Colorado TU Opposes Windy Gap Lawsuit

Trout Unlimited this week came out against a lawsuit by several environmental groups seeking to stop Northern Water’s Windy Gap Firming Project from diverting water from the Upper Colorado River, calling the legal action “short-sighted” and potentially harmful to collaborative efforts already underway to improve habitat and flows on the Colorado River. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court by Save the Colorado, Save the Poudre, WildEarth Guardians, Living Rivers and the Waterkeeper Alliance, questioned the need for the Windy Gap expansion to supply water to Front Range communities and argued that the project had not been properly analyzed for alternatives to further diversions.

Trout Unlimited shares the groups' concern about the impacts of transbasin diversions on the Upper Colorado River. However, we believe the negotiated agreements with Denver and Northern Water - which include water to address low flow periods on the river and major investments in river habitat restoration - offer a better path for addressing those impacts than a lawsuit.

Trout Unlimited issued the following statement from Mely Whiting, TU's Colorado Water Project legal counsel, about the lawsuit:

“Water diversions are having serious impacts on the Upper Colorado River. Suing to kill the Windy Gap Firming Project, however, will not fix those problems. Millions of gallons of water are being diverted out of the Colorado River, right now, to supply water to cities in Northern Colorado and the Front Range. A lawsuit, while it makes for good soundbites, is not going to fix the very real impacts of those diversions or stop them from getting worse. As the population grows, more Colorado River water will be diverted, regardless of whether this project moves forward."

“This lawsuit likely won’t stop Windy Gap, but it could succeed in delaying real solutions to the problems. Habitat restoration projects and other solutions are already being implemented and showing great success in improving the health of the Colorado River. That’s why many conservation groups who’ve been working the longest on this problem support our collaborative approach. These solutions offer the best hope for keeping the valuable resources of the Upper Colorado alive.  This short-sighted lawsuit would only delay progress.”

Whiting pointed to several collaborative projects planned on the Upper Colorado, including the recently completed “Fraser Flats” project with Denver Water and other partners that restored habitat on the Fraser River, a major tributary of the Colorado, causing a significant and almost immediate jump in trout populations and spawning activity. Another major project being developed in cooperation with Northern Water is a bypass around Windy Gap Reservoir that will reconnect the headwaters of the Colorado River, delivering improved flows and habitat and potentially dramatic health benefits for the Upper Colorado River.

For more information on the lawsuit and TU response, see this Loveland Reporter-Herald article.

Partnerships Paying Off for Fraser River

The fish are returning to Fraser Flats. It took years of vision and persistence, but Trout Unlimited’s long-game strategy of collaboration on the Upper Colorado River is paying big dividends for anglers and local communities that depend on a healthy river.

Exhibit A is the Fraser Flats Habitat Project. The Fraser River, a key tributary of the Upper Colorado, had been degraded by years of water diversions and other pressures.

TU and a host of water stakeholders joined forces to reverse that decline. The effort, called Learning by Doing, brought together a variety of partners including Denver Water, Northern Water, Grand County, Trout Unlimited, and Colorado Parks and Wildlife to help restore the Upper Colorado watershed.

The group’s inaugural project at Fraser Flats aimed to restore a roughly one-mile stretch of the Fraser between the towns of Tabernash and Fraser, with the goal of providing healthy habitat for trout even during periods of reduced flows. The Fraser in this section had become too wide and shallow, resulting in sedimentation and high temperatures that smothered bug life and pressured coldwater-loving trout.

Design work began last fall. In late spring, more than 150 volunteers turned out to plant willows and cottonwoods along the streambank for shade and bank stability. Then in summer and fall, the group brought in Freestone Aquatics to narrow the river with point bars and other structures to increase velocity and depth of the river. Freestone also created a series of riffle and deep pools to provide better holding water for trout.

The results already have been nothing short of spectacular.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife conducted a fish survey on Oct. 5, shortly after completion of the project, and found dramatic increases in the biomass of brown and rainbow trout in the stretch compared to previous surveys, and an even larger increase in numbers of larger (14" and up) fish.

Preliminary electrofishing survey results from CPW showed the reach experienced a 415% increase in brown trout biomass, and a 550% increase in the numbers of brown trout greater than 14" in length. While rainbows are a smaller component of the population (15% of biomass, 25% of larger fish #s), they also blossomed with an increase of 267% in biomass and a 400% boost in fish over 14".

"We are elated," Mely Whiting, legal counsel for Trout Unlimited, told the local Ski-Hi News. "This is amazing. The biomass [in the river] has more than tripled, just from last year, and only in the matter of a couple of weeks since the project was completed.”

Biologists also reported seeing large brown trout actively spawning in many areas of the stretch. In short, Fraser River trout have wasted no time moving into the improved habitat.

What’s more, starting in spring 2018, the project will also provide public fishing access along a half-mile of the Fraser Flats section.

“This section of the Fraser River is the healthiest I’ve seen this river in the 47 years I’ve lived here,” TU’s Klancke said. “The best part is we’re hoping to do more river improvements like this in the future with our Learning By Doing partners.”

Colorado Public Radio this week aired a segment about the successful project and the "unusual partnership" between TU and Denver Water .

Watch the video below from Denver Water for another good overview of the project benefits.

Silverthorne, TU unveil Blue River Explorer Hike

In partnership with the Town of Silverthorne, the Gore Range Chapter TU in September celebrated the opening of the "Blue River Explorer Hike."  The half-mile hike along the Blue River through the town core of Silverthorne includes multiple interpretive signs highlighting different aspects of the Blue River's ecology, history, and significance in the community. Inspired by the popular "Junior Ranger" program of the National Park Service, the Blue River Explorer Hike program offers a free children's activity booklet and sticker that can be picked up by registering at the Colorado Welcome Center at the Green Village - Outlets of SIlverthorne. The Blue River Explorer Hike is a free, self-guided trail and is open daily. Signs along the trail explain trout biology, watershed management, challenges of water supply in Colorado, and solutions to help mitigate water shortages. Summit County Television produced a brief video about the new trail:

The Gore Range Chapter hopes that the trail will not only help engage and educate youth in Summit County and among its many visitors, but also may inspire others to bring similar educational programs to their home waters. For those that are interested in developing their own Explorer Hike program, Chapter President Greg Hardy can provide all the necessary details based on what the chapter learned in the course of developing the Blue River project (costs, grant opportunities, locally-available fund raising, development material, artist recommendation, etc.)

Behind the Fin: Duncan Rose

Join us "behind the fin" with TU volunteer Duncan Rose from the Dolores watershed. How long have you been a TU member?

9-10 years - about three years in Charlotte, and seven here in Colorado.

Why did you become a member and what chapter are you involved with?

Dolores River Anglers, Chapter 145, here in the Four Corners of southwestern Colorado. As newbies to the area, I sought insight and orientation to the area from local enthusiasts.

What made you want to become involved with TU?

When we moved here I was approaching retirement and had targeted environmental organizations and fly fishing as a focal point of interest as I moved into retirement. TU, of course, combined both into an effective package.

What is your favorite activity or project you have done with TU?

Our recent study of climate change and its likely impacts on our home waters (we set out to identify and map long term trout strongholds in our mountains). While fishing in late summer of 2012 and 2013 (severe drought years here), several of us had noted cutties struggling through water only half their height to move from tiny pocket to tiny pocket. Being on the Western Slope, our waters are at the interface of high desert with big mountains. That makes us “canaries in the mine” with respect to climate change. Our findings reveal huge challenges for the persistence of trout habitat in the western San Juans by the turn of the century. We worked hard to make the study highly credible. Over 3000 hours of  volunteer"citizen-science" was involved (along with $25,000 in various grants -- including chapter money and TU Gomo and Embrace a Stream grants-- for scientific expertise).

I know you won’t tell me your favorite spot, but what is your second favorite place to fish or favorite fishing story?

We have some 300 miles of trout habitat spread across 46 streams (1430 square miles of watershed) here in the upper Dolores. I’m particularly attracted to high, small, back-country tributaries, dry flies and, for the last four seasons, tenkara. The settings are as compelling as the fishing. I go out every week from runoff moderation to ice-out in November.

What does being a part of TU mean to you?

Besides the camaraderie of colleagues, as past chapter president and current conservation co-chair, I get to pay back some of the great enjoyment I derive from the fly fishing through our conservation projects. Which means that I am investing in a trout future for our two daughters.

What else do you do in your spare time or work?

I am on the board of our local Conservation Land Trust. We have just been “gifted” an 80 hay/cattle tract into which we are incorporating a significant agriculture education program for the greater region. TU and land conservation, great combination--both get under your skin and into your soul.

Editor' Note: The 'climate change study' referenced above is called: "Climate Change and the Upper Dolores Watershed: A Coldwater-fisheries Adaptive Management Framework"