Blog — Colorado Trout Unlimited
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Denver Water Plan Draws Environmental Concerns

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CBS4 Denver
Paul Day

WINTER PARK, Colo. (CBS4) ― Tumbling off a mountainside near Winter Park, Jim Creek carries a healthy volume of snowmelt until it flows smack into a concrete structure.

 
"This ... is built to divert water," explains Kirk Klancke, a fly fisherman and Grand County resident.

The structure does its job well. On the downstream side, all that's left is barely a trickle.

Jim Creek is one of many tributaries to the Fraser River. In this valley, Denver Water operates dozens of diversion structures that siphon water from what would naturally flow in the Fraser. The big utility now wants approval to take even more water and pipe it to Denver as part of its Moffat Firming Project.

Recreation and tourism would suffer if the stream is further imperiled, says Klancke who's president of the local chapter of Trout Unlimited.

"This river is struggling for survival," Klancke said. "An additional withdrawal could put it over a tipping point where it may not survive."

Exploring the Roan Plateau: Day Three

Field & Stream As Corey Fisher wrote to me yesterday after we talked about the trip and this story: “When you spend enough time in a place like the Roan, it becomes a part of you. When somebody says that they are going to drill it - of course you’re concerned about the trout streams and the elk meadows - but a piece of you is going to be lost as well. There are a lot of hunters and anglers who the Roan is a part of and if it gets ruined, there will be a bunch of people who lose a piece of themselves.”

http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos/gallery/hunting/deer-hunting/finding-deer-hunt/2010/07/exploring-roan-plateau-day-three

Exploring the Roan Plateau: Day Three

Field & Stream Conservationist blogger Hal Herring and photographer Kevin Cooley spent three days exploring what's at stake in the current rush to develop the energy resources beneath Colorado's unique Roan Plateau -- some of the best big game hunting and trout fishing in the United States. Here's what they found on day three.

http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/finding-deer-hunt/2010/07/exploring-roan-plateau-day-three

Exploring the Roan Plateau: Day Two

Field & Stream Hiking down into lower Trapper Creek. Ken Neubecker in the lead, Chris Hunt, Mac Cunningham, and me bringing up the tail. We’ll be in the cool trees soon, and you can see across to the dry, sun-baked aspect of the canyon, sage and cinquefoil and short grass. That side of the canyon is like a different world from where we’ll be fishing, but it’s really only a few hundred yards away. Shade, aspect, water, elevation, terrain - they change everything, and nowhere is this more clear than on the Roan, where all of these vastly different worlds are so close together.  There is perhaps no place in Colorado that holds so much diversity, or where so much unique habitat remains unprotected. 

http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos/gallery/hunting/deer-hunting/finding-deer-hunt/2010/07/exploring-roan-plateau-day-two?photo=1

Exploring the Roan Plateau: Day Two

Field & Stream Conservationist blogger Hal Herring and photographer Kevin Cooley spent three days exploring what's at stake in the current rush to develop the energy resources beneath Colorado's unique Roan Plateau -- some of the best big game hunting and trout fishing in the United States. Here's what they found on day two.

http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/finding-deer-hunt/2010/07/exploring-roan-plateau-day-two

An Overview of the Roan Plateau

Field & Stream The Roan Plateau in western Colorado is the “line in the sand” for the Western sportsman who values intact fish and wildlife habitat and a unique sporting opportunity amidst a sea of industrial development. The Roan, which comprises only one percent of the entire Piceance Basin Gas Field, rests above significant reserves of natural gas, but also provides refuge for trophy mule deer, elk, grouse, bear, mountain lion and pure strains of Colorado River cutthroat trout.

http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/finding-deer-hunt/2010/07/overview-roan-plateau

Exploring Colorado's Roan Plateau: Day One

Field & Stream

I went back to the Roan with Field and Stream, some great photographers from Brooklyn, and some guys from Trout Unlimited who have been fighting for this place for over a decade now. We all wanted to spend some days way up high, wander the rugged canyons that crisscross the plateau and shelter the monster bull elk that have made it famous and catch a few native Colorado cutthroats in the shadowed cathedrals of stone and water. It was not a trip to experience what might soon be lost. It was a trip to see and feel what is still truly worth fighting for. In a world that seems haunted by losses for hunters and fishermen and their children, here was a chance, and a place, to hold on to. http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/finding-deer-hunt/2010/07/exploring-colorados-roan-plateau-day-one

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Exploring the Roan Plateau: Day One

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Field & Stream

Conservationist blogger Hal Herring and photographer Kevin Cooley spent three days exploring what's at stake in the current rush to develop the energy resources beneath Colorado's unique Roan Plateau -- some of the best big game hunting and trout fishing in the United States. http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos/gallery/fishing/trout-fishing/where-fish-trout/2010/07/exploring-roan-plateau-day-one

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Group pours years into protecting, reviving Roan Plateau creek

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By Dave Buchanan
Grand Junction Sentinel

Nearly two decades after the local Trout Unlimited chapter unofficially adopted Trapper Creek, a small stream burbling from the sandstone layers atop the Roan Plateau, the changes are noticeable. Where once cattle trod through decadent sagebrush and the deepest hole was a smelly mud wallow, lush grasses and clear runs mark a stream that more than once has come back from the brink of disappearance.

http://www.gjsentinel.com/outdoors/articles/group_pours_years_into_protect/

Hey Boulder -- Mark your Calendars!!

Colorado Trout Unlimited, in partnership with Boulder-based Upslope Brewery, have a series of exciting events happening every Wednesday in August.  CTU has been selected by Upslope to participate in their Pints for People (and rivers) program - a cool collaboration between the two organizations, and a little bit of fundraising for CTU!

Here is how it works - Every Wednesday in August, from 4:00 to 8:00pm, head over to the Upslope Brewing taproom (located at 1501 Lee Hill Road, No.20) and drink some beers.  If you buy some beer or other products to take home, a portion of those proceeds go directly to CTU - its a win-win situation!

So...Wednesdays...August 4, 11, 18, 25 head over to the tap room and drink some beer - and support Colorado's rivers in the process!!