Touring Kerber Creek

“I didn’t know that Trout Unlimited did that!” This was the phrase I heard mentioned by a couple of students and professors during a tour I conducted of the Kerber Creek Restoration Project on June 4, 2013. The tour focused on various stream restoration projects and techniques that have been on-going in the watershed since 2008. Several students from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs (UCCS) and Colorado College (CC) visited Kerber Creek outside of Villa Grove, Colorado as part of their course curriculum, and were accompanied by a professor from each school. I was contacted earlier in the year by one of the professors to conduct a watershed tour of Kerber Creek so I developed a plan that would give the students a good overview of the legacy mining issues that created the problems existing today throughout the watershed. Back to the initial phrase. You would be surprised how many people think TU is “just a fishing club.” However, TU’s national staff is composed of 183 passionate individuals that strive to conserve, protect, and restore North America’s coldwater fisheries and their watersheds, most of whom also love fishing. My program specifically targets Colorado watersheds affected by legacy hard-rock mining, like Kerber Creek, Lake Fork of the Arkansas, and Clear Creek.

I started the tour at the Cocomongo Mill/Mine in the upper watershed, which provided a good representation of where and how historic mining operations took place, and the mine wastes/tailings commonly left behind. I explained the mining and milling processes and provided background information about the Bonanza Mining District. The setting included a large mill structure surrounded by piles of multicolored mine wastes within the Kerber Creek corridor. The students were captivated by the site and eager to learn more about the restoration techniques used to improve these conditions.

The next stop was near the confluence of Brewery Creek and Kerber Creek where 32 in-stream rock structures and 2.14 acres of mine waste reclamation had taken place the year prior. This site showcased what is possible when local stakeholders work together with government agencies and non-profit organizations. The students enjoyed seeing the finished structures and had countless excellent questions regarding rock structure type and purpose, soil amendment quantities and mixes, and grazing management techniques.

On the way down through the watershed we stopped at several sites, such as the repository that was completed in 1999, as well as past and future locations that exemplify the work accomplished through the Bonanza Stakeholder Group partnership, which is a collaboration of 16 federal, state, and local agencies, non-profit groups, and more than 20 local landowners. The final stop was at one of the largest private landowners in the lower watershed where work is taking place this fall. This site provided examples of existing mine waste deposits that were distributed throughout the floodplains during high flow events when tailing dams were breached in the 1900’s. The toxic mine waste deposits contain little to no vegetation and cannot sustain the high flows associated with spring runoff and summer storm periods.  This leads to unstable banks that erode, widening the stream, and eventually disconnecting the floodplain from the stream.

Conditions present at this site provided the students with a “before and after” glimpse of stream restoration. The entire site was walked from the degraded section, downstream to a recently restored segment that included in-stream rock structures and willow transplants.  I was impressed by the quality of questions and general interest of the students. I could tell that they were genuinely interested in the project and excited to be in the field observing actual conditions. The tour concluded with a question and answer portion that included questions about the history of the watershed, background information, and restoration procedures. Each correct answer yielded praise from fellow students and the grand prize of a………TU t-shirt!

The tour consisted of a unique group of students in that a majority of them were pursuing different forms of environmentally based degrees. In my opinion, this proved for a well-rounded tour and a broader range of questions asked by the students. It was great to see that they really appreciated the tour and the opportunity to see actual stream restoration. TU would like to thank both programs of CC and UCCS for the opportunity to help educate and inform the students about the importance of preserving our local ecosystems and watersheds. If the group that attended this tour is any indication of the quality of future ecologists, engineers, biologists, and scientists then I feel inclined to say that successful efforts to conserve, protect, and restore North America’s coldwater fisheries and their watersheds should continue for years to come.

- Jason Willis, Mine Restoration Field Coordinator Colorado Abandoned Mines Project, Trout Unlimited

New Fundraising Partnership

The Colorado Council and TU National have joined forces in a new partnership to strengthen individual donor fundraising efforts to support TU’s work in Colorado.  With over two dozen staff on-the-ground in Colorado, the need for coordination between all levels of the organization is vital.  The new partnership is staffed by Chris Herrman, Colorado Director, Coldwater Conservation Fund (CCF). You can now direct individual contributions of $1000 or more for Colorado programs and projects, both Council and National, through the Coldwater Conservation Fund.  CCF members enjoy benefits including exclusive trips and special gear. Donors of $1,200 or more directed to the Council through CCF, will also enjoy the benefits of our River Stewardship Council.

You can still support the Council or National directly through the web pages or the various mail-based campaigns. Regardless of how you give, thank you for your support!

To learn more about how you can support the work of TU in Colorado, visit the Coldwater Conservation Fund online.

Contact Chris Herrman, Colorado Director, CCF, via email here.

Youth Camp to Yellowstone

Our chapter, St Vrain Anglers, became interested in the project to research the movements of invasive lake trout in Yellowstone Lake as a prelude to determining ways to suppress their numbers or eliminate them, and we wanted to support that program financially. A member donated a Winston Tom Morgan Favorite rod with a Ross Evolution reel to be used as a raffle prize for donations. As we were organizing the raffle, another of our members, Mike Turner, died from complications of Parkinson's disease. We decided to make the donation in his name as a memorial to this much-loved man. Our initial efforts started off with a bang: we sold about half of our 100 tickets quite quickly. Sales dragged, however, through the winter, and we became concerned about selling all 100. About 35 tickets remained unsold as of our May meeting. An angel then swooped in and bought the remaining tickets, so we met our goal of donating $2000 to the Yellowstone project. This angel and I assigned the tickets to outstanding students we know- kids from our own chapter's Kids Learn to Fly Fish Program as well as many campers from past CTU Youth River Conservation and Fly Fishing camps.

We held the drawing in late May. The winner was Ben Ward, a member of the 2011 CTU camp. Ben was invited back to the 2012 and 2013 camps as a youth counselor, assisting the adult counselors with camp activities. Ben was chosen as a youth counselor because of his leadership as a camp participant, and because of his extensive involvement with his local TU chapter in Trinidad, CO. You might say that Ben was the perfect person to win the raffle.

As a CTU camp counselor, I had the pleasure of presenting the rod and reel to Ben the first evening of this year's camp, held at High Lonesome Ranch near DeBeque, CO. To say Ben was surprised would be an understatement. The look on his face was priceless. So, Ben, congratulations- here's to many years of enjoyment with your new rod and reel.

---Dick Shinton

Garrett Hanks, Colorado TU Youth Education Coordinator

I work to achieve the goals of Colorado Trout Unlimited through the engagement of Colorado’s youth. Raised on the Front Range, I was fortunate to be taken into the outdoors frequently growing up. I had family and friends who taught me not only the beauty of these places but also their value. These experiences shaped who I am and what I have chosen to do with my education and career. I am excited to give back some of those experiences to the next generation of conservation stewards. It is through them that the hard work we do now will have the greatest impact. My job takes me state wide in support of our Chapter’s efforts to engage their local youth. Outreach in schools is one way we provide youth education. The Trout in the Classroom program has been a proven success and is expanding every year to provide aquariums with trout to be raised by students then released into the wild. New initiatives like the Stream Explorers have been extremely successful in engaging students in hands on conservation and fishing, while hopefully providing a continued experience year after year.

The Outdoor Mentors is a program designed to provide youth a chance to get outdoors that would not otherwise have family or friends capable of taking them. Colorado Trout Unlimited partners with local and national organizations and other outdoor focused groups to give as many kids as possible a quality an outdoor experience. Opportunities also exist for families to learn to fish together, no matter the previous skill level, in our family fishing camp.

Each year Colorado Trout Unlimited puts on a week long fly fishing youth camp. Campers from ages 14 to 18 engage in conservation and science based classes in between time on the water. The camp hopes to provide a direct connection to a possible future in natural resources. Many of the campers go on to be successful in their continued education, and we hope as the next generation of leaders in coldwater conservation.

The first annual CTU Intercollegiate Fly Fishing Tournament was held this year in Steamboat Springs, CO. In an attempt to bring together new and old Five Rivers Chapters, six teams from four different colleges across the state participated. The tournament scoring was structured such that the team had to complete different challenges to earn points, rather than simply the most and the biggest fish taking home the trophy. The true message of the tournament however, was conservation and camaraderie for the individuals who will soon be the ones making the decisions on how our river’s resources are stewarded.

For more information on Youth Education programs in your area, or to get involved, contact Garrett Hanks at 720-354-2646 or ghanks@tu.org.

Boulder Flycasters get Fairview High School On the Water

Fairview High School in Boulder, Colorado recently began implementing the National Fishing in Schools Program through their Physical Education Department. In order to enrich the program experience, the Boulder Flycasters got involved by offering additional instruction and education opportunities. Our support of this program got the kids outdoors seven days working on casting, fishing & streamside entomology. This is six more days than they had been outdoors all semester!  Two days were spent on the school softball field receiving casting lessons from Bruning Rangel, Manager of the Boulder Orvis store, and a casting competition led by Larry Quilling.

Wallace Westfeldt from Front Range Anglers and Jim Shelly from the City of Boulder Water Treatment Department, tag-teamed for great sessions on entomology. Wallace taught the classroom basics and shared samples while Jim led a stream side collection day on South Boulder Creek near the McGinn ditch diversion. It was a strategically placed sampling location close to the US 36 highway bridge where students could escape the persistent rain showers. This is a great learning experience for the students. The biggest disappointment was running out of time to sample more than one location.

Ron Donahue, Drew Thomas and Larry Quilling led the students through fly tying. Ron is the expert demonstrator, Drew is a natural teacher and I am a hack! The cool part of these sessions is the concentration and focus the students have during their tying sessions. The flies they tied were used by the students to catch fish later at Viele Lake.

George Gumerman, Robert McCormack, Jake Lemon and Larry Quilling all helped the students test their skills at Viele Lake. There were four days the students spent at the lake and each day 5 to 6 fish were caught. It was not always pretty but the fishing caught the attention and interest of many of the kids. With high schoolers in the last two weeks of the spring semester, this is quite an accomplishment.

In summary, this program takes a lot of work and coordination but it is fully worth the outreach effort. We may only teach twenty-seven students in the class but the effect of our class goes well beyond the classroom. Other teachers and administrative staff know who we are and what we are doing for their school. Principal Don Stensrud asked that I thank our board for the program. Students shared their experiences with other students and other teachers noticed our presence. I am glad we have been able to re-establish this program and look forward to the fall when we can hopefully connect the class with a fishing field trip on the Poudre as we have done in past years.

---by Larry Quilling

The National Fishing in Schools Program (NFSP) has added numerous school sites throughout Colorado over the past year and will continue to expand with assistance from Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation. This program provides a great first touch that gets students excited about fly fishing. TU can be a great partner by enriching the programs as detailed above. To bring NFSP to your school or find existing NFSP programs in your area, please contact Jake Lemon, Colorado TU Youth Education Coordinator at 720-354-2646 or jake.lemon@coloradotu.org.

CSEF River Conservation Awards Announced

For the past several years, Trout Unlimited has sponsored a Special Award for River Conservation at the Colorado Science and Engineering Fair (CSEF).  Colorado Trout Unlimited and Boulder Flycasters jointly contribute and provide judges for the Award. This year's winners were:

First Place went to Rachel Rossi, from Durango, for her project "Endocrine Disruptor Remediation in Water: Exploration of Mycoremediation Capabilities of Fungi".

The TU award for First place was a Scholarship to CTU's River Conservation and Fly Fishing Youth Camp plus a check for $100.  Rachel also finished in 1st Place in the CSEF Senior Division Environmental Sciences.  Also at the CSEF, Rachel won scholarships to University of Colorado, Colorado State University and Colorado School of Mines.  She also won Special Awards from five other organizations.  At the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, she placed second in the Environmental Management category and won a full tuition scholarship ($150,000) from Drexel University.

Second Place went to Tayler Rocha, from Monte Vista, for her project "Successional Sequence of Water Quality and Macroinvertebrates in a Playa Wetland System".

The TU award for 1st Runner up was a check for $75 and serve as an alternate to attend the CTU Summer Camp if the First Place winner cannot attend.  Tayler also finished 3rd in the CESF Senior Division Environmental Sciences and won three Special Awards.  At the ISEF, she won 2nd Place from the American Geosciences Institute and a full tuition scholarship ($150,000) from Drexel University.

Third Place went to Sarah Stalcup, from Delta, for her project "Riparian Area Multiple Indicator Monitoring".

The TU award for 2nd Runner up was a check for $50 and serve as an alternate to attend the CTU Summer Camp if the First Place and 1st Runner up winners cannot attend.  At the ISEF Sarah won a full tuition scholarship ($150,000) from Drexel University.

Congratulations to these students for their fine projects!

Summit High students release Rainbows into the Blue

More than 50 members of Christopher Lambrecht’s Stream Ecology class have moved on. No, they’re not graduating. In fact, they’re not even students — they’re rainbow trout.

The trout, which hatched from eggs donated to the classroom by the nonprofit organization Trout Unlimited, were released into the Blue River Friday.

“This is a big day for these guys,” Lambrecht said before the release. “It will be strange not to have the tank in here.”

The stream ecology students have been involved with the trout from the very beginning. The class, which requires an application and teacher permission to join, is popular among high school students. Lambrecht said the class is intended to be “a biology class from a fisherman’s perspective,” with the goal of educating the students on the biology and chemistry behind steam and river ecology, as well as its potential for recreational enjoyment. One of the aspects that make the class popular is its hands-on outdoor components. Students regularly visit the river across the street from the high school, gathering insects to study and taking other data-gathering measurements.

Read the rest of the article in the Summit Daily.

Thanks For Supporting CTU Youth Education

Wednesday, May 8th, Colorado TU held a fundraiser in partnership with Patxi’s Pizza to raise funds for our Youth Education efforts. Delicous pizza, great drinks, and a fun time was had, all while increasing CTU’s capacity to inspire the next generation of conservationists.

Thanks to everyone who came out!

Thornton Students Explore Aquatic Ecosystems

In order to sustain our conservation efforts, it is essential that Colorado TU also inspire the next generation to experience the natural world.  Experiencing nature is the first step toward the development of a conservation ethic and becoming good stewards of our natural resources. This Tuesday, May 7, marked the culmination of an exciting new program that provides youth with the opportunity to have an intensive, yet introductory, experience that will hopefully catapult them towards a life of conservation and connection with the great outdoors. At the inaugural Achieve Academy Stream Explorers Program, all 7^th grade science students had the opportunity to interact with living aquatic organisms, learn about their behavior, tie some flies, and go fishing!  Nearly fifty students participated in the program. Achieve Academy, a part of the Mapleton School District, is located in Thornton a couple of miles from the South Platte River.

Stream Explorers is a Colorado TU curriculum that allows students to have hands-on, science-oriented, experiences with living aquatic organisms as well as develop basic fishing skills. Through this program, students develop a rudimentary understanding of the beauty, complexity, and dynamics of aquatic ecosystems and the fish they support. Through hands on learning and data collection students are guided in discovering something about aquatic ecosystems. The science activities are driven by student’s questions and allow them ownership of their own learning.

This program was implemented as a series where Colorado TU volunteers visited the school once a week over the course of four weeks. The first session, which was supposed to take place on the South Platte, was brought inside due to a winter storm. During this session, we brought the river to the classroom and students learned about aquatic macroinvertebrates, food webs, and life cycles through direct observation of bugs. During the second session, students performed experiments on how aquatic organisms react to various environmental factors including light, temperature, and gravity. The students analyzed the data collected during these experiments to make inferences on what these behaviors tell them about natural stream ecosystems in relation to seasonal and daily changes. The third session was a fly tying workshop where students learned the basic skills necessary to imitate natural aquatic organisms. During the fourth session the students traveled to a local park where they got the chance to sample and observe aquatic macroinvertebrates and go fishing.

Providing environmental education opportunities to students, particularly those in urban areas, is not only imperative in fostering a conservation ethic in today’s youth, but also has profound effects on school performance,and on emotional and physical health. In this way Colorado TU is not only contributing toward creating the next generation of conservationists, but also encouraging the development of the next generation of well adjusted, successful adults.

Thanks to all the volunteers who made this program possible.

To learn more about Stream Explorers, and other Colorado TU youth education programs, please contact Jake Lemon at jake.lemon@coloradotu.org or 720-354-2646.

CTU Partners with Patxi's Pizza in Cherry Hills for Youth Education Fundraiser

Mark your calendars for Wednesday, May 8. Colorado TU is partnering with Patxi's Pizza in Cherry Hills to raise money for Colorado TU Youth Programs! What: Come enjoy some tasty pizza pie, fine wine, and beer on May 8th at Patxi's Pizza. 10% of all sales for the entire day will benefit Colorado TU's efforts to engage the next generation of conservationists. This includes dine-in, carry-out, delivery, catering, and gift cards. Colorado TU staff will be on hand from 7pm-9pm if you would like to mingle and learn more about our programs.

Where: Patxi's Pizza Cherry Hills 3455 S University Blvd Englewood, CO 80113

Why: In order to sustain the efforts of our volunteers and supporters it is essential that we inspire a strong conservation ethic in the next generation of river stewards.  Colorado TU reaches kids through hands-on science and angling programs. Funds raised will be used to support youth programs in the Denver Metro Area.

Many thanks to Patxi's Pizza for supporting our work!!!

For more information, please contact Jake Lemon, Colorado TU Youth Education Coordinator, at jake.lemon@coloradotu.org.