2023 River Conservation & Fly Fishing Camp - Building Leaders While Building Leaders

This year’s CTU River Conservation & Fly Fishing (RCFF) Camp was June 11th - 17th in Almont, CO, and was a huge success! After receiving several camp counselor applications (from 2022 campers and returning Junior Counselors) as well as new camper applications, we had the excellent idea to not only accept 20 awesome campers but also accept 12 Junior Camp Counselors at this year’s RCFF Camp!

Each of these Junior Counselors had already completed camp. This year, they had the opportunity to build up their leadership, teamwork, and angling skills as they helped lead small groups, guided campers, and helped the Seasoned Counselors keep camp organized.

This morphed beautifully into incredible relationships between our Campers, Junior Counselors, and Seasoned Counselors. Seasoned Counselors introduced discussion topics, while Junior Counselors led small groups of interested Campers. Campers received one-on-one tips from leading Seasoned and Junior Counselors as they fished, tied flies, designed posters, and even learned how to build their own fishing leaders!

Campers grew in their angling skills and confidence throughout the week, and Junior Counselors grew in their leadership skills. This leadership model for CTU’s River Conservation and Fly Fishing Camp helped streamline some of the organizational parts of the camp. Still, it also allowed us as an organization to promote our ‘Stream of Engagement’ model for the CTU Headwaters Youth Programs. Through this program delivery model, we strive to engage new participants in our Youth Programs and ensure that people of any age can "plugin" to TU and continue their relationship with coldwater conservation and fly fishing through various age-appropriate opportunities and programs.

CTU’s River Conservation and Fly Fishing Camp is not only teaching how to build fishing leaders but also building leaders within Trout Unlimited and fostering the next generation of river conservationists and anglers! Thank you to all the Camp Counselors, Volunteers, Campers, and Camp Supporters! We could not do this without you!

The New Summer Issue of High Country Angler is Live!

Check out the Summer 2023 issue of High Country Angler e-zine, including these stories:

· Landon Mayer celebrates the season and provides his Summer Trout Tips;

· Brian LaRue  with Secret Fisheries to Remain Secret;

· Colorado TU Staff celebrates huge growth with its Trout in the Classroom program;

· Hayden Mellsop with Summer Time and the Fishin' is Easy;

· Joel Evans talks Colorado TU's Troutfest and shares his Troutfest Light Caddis;

· Colorado TU Staff with First Step for Stream Restoration;

· Peter Stitcher with The Anatomy of a Euro Rod and Reel

· Other columns by CTU Staff and the Old Professor!

Be sure to see information forTroutfest Colorado July 8th at Coors Field!

June 2023 Currents

THIS MONTH’S ISSUE OF CURRENTS FEATURES Troutfest Colorado, Rollback of Clean Water Act, Mending the Line Movie, and More!

Supreme Court Rolls Back Clean Water Act Protections

On May 25th, the US Supreme Court issued a ruling sharply curtailing 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.

Ruling in Sackett v. EPA, the court limited Clean Water Act protection for wetlands to those with a “continuous surface connection” to other “Waters of the United States,” which will remove federal protections for the majority of the nation’s wetlands. Earlier rulings had protected any wetlands with a “significant nexus” to Waters of the U.S., and for decades the Clean Water Act has covered wetlands that are “adjacent” to those waters. In the case in question, the court found that a landowner did not need a federal Clean Water Act permit to fill in a wetland lacking a “continuous surface connection” to a water body flowing into Idaho’s popular Priest Lake that provides important cutthroat trout habitat.  

“We are disappointed with the Supreme Court’s ruling. The court has severely eroded a 50-year national commitment to clean water, and misses the obvious point that wetlands are often connected to streams through subsurface flows,” said Chris Wood, president and CEO of Trout Unlimited. “The ruling is a victory for muddy thinking, and directly compromises the stated purpose of the Clean Water Act—to make our rivers and streams more fishable, swimmable, and drinkable.”

The ruling is the latest in a decades-long debate over which streams, rivers, and wetlands should be protected by the Clean Water Act. In 2015, Trout Unlimited and our partners backed the Clean Water Rule, which was grounded in science and would have confirmed protections for small “ephemeral” and “intermittent” streams, headwaters, and wetlands.  That rule was blocked by the courts, repealed by the Trump EPA, and briefly replaced with the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, which offered weaker protections for small streams. In findings published in a peer-reviewed journal, TU showed that half of all waters in the contiguous United States would have been unprotected under the weaker Navigable Waters Protection Rule.  The loss of protection is especially worrisome in more arid western states, like Colorado, where many streams do not maintain flow year-round.

The EPA finalized a new rule in March, which reinstated Clean Water Act coverage for millions of miles of streams and millions of acres of wetlands. 

Rather than clarifying matters, the Supreme Court ruling in Sackett will lead to more confusion and litigation in the coming years over the Clean Water Act, the revised Waters of the U.S. rule, and protections for wetlands and streams. 

While the issues litigated in Sackett did not directly address the question of stream protection, the Supreme Court’s majority opinion proposed a test for what waters are covered under the Clean Water Act that could leave non-perennial streams unprotected. These ephemeral and intermittent streams have a major effect on the connected downstream perennial waters on which fish and people rely.

“Protecting water quality starts at the source, in our headwater and seasonal streams and the wetlands that sustain them,” said CTU Executive Director David Nickum. “It is just common sense that allowing degradation upstream will lead to problems downstream.”

Here in Colorado, the main concern in the aftermath of Sackett is not with traditional point-source discharges but with dredge and fill activities historically regulated under Clean Water Act Section 404. Colorado law has a more expansive definition of waters of the State that are restricted from having pollutants discharged without a permit; through its point-source pollutant permitting system, the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment works to keep water quality at levels that can support uses from drinking water supplies to sustaining aquatic life. Unfortunately, Colorado does not have a similar state permitting program for dredge and fill activities and instead has relied on federal permitting to protect water quality and watersheds. Post-Sackett leaves a major regulatory gap in handling projects that formerly would have operated under federal 404 permits.

With many waters of Colorado potentially losing their federal protection, the State must step forward to ensure that these “gap waters” are protected and that an appropriate state permitting program can backfill for the lost federal protections.  Colorado TU looks forward to working with the Administration and with the General Assembly to advance a Colorado solution that can ensure the continued health of our watersheds even in the face of the Supreme Court’s Clean Water Act rollback.

STREAM Keepers at Walking Mountain in Avon, CO

On June 3rd, CTU joined Walking Mountain Science Center in hosting a STREAM Keepers program for over 15 participants. These fantastic families overcame rain and activity changes with smiles on their faces and curiosity to explore. We learned about macroinvertebrates and watershed ecosystems, we got to build a bug, and we even got to tie some flies! We even got to see some mayflies hatch out into adults!

Thank you to all the participants for coming out and being flexible and adaptable. Thank you also to our amazing volunteers Dave, Sherry, Mark, and Nick, and thank you, Patricia and Walking Mountain, for partnering with us for this incredible program! We can’t wait to come back!

Learn more about the CTU STREAM Keepers program here.