Volunteers repair mine damage to Kerber Creek

By Joe Stone – Special to the Mountain Mail

About 20 people installed nearly a mile of wattles in Kerber Creek west of Villa Grove in the San Luis Valley Saturday as continuing damage repair caused by upstream mining.

Volunteers from Collegiate Peaks Anglers chapter of Trout Unlimited worked with various agency employees and local land owners to repair damage that began at least 130 years ago in the Bonanza Mining District.

http://www.themountainmail.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=4&ArticleID=16670

Colorado vs. federal roadless rules: 3 letters

These letters on DenverPost.com are in reply to the Post’s endorsement of the Colorado Roadless Plan in favor of the federal 2001 Roadless Plan.

Your editorial voiced support of the Colorado roadless rule that currently is being finalized. The Post mentioned that exceptions in the draft rule would allow for oil and gas development and coal exploration in certain areas. What it failed to address is that the Currant Creek roadless area would be opened to coal mining under that draft.

Beetles Add New Dynamic to Forest Fire Control Efforts

New York Times – By KIRK JOHNSON - Published: June 27, 2009

The study said that 70 percent of that forest-fringe land was now privately owned in the 11 states west of the Plains States (not counting Alaska or Hawaii), and that partly because of ownership difficulties, only 11 percent of the fire mitigation work had occurred in the places it was needed most. Read more

In Defense of Wild Trout and Salmon

Learn the history and accomplishments of Trout Unlimited’s first 50 years.
By BETH DURIS

Read all about it in: Trout Magazine

Development leases retired on Front

June 17, 2009
Great Falls Tribune (MT)

Another 19,000 acres of oil and natural gas leases have been retired on the Rocky Mountain Front. Curry & Thornton and David R. Wilson have transfer leases in the Badger-Two Medicine area to Trout Unlimited, which plans to turn them over to the Bureau of Land Management to be permanently retired, said Chris Hunt, a Trout Unlimited spokesman. The conservation group previously received 50,000 acres in transfers located on the Front. Read more

Holland & Hart’s Castle named to Interior Department post

Denver Business Journal

Castle will oversee water and science policy for the sprawling land-use agency, and will be responsible for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Geological Survey. Read more, including a bio.

Groups turn up pressure on roadless forest plan

Associated Press
Friday, June 19, 2009

Chris Wood, Trout Unlimited’s national chief operating officer, said Idaho’s experience shows that a state roadless policy can work. Not all conservation groups support Idaho’s plan, Wood said, but it was developed after a lot of collaboration and has broad public support.

“I don’t know of any conservation group that supports the Colorado plan,” said Wood, an architect of the 2001 roadless rule while with the Forest Service. Read more

Western water in the age of climate change

Book Review by Kyle Boelte, High Country News     Saturday, 20 June 2009

Dead Pool: Lake Powell, Global Warming, and the Future of Water in the West
James Lawrence Powell
304 pages, hardcover: $27.50.
University of California, 2008.

At once a suspense thriller, a history in the tradition of Marc Reisner’s Cadillac Desert, and an informed warning, Dead Pool deserves to be read now, before we make even more mistakes. With both temperatures and the demand for water rising, it’s tempting to see dams as a source of salvation. But, argues Powell, dams only increase Westerners’ demand for water and, in so doing, make our problems even worse. Read more

$2.7 million Fountain Creek cleanup effort begins

By Danielle Leigh - ColoradoConnection.com

“Anything we can do to get that out of the creek and help out water quality because we have a plant habitat and wildlife habitat, fish habitat that depend on good water quality,” said Stormwater Enterprise Manager Ken Sampley. Read more

Animas River: Colorado Trout Unlimited’s 2009 Volunteer of the Year

From Coyote Gulch / Durango Telegraph

Churchwell commented that he volunteers out of a sense of obligation both to the Durango community and the Animas watershed. “Those trout keep me sane and our rivers are my ‘church,’” he said. “Healthy rivers are the lifeblood of our communities, and I’m thankful Durango recognizes the value of the Animas to our community.” Read more