Trout Unlimited Caddis Festival
Collegiate Peaks Anglers Chapter
Saturday, May 5, 2007 – Chaffee County Fairgrounds
10165 CR 120, Poncha Springs, CO
Cocktails, Music, Social Time, Raffles, Auctions
5 pm - Doors Open for silent auction bidding
7 pm - Catered Dinner followed by:
Bucket & Special Raffles, Live & Silent Auctions
Cost Before -$20 At the Door - $25
For more information, contact Larry Bussey at 719.539.4040 or
E-mail him at rogersbussey@aol.com
Number of Members Active members 235
Best of 2006
Projects
Education
Notable Lessons Learned, Struggles, Disappointments or Failures
Out of our 235 members 110 members volunteered for at least one activity during the year.
The time of year we have all been waiting is here at last. The snow is melting, the bugs are hatching and the fish are beginning to move. All those dreams during those long winter nights are about to become a reality. I hope that each of you take the time to commune with nature, the stream, and your fly rod.
Your board of directors has been busy with the mission of the chapter and we want to invite you to join in and participate. I know it is tough enough to find time to commune with a stream without donating some of that time to chapter activities but as you all know and exhibit through your membership, without our diligence, that stream might not be there the next time you want to go fishing. If you would like to volunteer for a project, please contact Sam Humpert at sam_humpert@yahoo.com
Some of you might know and remember that a few years ago CMCTU was contacted by a group of friends to a young man who had recently been killed in an auto accident. These friends wanted to establish a conservation type of memorial fund to remember Eric Stanslowski, and avid outdoorsman. They found our chapter and together we created the Eric Stanslowski memorial fund. From this fund, your board makes a contribution to a conservation project each year that is consistent with our mission. I thought you should all know that we have recently been contacted by Eric’s parents with the news that Eric’s brother Scott was recently killed in a snowmobile accident. As a memorial to Scott, contributions have been coming to CMCTU to add to Eric’s fund in the name of Scott
Fountain Creek is a local neighborhood stream that most of us drive right by but seldom think about dropping a line in it. Recently your board of directors has voted to become involved in the clean up, restoration/improvement of Fountain Creek. You may have notice that the Department of Transportation is working on a greenbelt project along Fountain Creek from Manitou Springs to Colorado Springs. Your board has decided that channelizing the stream and putting in hard surfaces for bicycles and walkers is not our idea of a greenbelt. As a result we are becoming involved both in the planning of this greenbelt project as well as leading by example. CMCTU members are representing us with another group of activist to improve the stream as it passed through Manitou Springs. It is our desire to restore this portion of Fountain Creek back to a natural flowing stream to the extent possible and there by creating an example of what can be accomplished. It is our intent to then use this example to influence the Highway 24 greenbelt project. Your help, support, and interest would be greatly appreciated.
CMCTU, with the help of CTU, has recently submitted an application for additional protection for both Severy Creek and Bear creek to the Colorado Water board. This application includes the testing results of the water samples collected by some of our members in the River Watch program as well as additional sample data collected such a E. Coli and Silver content., Stream flow and minimum flow data. It is our hope that during its meeting this summer, the Colorado Water board will designate these two streams as “High Quality water”. This will provide additional protection to these streams and the pure Colorado Greenback Cutthroat trout that live there.
Courtesy of Cheyenne Mountain Chapter TU Brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) are part of the trout and salmon (Salmonid) family and the Char (Salvelinus) genus that include Bull Trout, Lake Trout and Artic Char.
Brook trout are native to Eastern North America, from Labrador and Newfoundland south to the southern Appalachian mountains of Georgia and South Carolina, west to Iowa and Minnesota and north to eastern Manitoba.
Brook trout require cold, clean, highly-oxygenated water. Brook trout, like other salmonids, have developed a rich life history diversity over time. This means that they have evolved the capacity to take advantage of a variety of aquatic environments. Brook trout can live in river and stream systems, tiny first order tributaries, small ponds, large lakes and estuaries. Like other trout and salmon, brook trout can migrate from fresh to salt water where they live in estuaries and the ocean close to shore, called "salters." As a char, brook trout spawn in the fall among loose gravel in streams and rivers, or on groundwater upwellings in ponds and lakes.
Because brook trout are so sensitive to water quality and water temperature, they serve as a classic "indicator" species of the larger aquatic ecosystem and the watershed draining into the water body where they live.
The reason that brook trout serve as such good "indicators" of aquatic health is that they have very specific water chemistry requirements.
Temperature - Studies have determined that brook trout cannot tolerate sustained water temperatures exceeding 77 F0 and prefer water temperatures less than 68 F0. Brook trout are less tolerant of warmer water temperatures than brown or rainbow trout. Research has documented that brook trout can migrate many miles for spawning or to find thermal refuge.
pH - this is a measure of the concentration of H+ ions in water. pH ranges from 0 (very acidic) to 14 (very basic) with 7 being neutral. Water with a pH lower than 6.0 can cause metals found in soil and rocks to dissolve in solution and suffocate and poison aquatic organisms.
Brook trout have evolved to be the most tolerant of the trout species to acidic conditions, and adult fish can tolerate pH levels as low as 5.0. However, acid mine drainage and acid deposition often produce pH levels below this threshold, and currently render lifeless thousands of miles of former brook trout streams and hundreds of lakes and ponds across the East.
DO - Brook trout require relatively high concentrations of oxygen dissolved in water compared to other fish and even other trout species. Water temperature is inversely related to dissolved oxygen concentrations, so as water warms, it holds less oxygen. In nutrient-rich systems with high biological activity (high densities of plants and algae) or where diffusion rates between water and the atmosphere are relatively slow (stagnant ponds), levels of DO can fluctuate widely over the course of 24 hours. During the day, photosynthesis produces high concentrations of oxygen, but at night photosynthesis stops and plant, algae and bacteria respiration continues to use oxygen, causing DO levels can drop to dangerously low levels. High levels of nutrients also can cause algal blooms. As algae dies, bacteria consume available oxygen as they decompose the algae, reducing oxygen levels. This is referred to as BOD or Biological Oxygen Demand.
Source: www.brookie.org
For your information. Hope you might be able to attend. Both Rod Van Velson and I had the opportunity to meet with Ari Zavaras and discuss the current program between Corrections and DOW using inmate labor to do stream improvement in South Park. Eight miles have been completed. Rod's idea is to see the State (source of money undetermined, but a numbers of options exist) purchase $600,000 plus of equipment, which would be under the control of Corrections at Buena Vista. Inmates would be responsible for maintaining the equipment (learning a job skill) and operation of the equipment (heavy equipment certification) and the public gets vastly improved streams and fisheries. In addition to streams, other work could include projects on State Wildlife Areas, Parks and National Forests. The target Counties would initially be Park, Chaffee and Lake.
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Co Chairs
Bring your lunch and settle in for a presentation by Rod VanVelson and Eddie Kochman on corrections inmates entering a DOW program to give them job skills and work experience AND (hopefully) a brief presentation by Gary Nichols, Park CO Tourism Director, on his landowner/fisherman pilot program.
Senator Lois Tochtrop: SenLoisTochtrop@aol.com (303) 866-4863
Representative John Soper: johnsoper235@comcast.net (303) 866-2931
The Colorado River Headwaters Trout Unlimited chapter is having its first annual banquet on June 23rd. With a little help from everyone we can make this a very entertaining event and raise a few dollars to help us in our efforts to protect the waters in our area. We are asking that you contact friends and associates to ask for silent auction items for the banquet as well as ask people to attend the event. See the attached list of marketing suggestions for details.
The Granby Trout Festival is taking place the same weekend as the banquet and it should prove to be a great combination! Mark your calendars for June 23rd and June 24th.
To View the banquet information, click the link below: WWW.ClickHere For Banquet Information
Many rivers and streams in Colorado are heavily depleted and lack the flows necessary to sustain healthy coldwater fisheries. Since its inception in 1998, Trout Unlimited’s Colorado Water Project has worked to address this problem. The Water Project has defeated water diversion and storage projects that would diminish river flows, has helped to pass several pieces of legislation expanding the state instream flow program, and has created dialogue among water providers regarding ways to develop water supplies without damaging Colorado’s rivers and fisheries. Trout Unlimited is the only group in Colorado dedicated to conserving, protecting and restoring stream flows and rivers.
Given Colorado’s population growth and weak laws and policies protecting rivers and fish, top priorities for the Colorado Water Project are to ensure that current legal protections for our rivers are not weakened or eliminated and to require new water development to proceed only if it will conserve, protect or restore the rivers that would otherwise be adversely affected.
While much of the focus of the Colorado Water Project involves defending the state’s rivers from new water withdrawals and expanding the tools and incentives to conserve the state’s rivers, TU also focuses on on-the-ground protection and restoration efforts. These projects broaden the coalition of interests that support instream flows and act as an incubator for building stronger communities with more interest in river protection.
In a state where the competing demands for limited water resources are enormous and continually growing, building political support for instream flows is critical. The public, elected officials and agencies need to understand how important healthy rivers and fisheries are to Colorado’s economy and quality of life. We are optimistic that our work will provide a roadmap to healthier rivers with abundant flows, and healthier communities that are vested in the long-term protection of their watersheds.
The Wildlife Conservation Society announced a Request for Proposals (RFP) for grants under its new Wildlife Action Opportunities Fund. Made possible through the generosity of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Wildlife Action Opportunities Fund will distribute $2 million over the next two years to support 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organizations working to implement State Wildlife Action Plans in any of the 50 states or six U.S. territories. A second RFP for year two of the program will be announced in 2007.
State Wildlife Action Plans were created when Congress charged each state and territory with developing a comprehensive wildlife plan as a condition of receiving federal funding. For more detailed information, links to State Wildlife Action Plans and progress on implementation in your state visit the Teaming with Wildlife website at http://www.teaming.com/
Awards through the Wildlife Action Opportunities Fund will range from $20,000 to $200,000. These grants will support projects that advance the implementation of State Wildlife Action Plans, such as: projects that integrate State Wildlife Action Plan priorities with other land use planning efforts at the local, regional or national level; promote agency incentive programs that are focused on State Wildlife Action Plan priorities; implement policy changes that advance conservation priorities; involve pilot or demonstration landscape-scale habitat restoration or stewardship projects; publicize and raise the profile of State Wildlife Action Plans to the general public and decision makers; improve the existing Plans so as to better facilitate implementation (e.g., developing maps of local conservation areas); help direct mitigation funds or environmental damage awards toward State Wildlife Action Plan priorities; or engage citizens in science projects that are linked to State Wildlife Action Plan priorities.
Funding priority will be placed on projects that are feasible and practical in 1-2 year time periods, are closely aligned with goals of State Wildlife Action Plans, involve multiple organizations, and may serve as models for conservation that can be replicated elsewhere. These funds cannot be used to support land acquisition or conservation easements, political lobbying and advocacy, or capacity building of organizations.
A full outline of the RFP process and the grant making priorities of the Wildlife Action Opportunities Fund is available at the program's web sitehttp://www.wcs.org/wildlifeopportunity. A copy of the RFP is attached to this message as an MS Word document, as well. The deadline for pre-proposals is November 17, 2006 at 5:00 PM Mountain Standard Time.
All questions regarding this program or the RFP process should be directed to Wildlife Conservation Society Grants Program Officer Darren Long (dlong@wcs.org) at 406-522-9333 x103 or Craig Groves (cgroves@wcs.org) at 406-522-9333 x109.
COLORADO SPRINGS - Rocky Mountain states are growing faster than the rest of the nation and get less rain, stressing its water supply, which is already overtaxed in many places. Climate changes are projected to reduce the amount of water available in the future.
Finally, transfers from agriculture, which still uses most of the water, to growing cities are evolving with innovative strategies, but the ultimate price might be the quality of life in the West, not just the sustainability of the water supply.
Those are conclusions reached in Colorado College’s 2007 State of the Rockies Report Card, released and discussed last week at a three-day conference.
The report looks at water issues of concern to the Arkansas Valley, including Aurora’s water rights purchases in the Arkansas Valley, water banking and a proposed water lease management program.
“The ultimate question is, ‘Can small farms and the communities around them thrive with continued water transfers?’ ” said Tyler McMahon, a Colorado College senior who spent nearly a year researching water issues. McMahon and Matthew Reuer, technical director for the Report Card, wrote a chapter on water sustainability in the report.
McMahon presented the report on a panel that included Gary Bostrom, Colorado Springs Utilities projects manager; Melinda Kassen, Trout Unlimited Western Water Project managing director; and Kay Brothers, deputy general manager for the South Nevada Water Authority.
A crowd of about 100 peppered the panel with questions about growth, development and sustainability of the West’s water supply.
The Rocky Mountain states - Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming - receive less rain and withdraw more water than any other region of the United States, McMahon explained.
Overall, water withdrawals - through diversions, transfers or wells - peaked in 1980. Since then, agricultural use has decreased slightly, power generation has remained steady and urban use has climbed.
Unlike the rest of the country, the Rocky Mountain and Pacific states use most of the withdrawn water for irrigation. In the rest of the country, most is applied to electric power generation. The amount withdrawn for cities is the second-leading use in the West, but a distant third in most of the country. The problem is, the growth is not always occurring where the water is. Coupled with pressures on the agricultural communities - the loss of about 150,000 acres of irrigated land every decade - urban growth and revised estimates of how much water is available, changes could be devastating for rural communities, McMahon said.
“I was impressed by the amount of water used by irrigation and the effect moving that kind of water could have, especially on areas that are less diverse economically, like the Lower Arkansas Basin,” McMahon said.
Outside of Pueblo, about 6 percent of the valley’s economy is driven by farm income, a high percentage for the state.
The ray of hope may be ways to share water, including water banking, interruptible supply, alternative crop patterns or lease agreements.
In the Arkansas Valley, the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District is looking at reviving a water bank concept. A water bank in Idaho has worked successfully since 1930 and could be a model, McMahon said.
Meanwhile, the “Super Ditch,” a rotational fallowing, lease management program being studied by the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District could bring seven mutual ditch companies together in a groundbreaking program that would allow irrigators to lease water to cities on their own terms.
“Concepts like the Super Ditch show that the water can still be shared and are a very positive trend,” McMahon said.
Still, the West will struggle as each state deals with different water laws, supply needs and conservation strategies to cope.
Las Vegas pays cash for grass, Tucson has the steepest block rate structure in the West and Denver is combing its system for leaks to recover unaccounted water.
The report also talks about climate change. Snowpack in the Rockies could decrease by 50 percent in the period from 1976-2085, while average temperatures rise and rainfall, at least in Colorado, stays roughly the same.
“Conservation and creative water sharing methods can potentially benefit the Rockies’ people, land and environment, but the demands of a growing population will likely create new tension,” McMahon wrote in the report. “How this limited, variable and potentially shrinking supply is managed . . . will largely determine not only the sustainability but also the livability of the Rockies so valued by millions of residents and visitors alike.”
by Jason StarrMail Staff Writer
Anglers can expect a trout fishing revival in Twin and Turquoise lakes this summer as the Leadville National Fish Hatchery resumes stocking after a 12-year hiatus.
The hatchery, one of the oldest in the West, was declared free of whirling disease in January after a costly and time-consuming battle to rid its facilities of parasites causing the disease.
have a clean bill of health, the hatchery will begin delivering 10- to 13-inch rainbow and cutthroat trout in May to reservoirs in Lake and Chaffee counties. Local fishermen are excited about the prospect.
"It's good news for the valley," said Mark Cole, president of the Collegiate Peaks Anglers chapter of Trout Unlimited. "People will again be able to catch fish in these lakes. For the last 10 years it's been pretty poor."
The hatchery will stock Clear Creek Reservoir in northern Chaffee County as well as Twin and Turquoise lakes and Mount Elbert Forebay in southern Lake County.
Twin and Turquoise will receive the majority of the 100,000 trout the hatchery plans to distribute this summer. They "are very good places to fish," Cole said. "They have good access all the way around and they are in beautiful settings."
Leadville fishery biologist Carlos Martinez expects the improved fishing will boost the valley's economy.
"When people realize Twin Lake is being stocked every couple weeks when it wasn't stocked before, the economic impact will be in the millions of dollars per year," Martinez said.
The local economy has been without that influx since the Leadville hatchery was forced to stop stocking local reservoirs in 1995 when it was diagnosed with a whirling disease problem.
Trout contract whirling disease through a parasite produced by worms. Infected fish become deformed and lose equilibrium, making it difficult for them to evade predators and catch food.
The disease affects young trout more than adults and can decimate populations.
"The facility was in danger of shutting down," Martinez said. "It was very upsetting to a lot of people because of the historical significance and the economic impact it has in the Upper Arkansas Valley."
The hatchery continued to send fish to lower reservoirs in the valley such as Pueblo, John Martin and Fort Carson, where infected fish are less of a threat to nearby streams. But, after receiving $2 million in federal funding in 2003, the hatchery began the process of freeing itself from the disease.
It designed an extensive filtration and ultraviolet zapping system to clean its water before it entered the fish-rearing system. It also decommissioned its earth-bottom rearing ponds.
"It's probably overkill, but it's better to be overpowered than underpowered," Martinez said of the system. "It pretty much cleans our water of everything."
The Colorado Division of Wildlife certified the facility as whirling disease free in January. The hatchery plans to increase trout production from 100,000 this summer to as much as 180,000 in coming seasons.
"The Leadville National Fish Hatchery has a long, proud history of providing trout for Colorado waters," hatchery manager Ed Stege said in a press release. "We are pleased that we can fully continue that mission now that the hatchery is certified free of whirling disease."
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service will perform an annual fish health inspection to ensure the hatchery remains free of whirling disease. The hatchery hopes to eventually establish a greenback cutthroat broodstock population to go along with its cutthroat and rainbow populations.
