Virtual Q&A Session About the Importance of Restoring Clean Water Protections

Join CTU and Conservation Colorado’s virtual event for an educational discussion and Q&A session with water experts about the importance of restoring clean water protections in Colorado.

Colorado’s rivers, streams and wetlands lost federal protections after a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year. Without these protections the state is at risk of decreased water quality and polluting fish and wildlife habitats.

Únete a nuestro evento virtual para una discusión educativa y una sesión de preguntas y respuestas con expertos en agua. Hablaremos sobre la importancia de restaurar las protecciones del agua en Colorado.

Los ríos, arroyos y humedales de Colorado perdieron las protecciones federales después de una decisión de la Corte Suprema de Estados Unidos a principios de este año. Sin estas protecciones, el estado corre el riesgo de sufrir una disminución de la calidad del agua y la contaminación de los hábitats de peces y vida silvestre.

Take Action – Protect Colorado Wetlands and Headwaters

On May 25th, the US Supreme Court issued a ruling in Sackett vs. EPA that sharply reduced Clean Water Act protections for wetlands that are vital to healthy and functioning watersheds. While not directly addressed, the decision also appears to put streams that don’t have year-round flow at risk of losing Clean Water Act protection as well.  Those ephemeral and intermittent streams represent a majority of Colorado’s waterways and are the sources that feed our larger rivers that support fisheries, as well as providing drinking water to our communities and supplies for agriculture. If we fail to protect water quality at its source, we cannot protect it downstream.

With federal protection for most of Colorado’s waterways jeopardized under the Court’s decision, we need the State to step up and ensure our waters remain protected. Please take a moment to ask Governor Jared Polis to ensure that the State takes on this responsibility so that state water quality protections are applied to keep our headwater streams and wetlands intact. With a strong State-level program, Colorado can continue to protect the high-quality water that we need for our fisheries, our communities, and our working landscapes.

Ask Your Senator to Support SB23-270 for Stream Restoration in Colorado - Take Action!

Healthy, functioning river corridors for fish and people need your help now.

Healthy rivers and watersheds provide broad-based benefits to all Coloradans – providing habitat for fish and wildlife; supporting our State’s robust recreation economy; improving wildfire resilience, drought mitigation, and flood safety; and promoting water quality for all those who rely on it from fish to farms to cities and towns statewide. But over the last 200 years, more than half of Colorado’s 105,000 stream miles and river corridors have been significantly degraded.  That's why TU has been involved in restoration projects - from recovering front range streams damaged in the 2013 floods, to improving low-flow habitats in critical rivers like the Fraser, to reconnecting waters for trout at road crossings that currently fragment their habitat.

Such projects are now facing an uncertain future due to questions and inconsistencies on if and when such efforts may require water rights. Fortunately, the Colorado legislature is currently considering SB23-270: Projects to Restore Natural Stream Systems, a bill that clarifies where stream restoration could occur without water right enforcement actions. With the bipartisan infrastructure law offering major federal funding in the coming years, the bill also positions Colorado for once-in-a-generation opportunity to support watershed and river health through those federal dollars. 

Without continued stream restoration, Colorado’s trout and their habitat will face an uncertain future. You can help by asking your Senator to support passage of SB23-270, enabling stream restoration projects to continue in Colorado and provide broad benefits to our environment and communities.

TU Report Shows Risks of Speculative Leasing for Oil & Gas - Take Action!

In collaboration with the National Wildlife Federation and Rocky Mountain Wild, Trout Unlimited has released a new report highlighting the Bureau of Land Management’s wasteful and detrimental practice of selling oil and gas leases on land with little or no potential for oil development.

Known as speculative leasing, this process not only diverts agency resources and taxpayer dollars away from other public lands priorities, but it also prevents these lands from being adequately managed for the more valuable resources they offer – important coldwater fish and wildlife habitat.

The new report identifies the following issues with the way the BLM administers these leases and urges Director Tracy Stone-Manning to update the agency’s leasing practices.

Imbalanced priorities on millions of acres

From 2012 to 2020, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) leased five million acres – roughly the twice the size of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks combined – that had little potential for energy development but overlapped valuable fish and wildlife habitat. Specifically, since 2012:

• 55 percent of federal oil and gas leases were on lands with little to no potential for oil and gas development

• 60 percent of leases on public lands with limited potential were sold for the minimum bid of $2 per acre

• 66 percent of leases on lands with little to no development potential were sold non-competitively

Critical habitat and tourism destinations at-risk

Currently, 5.1 million acres of greater sage grouse habitat, 1.8 million acres of sensitive big game habitat, and more than 1 million acres of native trout watersheds are tied up in federal oil and gas leases on lands with limited development potential. What’s equally concerning is the number of popular destinations across the West impacted by these leases. These include Colorado’s own North Park, with its Gold-Medal quality fisheries and high-value wildlife habitats (see map below).

You can help

With growing pressure on fish and wildlife habitat throughout Colorado and nationwide, we must do better. Please take a moment to encourage BLM and Director Tracy Stone-Manning to revise regulations governing public lands oil and gas leasing and development, to better balance responsible energy development with the conservation of our cherished public lands, waters, and wildlife.

Your Voice Matters for Colorado's Rivers!

As leaders across the state in nine "Basin Roundtables" work to update their local water and river management plans, or "Basin Implementation Plans (BIPs)", they're taking public comment from community members. It’s time to make your voice heard: What do you think needs to happen in your local watershed for the health of your local rivers, the environment, and water supply? To help you do this, Water for Colorado is collecting comments, which will then be submitted on your behalf to your local Basin Roundtable once the public comment period ends on Nov. 15.

WATER FOR COLORADO HAS COMPILED SIX KEY RECOMMENDATIONS YOU CAN USE IN YOUR COMMENTS:

• Ensure healthy, flowing rivers

• Prioritize resilient watersheds

• Center equity

• Support for irrigated agriculture

• Include water conservation and efficiency

• Plan for sustainable Funding

Learn more about these recommendations here.

Get to your your river basin 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!

Take Action: Ensure Responsible Energy Development with safeguards for wildlife, fish and their habitat

Please take a moment to give your voice and urge the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) to ensure responsible energy development through providing safeguards for wildlife, fish and their habitat. Both the outdoor economy and our Colorado quality of life depends on it.

Help protect streams and wetlands: Support the Clean Water for All Act

The Clean Water for All Act is an effort to ensure that our headwaters - many of which are ephemeral or intermittent streams that do not flow year round - retain the Clean Water Act protections they’ve enjoyed for more than 40 years but that would be lost under a recently announced rule changing Clean Water Act definitions. If we don’t protect the sources of our larger rivers, we can’t protect those rivers or the fisheries and communities that rely on them!

Below is an excerpt from Steve Moyer, TU’s vice president for government affairs, read the full blog here.

The Clean Water for All Act would repeal the Trump administration’s harmful rule and direct the agencies to start over in a manner that protects America’s waterways—all of them—consistent with four decades of Clean Water Act precedent.

Research by Trout Unlimited suggests that the administration’s new rule will end Clean Water Act protections for more than six million miles of streams—half the U.S. total. These streams contribute to the drinking water supplies of 117 million Americans and provide essential fish and wildlife habitat that supports a robust outdoor recreation economy worth $887 billion.

The rule will also erase protections for more than half of the nation’s wetlands, a critical part of functioning watersheds. Wetlands help recharge groundwater, filter pollution and protect communities from flooding.

The EPA’s new rule was justifiably criticized by many state and local government agencies, fish and wildlife conservation organizations and hundreds of thousands of citizens during the rule-making comment period.  It is a real threat to trout and salmon watersheds nationwide.

The Clean Water for All Act would help protect the rivers of southwestern Oregon, and streams across the nation. Please take a moment today to help us urge House members to work with their colleagues to pass this bill into law.

CTU Supports Proposition DD: A letter from the Executive Director

With Election Day right around the corner, I’m writing on behalf of Colorado TU to recommend you vote YES on Proposition DD and help invest in the future of Colorado’s rivers and watersheds.

Proposition DD would add a 10% tax on casinos’ sports betting, generating up to $29 million in annual proceeds to invest in Colorado’s water future. Only the casinos will pay, but all of Colorado stands to benefit.

The last time a major statewide water funding measure was on the ballot – the $2 Billion Referendum A in 2003 – Colorado TU was a vocal opponent. So what has changed? This time, there is a plan for how to use the funds – Colorado’s Water Plan – and it places much-needed emphasis not only on meeting water needs for our growing population but also on preserving the healthy rivers and productive agricultural lands that are so much a part of what makes Colorado a great place to live and work.

Colorado is in urgent need of more funding to implement its water plan because its population is expected to double by 2060, and current water supplies cannot keep up with demand in the future. Investment in our water system must be a priority to meet our water needs while preserving Colorado water values for healthy rivers and thriving farms. From projects for river and watershed health, to modernizing irrigation systems to improve efficiency, to conducting balanced multi-purpose projects, funding for Colorado’s Water Plan is critical to preserve our Colorado way of life.

Just as Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) has done for our open space and park lands, Proposition DD promises to spur much-needed investments and partnerships to benefit our waters. It is an important down-payment on Colorado’s water future.

Please join us in supporting Proposition DD – and don't forget to tell your friends and family to do the same!

Sincerely,
David Nickum, Colorado TU Executive Director

In the News

• https://www.postindependent.com/opinion/letter-support-colorado-proposition-dd/

• https://yesondd.com/

• Trout Unlimited: Colorado has a water plan; now let’s fully fund it: https://www.tu.org/blog/colorado-has-a-water-plan-now-lets-fully-fund-it/