TU supports bills to modernize and improve oil and gas leasing

Image courtesy of Trout Unlimited/Josh Duplechian

Repost from TU.org:

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Trout Unlimited today voiced support for legislation that would help modernize the federal oil and gas leasing system and facilitate responsible energy development on public land.

The Competitive Onshore Mineral Policy via Eliminating Taxpayer-Enabled Speculation Act (COMPETES Act), introduced by U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) and co-sponsored by U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV), would require the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to end the practice of non-competitive leasing.

In the leasing process, lands are offered to oil and gas companies, which bid on them during competitive auctions. Public lands that do not receive bids—often areas with no marketable oil/gas—are offered later at rock-bottom prices, needlessly encumbering public lands. Many of these lands provide important fish and wildlife habitat and are places where public land users hunt, fish, float and hike.

“Here in Colorado where the practice has become commonplace, non-competitive leasing has direct impacts on outdoor recreation and our quality of life,” said Scott Willoughby, Colorado field coordinator for Trout Unlimited. “Agencies like the Bureau of Land Management are already stretched beyond capacity, and increasing that workload for essentially no return needlessly diverts staff resources away from other priorities, like fish and wildlife conservation, outdoor recreation, and managing oil and gas development where it can be done responsibly. We want to thank Senator Hickenlooper for his work on this important legislation and express our support for ending this outdated practice.”

“Non-competitive leasing encourages speculation on public lands at taxpayers’ expense.” Senator Hickenlooper said in a press release. “Westerners lose out when large swaths of land are set aside for speculation instead of conservation or recreation.”

Non-competitive leasing has occurred throughout Colorado, including in North Park adjacent to the Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge, upstream of the famed Gold Medal stretch of the North Platte River. (Learn more about Gold Medal fishing waters at Colorado Gold). Elsewhere throughout the West, non-competitive leasing creates similar conflicts with fish and wildlife, spurring controversy as the public weighs the risk of speculative oil and gas exploration against the values of healthy habitat and outdoor recreation.

“Of the 2.5 million acres offered for lease since 2017 in Nevada, less than 10 percent of the acreage offered has been sold at competitive auction, ” said Pam Harrington, Nevada field coordinator for Trout Unlimited’s Angler Conservation Program. “Anonymous entities nominate thousands of acres, and the agencies must act on these frivolous proposals. Overwhelmed, both the agencies and interested public try to provide productive input, but in the end, the sales are offered and largely nobody bids. A month later, parcels are purchased non-competitively at $1.50 an acre, which creates unnecessary paperwork and ties up our public lands from its multitude of other uses.”

The COMPETES Act would help turn the BLM and Forest Service’s attention away from needless paperwork and lease reviews and toward critical fish, wildlife and recreation needs.

In addition to introducing the COMPETES Act, Senator Hickenlooper has co-sponsored other legislation to modernize public lands energy development, including the Oil and Gas Bonding Reform and Orphaned Well Remediation Act (S.2177) introduced by U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), and the bipartisan Fair Returns for Public Lands Act (S. 624), sponsored by U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Jacky Rosen.

“With the introduction of the COMPETES Act and his co-sponsorship of S.624 and S.2177, Senator Hickenlooper is promoting a comprehensive package to modernize oil and gas leasing and promote responsible stewardship of our public lands,” said David Nickum, executive director of Colorado Trout Unlimited. “We fully support his efforts and we look forward to helping advance these proposals through Congress and into law.”

Trout Unlimited is asking its members to tell Congress how important this issue is to anglers and public land users. Learn more at TU.org.

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Trout Unlimited is the nation’s oldest and largest coldwater fisheries conservation organization dedicated to caring for and recovering America’s rivers and streams so our children can experience the joy of wild and native trout and salmon. Across the country, TU brings to bear local, regional, and national grassroots organizing, durable partnerships, science-backed policy muscle, and legal firepower on behalf of trout and salmon fisheries, healthy waters and vibrant communities.

October Currents: A voice for Colorado's rivers

This month’s Currents features stories such as:

• Rare cutthroat rescued from fire and now back home

• EPA announces reinstatement of Clean Water Act protections for Bristol Bay, Alaska watershed

• State of Colorado Trout Unlimited Livestream Event, October 6, 2021 at 7:00pm

• JOIN THE TEAM: We are hiring a Youth Education Coordinator!

• Trout Week Recap and Videos

• Five Flies for October - Fly Fishing the Colorado River

• Slideshow: An homage to fall

• *NEW* Fall 2021 High Country Angler and more!

Partners stock greenback cutthroat trout into the West Fork of Clear Creek

Members from Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Trout Unlimited, US Fish and Wildlife Service, the USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain National Park and the Greenback Cutthroat Trout Recovery Team meet up by Jones Pass before stocking 6,000 greenback cutthroat trout into the West Fork of Clear Creek (photo courtesy of CPW)

Repost of CPW press release

EMPIRE, Colo. - The USDA Forest Service, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Trout Unlimited, and a host of volunteers stocked 6,000 greenback cutthroat trout fry into Upper West Fork Clear Creek near Jones Pass on Wednesday, Sept. 22.

This is the third location in the Clear Creek drainage where the Greenback Cutthroat Trout Recovery Team has stocked greenbacks into, joining Dry Gulch and Herman Gulch.

“Greenback cutthroat trout reintroductions such as the West Fork Clear Creek are really only able to occur due to the coordination and efforts of each cooperating agency and non-profit partners such as Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Trout Unlimited, US Fish and Wildlife Service, the USDA Forest Service and the Greenback Cutthroat Trout Recovery Team to name a few,” said Valerie Thompson, South Zone Fisheries Biologist for the Forest Service. “Each partner contributes in unique ways that enable the success of major conservation projects such as this one on West Fork Clear Creek, where over fourteen years of stream health data was collected, an old mine site was remediated, and stream banks were restored to allow for habitat that is suitable to sensitive aquatic life and now a new home to the Colorado State Fish, the Greenback Cutthroat Trout.”

The fact that this tributary was fishless to begin with made it a good candidate for the greenbacks, among other factors.

“We’ve done temperature monitoring and the temperatures are conducive to support natural reproduction,” said Paul Winkle, Aquatic Biologist for CPW. “It is a goal to get another population of fish on the landscape, so this is definitely an important thing for the recovery of greenbacks.”

This stretch of stream was fishless due to downstream barriers, such as a quarter-mile-long culvert underneath the Henderson Mine Site, among other natural barriers. That saved some heavy lifting, not requiring a reclamation of the stream to remove other non-native species of fish. Removal of all other species is necessary to ensure the successful reestablishment of greenbacks, which are native to the South Platte River basin.

“We knew that there were no fish in that section of Clear Creek and what a great thing to be able to put fish in without having to do a reclamation,” Winkle said. “The more streams of greenbacks we stock along the Front Range drastically improves the conservation status of the species.”

Today, the greenbacks are listed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a threatened species. Greenbacks have previously been stocked into Herman Gulch, Dry Gulch, the East Fork of Roaring Creek and Zimmerman Lake. Those all reside within the South Platte River drainage. The sixth body of water in Colorado where the official state fish currently resides is in Bear Creek outside of Colorado Springs.

These rare fish, twice believed to be extinct, are descendants of the last wild population of native greenback cutthroat trout. Researchers from CU Boulder in partnership with CPW discovered in 2012 that the cutthroat in Bear Creek were the last remaining population of greenback cutthroat trout.

CPW’s Mount Shavano Hatchery in Salida is responsible for rearing and delivering all greenbacks that get stocked. They hatch fertilized eggs in its Isolation Unit. Extra milt collected from male greenbacks in Bear Creek goes to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Leadville National Fish Hatchery to fertilize eggs from the greenbacks in its brood stock.

The eggs are then taken to Salida to be hatched and eventually stocked onto the landscape at various sizes. Sometimes those fish are of fingerling lengths (one to two inches), sometimes they are fry. Fry is a recently hatched fish that has reached the stage where its yolk-sac has almost disappeared and its swim bladder is operational to the point where the fish can actively feed for itself.

“Trout Unlimited and our West Denver Chapter have a long history of supporting the Forest Service and Colorado Parks and Wildlife in stewardship of the Clear Creek drainage," said David Nickum, executive director of Trout Unlimited. “We are so pleased to see those efforts coming to fruition with our volunteers working side by side with our partners to finally return greenbacks to their home waters in the West Fork headwaters.”

Check out the 9News video coverage on this story.

The new Fall 2021 issue of High Country Angler is live!

Check out the new Fall 2021 issue of High Country Angler e-zine!

The new Fall 2021 issue of High Country Angler e-zine is here! Featuring CTU's Annual Report, a recap of this summer's CTU youth programming and your favorite regular columns:

• Predator on the Fly by Landon Mayer

• Friends of the Fish by Joel Evans

• Popper Fishin' for Bass by Brian LaRue

• Bookends on the Boulder by Hayden Mellsop

• Instars by Peter Stitcher

• The Last Cast by John Nickum

Download the Google Drive PDF here.

Hiring: Youth Education Coordinator

Youth Education Coordinator

Colorado Trout Unlimited (CTU) is Colorado’s leading fisheries conservation organization with a mission to conserve, protect, and restore coldwater streams and their watersheds. CTU has state offices located in Denver and 24 local chapters throughout Colorado. CTU’s focus is on effective grassroots advocacy for river conservation, coupled with on-the-ground volunteer efforts that directly contribute to stream habitat improvement, native trout restoration, and youth education.

Position Summary: CTU seeks an energetic, self-starter with strong communications and interpersonal skills to manage the Headwaters Youth Program statewide. The successful candidate will work with our 24 local chapters and other education partners to engage young people from elementary school through college-age groups with watershed education, conservation, and angling. The position benefits greatly from experience in managing volunteers. The Youth Education Coordinator is a full-time position developing capacity for delivery of established Stream of Engagement educational programs to target audiences, assisting chapters in strengthening their programs for youth education, cultivating educational partnerships, and identifying and developing funding partnerships to support these programs. The Youth Education Coordinator reports to Colorado TU’s Executive Director and may supervise interns and/or seasonal employees. The position can be based at TU’s Denver office with opportunities for remote work.

The position work plan includes:

Manage established programs: Manage communications and scheduling for existing programs among chapters and other educational partners. Identify program needs, develop outreach information, trainings, and maintain standardized program materials. Build chapter capacity to support existing programs through outreach, volunteer management support, and training. Flagship programs include:

Trout in the Classroom (TIC). Function as Colorado TIC Coordinator. Support existing sites by coordinating logistics between participating schools, chapters, partners, and agencies. Develop resources to support TIC sites with educational curriculum, equipment maintenance, and troubleshooting. Recruit prospective new sites for TIC in Colorado. Facilitate fish health testing and TIC release events with sites. Coordinate statewide evaluations on TIC program outcomes.

STREAM Girls/Keepers. Function as state-wide CTU coordinator with program partners, including Colorado Girl Scouts Council for STREAM Girls. Facilitate program liability and risk management requirements. Coordinate event scheduling. Develop volunteer leaders to support program delivery in person or virtual. Train and manage regional volunteers for program implementation. Conduct chapter outreach and volunteer recruitment. Identify and cultivate new volunteer partners. Inventory, maintain, and prepare equipment and supplies.

RiverWatch. Work with chapters and school RiverWatch sites to advance outreach of both watershed education and water quality monitoring. Complete training for RiverWatch trainer

certification to assist in training of new participants/sites and in conducting site visits for QA/QC purposes. Support River Watch educational outreach through special projects.

Youth camps. Manage existing and future recruited volunteers to ensure successful youth conservation camps on an annual basis including our high-school one-week summer camp. Facilitate partnership with camp site and coordinate any associated state licensing requirement. Assist with camp administration, records tracking, outreach and camper recruiting. Provide assistance to chapters that wish to establish localized camp programs for youth in summer.

Program evaluation. Manage systematic and consistent education evaluation tools for use both in tracking and improving Colorado TU programming and as a resource for local chapters, partner groups, schools, and fundraising. Maintain database of volunteer and participant evaluations. Serve as a central point for evaluation data collection, entry and analysis.

Grant writing and donor cultivation. Support fundraising efforts, in coordination with CTU development staff and Headwaters Committee, to cultivate potential donors for youth education programs. Identify, prepare and submit grant applications to prospective foundation and corporate giving programs for youth education efforts. Develop and maintain a management information system of quality information about grants, foundations, revenue sources, and donors. Prepare written reports on youth programs for grant and funder reporting. This position is funded primarily through successfully sustaining restricted fund sources.

Recruit and assist new sites for Trout Unlimited educational programs. Develop relationships with mentoring organizations, schools, and other youth-focused partners in order to bring Trout Unlimited Stream of Engagement youth programming to new audiences. With new sites, assist in building capacity for delivering appropriate Stream of Engagement programs (Stream Explorers, Trout in the Classroom, Outdoor Mentors, National Fishing in Schools Program, etc.) using a “gradual release” method by which CTU would provide appropriate levels of support initially while local volunteers, teachers, etc. would gradually take on more responsibility for continuing programming. Refine curricula for these programs based on experiences from participating sites.

Other duties. Provide content relevant to the above program areas for the Colorado TU blog, website, social media outlets and High Country Angler e-zine; participate in core Colorado TU events such as the Annual Gala, Rendezvous, and Spring Meeting (including volunteer training opportunities); collaborate in other Colorado TU campaigns and initiatives, especially where there are crossover opportunities with youth education efforts.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor degree in environmental science, science education, natural resources, wildlife biology, or related field.

• Experience or demonstrated ability with development and/or delivery of youth education programs.

• Ability to recruit, train, and manage volunteers.

• Experience in managing partnership programs or projects (e.g., relationships with agencies, nonprofits, etc.)

• Background knowledge of watershed and fishery issues and dedication to conservation; specific experience with water quality monitoring is a plus.

• Experience coordinating special events for community engagement

• Experience with budget development and management

• Fundraising and/or grant writing experience strongly preferred.

• Strong communications, interpersonal, and organizational skills.

• Ability to travel statewide and to work weekend and evening hours when needed.

• Proficiency with Microsoft Office and Google suites.

• Must have reliable transportation statewide.

• Ability to lift and carry objects weighing up to 30 pounds.

• Candidates must pass a background check for involvement with youth programs.

This position is based from Colorado TU’s Denver office, but with the opportunity for remote and/or hybrid work from an in-state location with comfortable travel access to the Front Range and other program locations statewide. The position will report directly to the Executive Director.

Staff and leadership at TU understand that life outside of work is important to personal health, and we strive to create a healthy and family-friendly atmosphere. This is a full-time position with a generous benefits package. The approximate salary range is $40,000 – $50,000 depending on experience.

At TU, we value a diverse representation of staff, and we encourage candidates for this position who come from communities that have been historically under-represented in conservation and those who have been most impacted by degraded rivers and streams. We are committed to building space for all people to participate in our work to care for trout and their watersheds. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and welcome you to read more about TU’s equity practice and values at tu.org/equity.

How to Apply: Please upload a cover letter, resume, and names and contact information for three references to TU’s applicant system by visiting the website link below. We will begin reviewing applications on October 15; position is open until filled. Apply here

Take action to protect trout fisheries and watersheds from the impacts of climate change

Photo courtesy of Trout Unlimited/Josh Duplechian

We are at a critical moment. Congress is now considering major infrastructure and spending bills that would have far-reaching impacts on America’s rivers and streams, wild and native trout and salmon, and all of us who care about them.

Trout Unlimited is asking you to take action today by contacting your elected officials and urging them to responsibly address the risks posed by a changing climate. Legislation under discussion this month could shape how our country responds to the threat facing rivers, communities, and fish and wildlife. Please urge your lawmakers to prioritize policies that address the root causes of climate change, as well as legislation that funds projects to help our lands and waters adapt to warmer temperatures and more frequent drought, wildfire, and floods.

In Colorado and throughout the west we’ve seen these impacts first hand, from the ongoing serious Colorado River basin drought to last year’s record wildfire season in Colorado. Now is the time to act, and targeted investments in watershed stewardship and promoting clean energy can help secure a future for our imperiled fisheries.

Trout Unlimited has set up a page where you can learn more and take action at tu.org/climate. Please take a moment to visit the site and use the action alert to reach out and convey your interests to your members of Congress.

Thank you for engaging on this vital issue, and for all you do for Trout Unlimited!

EPA announces reinstatement of Clean Water Act protections for Bristol Bay, Alaska watershed

Following Ninth Circuit ruling in favor of Trout Unlimited, EPA moves to vacate unlawful 2019 decision to withdraw the Proposed Determination for Bristol Bay and reinstate longstanding proposed protections.   

ANCHORAGE, Alaska—Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it would move to vacate its 2019 decision to withdraw proposed protections for Bristol Bay and reinstate the agency’s earlier 2014 Proposed Determination.  These proposed protections would limit the amount of waste water and mine waste discharge that could be released in to Waters of the United States in the Bristol Bay region. The announcement comes in the wake of a lawsuit brought by Trout Unlimited against the withdrawal decision and recent ruling in favor of TU by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. TU looks forward to working with the EPA to finalize these protections, which are critical to protecting Bristol Bay’s world-class fisheries. 

“This is a smart and significant step toward putting more durable safeguards in place for Bristol Bay’s fish, clean water, communities and businesses,” said Nelli Williams, Alaska director for Trout Unlimited. “This is an important layer of protection that makes it much more difficult for the Pebble Partnership, or any other companies in the future, to mine the Pebble ore deposit. Now is the time to get these much-needed protections across the finish line, and we look forward to working with EPA and Congress to get it done. Let’s put the Pebble mine proposal in the review mirror for good so we can focus on a bright, prosperous and fish-filled future for Bristol Bay.” 

“Today’s announcement by the EPA represents a victory for common sense. Blocking industrial-scale mining from Bristol Bay is the right thing to do for the Alaska Native Peoples who have depended on the fishery for millennia,” said Chris Wood, president and CEO of Trout Unlimited. “It is the right thing to do for the 17,000 family wage jobs that the $1.6 billion commercial fishery provides. It is the right thing to for a place that provides half of all of the world’s wild sockeye salmon. Congratulations to the EPA for making the right call and to the thousands of people who fought tirelessly to protect Bristol Bay.” 

In 2019, the EPA under the previous administration moved to withdraw the 2014 Proposed Determination for Bristol Bay—a sudden decision based on politics, not the robust scientific record demonstrating the potential for unacceptable adverse effects. Trout Unlimited sued, challenging the EPA’‘s decision as arbitrary and capricious and contrary to the Clean Water Act’s governing standard. In July 2021, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of TU, finding that the EPA could withdraw a proposed determination only if the discharge of materials would be unlikely to have an “unacceptable adverse effect.” Today’s decision by the EPA recognizes that the agency could not meet, that stringent standard, and fully vindicates TU’s legal challenge. TU looks forward to vigorous engagement in the 404(c) process to ensure that strong and lasting protections are established for Bristol Bay. 

Courtesy of Fly Out Media

In November 2020, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied a key federal permit for the proposed Pebble mine, concluding that the project could not comply with Clean Water Act standards and that the mine would be “contrary to public interest.” In the wake of that decision, Bristol Bay Tribes, business owners, sport anglers and hunters, tourism operators, commercial fishermen, and thousands of advocates from across the country have called on the Biden Administration to establish permanent safeguards for the southwest region of Alaska.  

As wild salmon populations decline globally, Bristol Bay’s prolific wild salmon runs and the economies they support make it a place of international importance. This summer, over 65 million sockeye salmon returned to Bristol Bay, making it a record-breaking year for the world’s largest sockeye fishery. Healthy salmon runs underpin the Bristol Bay region’s economic, social, cultural and ecological well-being. More than 30 Alaska Native Tribes in the region depend on salmon to support traditional subsistence ways of life. 

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Trout Unlimited, the nation’s oldest and largest coldwater fisheries conservation organization, is dedicated to caring for and recovering America’s rivers and streams, so our children can experience the joy of wild and native trout and salmon. Across the country, TU brings to bear local, regional, and national grassroots organizing, durable partnerships, science-backed policy muscle, and legal firepower on behalf of trout and salmon fisheries, healthy waters and vibrant communities.  In Alaska, we work with sportsmen and women to ensure the state’s trout and salmon resources remain healthy far into the future through our local chapters and offices in Anchorage and Juneau. 

Contacts:  

• Nelli Williams, Alaska director, Trout Unlimited, (907) 230-7121, nelli.williams@tu.org

• Chris Wood, CEO and president, Trout Unlimited, chris.wood@tu.org

September Currents

This month’s Currents features stories such as:

• A Big Win for Small Streams

• CTU Develops New Partnerships with STREAM Keepers Programs

• FY21 Colorado Trout Unlimited Report

• RareWaters and Colorado Trout Unlimited are teaming up!

• State of Colorado Trout Unlimited Livestream Event on October 6, 2021

• Late Summer Fly Fishing Tactics and more!

CTU Develops New Partnerships with STREAM Keepers Programs

Credit: Lincoln Hills Cares

by Geoff Elliot, Youth Education Coordinator, Colorado Trout Unlimited

Summer 2021 brought a return to in-person programming and opportunities! With the recent success of the STREAM Girls program in reaching new audiences of elementary through middle-school girls and their families, CTU sought opportunities to adapt the program to reach new, diverse audiences. Fortunately, we were not alone in seeing this opportunity and could build off the STREAM Keepers resources developed by other TU volunteers and staff.

With the goal of reaching new and diverse audiences, we knew this effort could not be achieved alone. To help us build the STREAM Keepers program in Colorado, we collaborated with youth serving organizations, community coalitions, and school districts. In partnership with these groups, CTU worked to refine the curriculum and identify suitable locations to connect participants with their watersheds. In the end, the STREAM Keepers program focused on watershed exploration, fly casting/fishing, macroinvertebrate sampling, and fly tying (if time allowed).

Credit: Eagle Valley Outdoor Movement

In June and July, CTU hosted three STREAM Keepers events in partnership with Littleton Public Schools Extended Middle School, Eagle Valley Outdoor Movement – A GOCO Generation Wild Coalition, and Lincoln Hills Cares. Across these three collaborations, CTU connected with 100 youth and families. This included students who struggled amidst the pandemic, Spanish-speaking families, and youth from immigrant communities. With Littleton Public Schools, students explored Lee Gulch, competed in a casting olympics, and learned to tie a midge pattern. In partnership with Lincoln Hills Cares and Eagle Valley Outdoor Movement, youth and families enjoyed on-site fishing opportunities (with some participants catching fish) and macroinvertebrate sampling in small stream! At the conclusion of these STREAM Keepers programs, participants expressed their excitement to continue fly fishing and share their appreciation for local watersheds.

A big THANK YOU goes out to the volunteers who led and facilitated activities during each program, as well as the partners who recruited and provided space for these events! Colorado Trout Unlimited is excited to continue to build the STREAM Keepers program by cultivating new partnerships and further developing existing ones to provide increased access to watershed exploration experiences and fly fishing opportunities! If you are interested in learning more about STREAM Keepers, other opportunities in the Headwaters Youth Program, or how to support CTU’s youth education program, please contact youth@coloradotu.org!

A Big Win for Small Streams

In a decision that restores critical Clean Water Act protections for small headwater streams and wetlands across the country, a federal judge has vacated the 2020 “Navigable Waters Protection Rule” developed by the previous administration. That rule had stripped Clean Water Act protection from ephemeral streams, which are critical tributaries to larger streams.

Responding to a case brought by the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, Tohono O'odham Nation, Quinault Indian Nation, Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, and the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. U.S. District Judge Rosemary Márquez found that the 2020 rule illegally and unscientifically put these waters at risk of destruction.

“This is a big win for common sense, science, and clean water,” said Chris Wood, president and CEO of Trout Unlimited. “It is especially fitting that six Tribal nations, the representatives of peoples who have relied on clean water for millennia in North America, were the plaintiffs who won this landmark victory.”

Over the past two years, Trout Unlimited scientists have documented how drafters of the rule failed to assess its potentially devastating impacts on “ephemeral” streams, which are critical tributaries to larger streams.

Streams that do not flow year-round, but instead flow seasonally as “intermittent” streams, or in direct response to precipitation events as “ephemeral” streams, are the backbone of every watershed and had largely been protected for decades under the Clean Water Act. The 2020 rule categorically removed Clean Water Act protections for all ephemeral streams, which in Colorado represent greater than 25% of the state’s more than 350,000 miles of streams as mapped by the US Geological Survey.  Those figures are conservative; TU scientists determined that nationally ephemeral streams account for almost 50 percent of stream miles in the lower 48 states when accounting for other ephemeral stream channels not included in USGS maps.

“It seems like basic common sense, but for the Clean Water Act to protect our rivers it needs to prevent pollution and protect watershed health at the source – the many small headwater streams that feed our larger rivers,” said Colorado Trout Unlimited Executive Director David Nickum.

““Pollution and degradation in ephemeral streams will make its way downstream to the rivers that support our fisheries, farmlands, and communities. Thankfully the District Court recognized how the illegal and ill-informed 2020 rule ignored that most basic connection.””

— David Nickum, Colorado Trout Unlimited, Executive Director

The court’s ruling is good news for river conservation, which was already suffering from weakened Clean Water Act protection on the ground. By examining the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Water Act Approved Jurisdictional Determinations (JDs) database, TU determined how many streams and wetlands were no longer receiving Clean Water Act protection.  Of the 14,224 waterbodies evaluated under the 2020 rule between June 22, 2020, and June 9, 2021, TU found that 6,266 wetlands were determined to be no longer covered by the Clean Water Act, along with 3,096 ephemeral stream reaches. Many of these were in watersheds that support trout and salmon.

With large-scale damage to the nation’s waterways now averted by this week’s federal ruling, the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can turn to the critical job of developing a new “Waters of the United States” rule that is scientifically sound and durable.  Both Nickum and Montana TU Executive Director David Brooks recently provided comments on that rulemaking effort at EPA/Corps Town Halls, highlighting the importance of protecting headwaters and ephemeral streams.