With Colorado’s legislative session about to ramp up, here is a look at some of the bills we are watching in the Centennial State and how we’ll play both offense and defense to advance our goals of conserving, protecting, and restoring our coldwater fisheries and their watersheds.  

Extend Colorado’s Healthy Rivers Fund — This successful funding mechanism is set to expire, but we are looking to extend it for another 10 years. This is financed by the Colorado tax check-off program, which provides taxpayers the opportunity to contribute a portion of their tax refund or to make a donation on their state income tax return. These funds assist Colorado Trout Unlimited and other watershed-based groups in efforts to protect our land and water resources. It is administered through the Colorado Water Conservation Board in association with the Water Quality Control Division and the Colorado Watershed Assembly. Since 2003, this fund has raised over $1.1 million to fund more than 80 local watershed projects.  

The bill will be introduced by Sen. Cleave Simpson and Rep. Donald Valdez. Colorado Trout Unlimited does not want to see this fund expire, so we are asking that it be approved for 10 more years.  

State parks funding — Amidst the many restrictions over the past challenging year, we’ve seen more and more people turn to outdoor recreation as a safe outlet for enjoyment and to benefit their mental and physical health. While a growing appreciation for our outdoors means more allies in its defense, it also means growing pressure on public lands, including our state parks. To rise to that challenge, Colorado Parks and Wildlife is looking to expand its funding base to help support sustainable recreation management and development of new parks and opportunities to serve the growing demand. 

Drawing from an example already in place in Montana with a 75 percent participation rate, legislation will be introduced to fold an annual state parks pass into vehicle registrations in Colorado. Those who don’t want the pass can opt-out, while the proposed fee level will be significantly less than the current annual pass rates for those who do obtain the pass. Parks passes for out-of-state visitors or those who decide to purchase after registering their vehicle will still be available for the current standard fee. While the per-pass revenue will be less, CPW anticipates a significant revenue boost due to a much larger volume of pass sales facilitated by the convenience of having passes folded into annual vehicle registration. CPW’s priorities for the funding include maintenance and expansion of state parks, search and rescue/outdoor education programs, and wildlife management both within and outside of state parks, with an emphasis on non-game species. CTU is supporting this effort as the new dollars will help meet our state’s growing demand for hiking, camping, fishing, and other outdoor recreation at Colorado’s 42 (with more to come!) state parks. 

Recreational in-channel diversion — There will be a bill to streamline the RICD process to avoid the necessity of significant in-river construction for smaller projects and to broaden the definition of whom can apply for these diversions.  

We will be watching this bill and helping our partners determine the best language to ensure a positive outcome for our constituents.  

Budget defense — With the current pandemic, state budgets across the country have been pushed to the brink, and that is certainly no different in Colorado. While creative measures to find funds for imperative state needs must be pursued, CTU will defend against redirecting funds that are specifically dedicated to natural resources, such as those earned under Proposition DD from sports betting to help fund the Colorado Water Plan. Likewise, we will defend against budget cuts and furloughs at important state agencies like Colorado Parks and Wildlife that manage fish, wildlife, and habitat programs critical to our mission. 

Of course, we’ll keep you updated throughout the course of the Colorado’s legislative session. If any of these particular items need assistance in terms of advocacy efforts like calling, emailing or Tweeting your elected official, we’ll be in touch.  

Support Colorado’s Healthy Rivers Fund!

Picture from Colorado Watershed Assembly, source.

Helping Rivers and Watersheds through Your Colorado Tax Return

The Healthy Rivers Fund, originally called the Colorado Watershed Protection Fund, was created in 2002 with a voluntary tax check-off line on Colorado State income tax forms where Coloradans can contribute a portion of their tax refunds. The program is unique among income tax check offs for its extensive oversight. The fund is housed within the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB), and is used to support grants for projects within Colorado to preserve and enhance watershed health. Applications are reviewed and grants awarded collaboratively by the CWCB, the Colorado Water Quality Control Division, and the Colorado Watershed Assembly (a non-profit dedicated to collaborative efforts to preserve the ecologic health of Colorado watersheds). Over the years, the fund has helped support dozens of collaborative local projects by Trout Unlimited chapters and other local watershed stewards, benefiting rivers and streams across the state.

Picture from Colorado Watershed Assembly, source.

You can help by supporting the Healthy Rivers Fund on your own 2020 Colorado tax return! By contributing a portion of your state tax refund toward the Healthy Rivers Fund, you will support the grant program and see your contribution pooled with those from thousands of other Coloradans and then leveraged by the local watershed partners to make a difference for the rivers you love.

Colorado Trout Unlimited is also helping lead the charge to keep this program going in future years. The program is set to expire with tax year 2020, unless extended by bill. We are working with sponsors Senator Cleave Simpson and Representative Donald Valdez to extend the program for another 10 years, until tax year 2030. The program has been both popular and successful at helping to protect our rivers and riparian habitat, and we are optimistic that the reauthorization will enjoy broad bipartisan support. We will share more information as the bill is introduced, including how you can let your legislators know you support the Healthy Rivers Fund and its continuation for the next decade.

Learn about past projects funded by the Healthy Rivers fund here.

Feds Put Brakes on Risky Tennessee Pass Railroad Proposal

Along the Arkansas River near Granite. Colorado. 1997. From Wikimedia Commons

The Federal Surface Transportation Board (STB) put a pause on the Midland and Pacific Railway Company’s effort to fast-track approval for leasing the Union Pacific Railroad line over Tennessee Pass through STB’s exemption process. The railroad had requested a streamlined “non-controversial” exemption that would move ahead its lease for the line. The STB rejected that request in order to allow time for a more robust review of the proposal. Trout Unlimited and other conservation groups, along with Chaffee County’s Board of County Commissioners and many local citizens, filed comments with the STB raising concerns and making it clear that the proposal certainly was not “non-controversial.”

The Tennessee Pass line has been dormant for 24 years. During its previous operations, it had a history of safety concerns including derailments. In a joint letter, Colorado TU and the Collegiate Peaks, Eagle Valley, and Southern Colorado Greenbacks chapters raised concern that the operations could put at risk fisheries in both the Eagle and Arkansas Rivers that have improved dramatically over those years – including more than 100 miles of Gold Medal water on the Arkansas. A derailment could release significant volumes of hazardous materials into the river, jeopardizing its high-quality fishery. Given the importance of river-based recreation to communities in both valleys, it could also jeopardize local economies as well.

You can read a copy of TU’s joint comment letter here, and local news coverage on the proposal from the Colorado Sun and Ark Valley Voice.

‘Hunters and Anglers for CORE’ Cheer Reintroduction of Colorado Public Lands Legislation

Colorado’s Camp Hale area from tu.org

repost from TU.org by Kara Armano
February 2, 2021

Widely popular CORE Act would open miles of public fishing access and protect big game habitat

Washington, DC (February 2, 2021)—Several of the nation’s leading sporting conservation groups are proclaiming their support for the Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy (CORE) Act introduced in both chambers of Congress today by Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper and Reps. Joe Neguse, Diana DeGette, Ed Perlmutter and Jason Crow.

Announcing their unified support for the legislation under the banner of “Hunters and Anglers for the CORE Act,” the coalition including Trout Unlimited, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, National Wildlife Federation and Artemis cheered the reintroduction of the comprehensive bill aiming to protect more than 400,000 acres of public lands and waters in Colorado, including significant protection for the fish and wildlife habitat most valued by the sporting community.

“Hunters and anglers in Colorado and throughout the nation recognize the importance of protecting the unique landscapes the CORE Act represents and the fish and wildlife that depend upon them,” said Scott Willoughby, Colorado public lands coordinator for Trout Unlimited’s Angler Conservation Program. “As we continue to see habitat deteriorate and public access to quality fishing and hunting areas decline, it has become painfully obvious that passing the provisions found in the CORE Act is long overdue. ‘Hunters and Anglers for CORE’ remain as committed to seeing this legislation across the finish line as we are to upholding our sporting traditions for future generations in Colorado.”

Initially introduced as the CORE Act of 2019 by Sen. Bennet and Rep. Neguse, the widely popular bill passed in the U.S. House twice with bipartisan support in the 116th Congress, most recently as part of the National Defense Authorization Act. Beyond a few House floor amendments, the bill remains largely unchanged in the 117th Congress, merging four previously independent bills into a single public lands protection package covering portions of the San Juan Mountains in southwest Colorado, the Curecanti National Recreation Area near Gunnison, the Thompson Divide southwest of Glenwood Springs and the Continental Divide surrounding the WWII alpine training grounds at Camp Hale. The proposed legislation would protect critical cold-water streams, enhance high-value habitat for several species of wildlife and increase public access for anglers in some of Colorado’s premier fisheries.

A recent Trout Unlimited analysis of fish and wildlife habitat protected in the bill’s framework found that the CORE Act safeguards some 2,416 miles of streams, 100 miles of native cutthroat trout stream habitat, 12 cutthroat trout lakes spanning 804 acres, nearly 7 miles of Gold Medal fishing water and an additional 88 miles of Gold Medal waters downstream of protected headwater landscapes. The bill would also open about 12 miles of public fishing access in the Gunnison River basin, protect hundreds of thousands of acres of critical elk and mule deer range and nearly 100,000 acres of important migration corridors at a time when both the State and Federal government have prioritized protecting animal migration routes.

“The CORE Act protects important wildlife habitat, including headwaters and migration corridors critical to the health of Colorado River cutthroat trout, elk, mule deer, rocky mountain bighorn sheep, desert bighorn sheep and many other species,” said Brien Webster, program manager for Colorado Backcountry Hunters & Anglers. “This bill has been years in the making through local stakeholder collaboration. Colorado Backcountry Hunters & Anglers remains committed to helping pass the CORE Act, securing needed protections for wildlife and habitat and expanded recreational access for sportsmen and women.”

Through the designation of some 73,000 acres of wilderness, nearly 80,000 acres of new recreation and conservation management areas and a 200,000-acre mineral withdrawal in the water- and wildlife-rich Thompson Divide area southwest of Glenwood Springs, the CORE Act safeguards backcountry fishing and hunting opportunities and preserves healthy fish and wildlife habitat by protecting key areas from activities that could otherwise degrade fish and wildlife values for native trout, elk, mule deer, bighorn sheep, moose, black bears and other game species.

The bill’s introduction also arrives shortly after President Joe Biden’s pledge to protect 30 percent of our country’s lands and waters by 2030, as part of a broader strategy to combat climate change. The threats posed by climate change, drought, wildfire and loss of fish and wildlife habitat elevate the importance of adopting the CORE Act as a solid down payment on the nation’s commitment to protecting our lands and waters—and the wildlife that depends on them—in an effort to meet these challenges. 

“The CORE Act preserves prime hunting and fishing destinations across Colorado,” said Madeleine West, director of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership’s Center for Public Lands. “This legislation is built with support from local communities, businesses, and recreation and sporting groups—a model for the way on the ground conservation should happen. We want to thank the Colorado delegation for listening to hunters and anglers and working to strengthen habitat for fish and wildlife for future generations.”

Colorado’s outdoor recreation industry employs over 500,000 people and is responsible for 10 percent of the state economy, a significant portion of which can be attributed to fishing and hunting. The legislation introduced in Congress today is a product of more than a decade of collaboration and compromise by small business owners, veterans, sportsmen and women, local county commissioners, municipalities, outdoor recreationists and conservation groups, and each of its four provisions have consistently polled favorably among local communities. “Hunters and Anglers for the CORE Act” applaud the collaborative efforts of Colorado’s congressional leaders and communities in crafting this thoroughly vetted legislation and reiterate our support for passing the CORE Act early in the legislative session.

Highlights of CORE Act habitat protection benefiting hunters and anglers:

Curecanti Boundary Establishment Act

Colorado’s Curecanti National Recreation Area

In addition to formally establishing the boundary of Curecanti National Recreation Area and improving coordination among land management agencies, the bill ensures the Bureau of Reclamation upholds its commitment to expand public fishing access in the basin, which was lost when the Aspinall Unit was created. The Bureau originally agreed to provide 26 miles of public fishing access in the Gunnison Basin, but has only accounted for about 14 miles to date.

Within Curecanti, 9,180-acre Blue Mesa Reservoir is the largest Kokanee salmon fishery in the U.S. and, along with neighboring Morrow Point Reservoir, has accounted for multiple state records for rainbow trout, mackinaw and kokanee, along with trophy brown trout. The Gunnison River, from 200 yards downstream of Crystal Dam and through Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park to its confluence with the North Fork, is designated Gold Medal and Wild Trout Water, including 2.4 miles within Curecanti NRA. Formal boundary designation will also add a layer of protection for 2.2 miles of cutthroat trout stream and 775 acres of cutthroat lake habitat, 5,926 acres of mule deer migration corridor and 7,123 acres of elk migration corridor along with 50,323 acres of elk winter range.

Thompson Divide Withdrawal and Protection Act

Colorado’s Thompson Divide

With its bounty of fish and wildlife habitat, the Thompson Divide area remains critically important to sportsmen and women in Colorado and across the nation. The three main game management units that lie within its boundary are among the most desirable to elk and mule deer hunters in the state, and the largely roadless area serves as year-round habitat for those and other species. More than 34,000 acres within Thompson Divide double as elk migration corridors.

The area also contains several conservation populations of Colorado River cutthroat trout, considered critical to the recovery and maintenance of the species to its native range. Among the 1,550 miles of stream radiating in all directions off Thompson Divide, about 83 miles qualify as native cutthroat stream habitat along with nearly 12 acres of cutthroat lake habitat. The northern boundary of the withdrawal and protection area includes 4.4 miles of Gold Medal fishing water along the Roaring Fork River, and Thompson Divide’s headwater tributaries extend to additional high-quality fisheries in the North Fork of the Gunnison River, the Crystal River and the Colorado River, which sustain surrounding retailers, fishing guides and outfitters that help drive the local recreation economy.

Continental Divide Recreation, Wilderness and Camp Hale Legacy Act

Colorado’s Camp Hale area

The nearly 100,000 acres along the Continental Divide surrounding Camp Hale served as the genesis of Colorado’s robust outdoor recreation economy, not only through the legacy of skiers that that passed through the WWII alpine training grounds and returned to the region post-war, but also through word of the hunting and fishing opportunities the soldiers enjoyed. The landscape is rife with elk and mule deer habitat and migration corridors, including more than 10,000 acres of severe winter elk range that the animals depend upon for survival.

The 474 miles of stream within the bill’s boundaries serve as headwaters to Gore Creek and the Eagle, Blue and Colorado rivers, feeding clean, cold water into multiple Gold Medal fishing sections and supplying more than 11 miles of native cutthroat trout stream habitat along with half a dozen cutthroat trout lakes.

San Juan Mountains Wilderness Act

Colorado’s San Juan Mountains

Wilderness and special management area proposals in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado would protect headwater tributaries of the Animas River among more than 325 stream miles that contain nearly 5 miles of cutthroat stream habitat. Four lakes spanning 6.6 acres within the proposed Sheep Mountain Special Management Area also hold the rare native trout. Roughly 50,000 terrestrial acres serve as summer range and calving areas that support mule deer and elk populations on public lands in the region, and a large elk winter concentration area is found in the Uncompahgre National Forest along the proposed 6,500-acre Naturita Canyon Mineral Withdrawal Area that includes cutthroat trout habitat within a tributary to the San Miguel River near Norwood.

February 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.

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.

A Discussion about TU's Work on the COGCC Rulings with Barbara Sheedlo and Corey Fisher

Colorado Trout Unlimited & Trout Unlimited

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!