Whisky’s For Drinkin’, Water’s For Fightin’
At Trout Unlimited, we work hard at protecting, reconnecting, restoring and sustaining our coldwater resources.
We believe in bringing all parties to the table to find proactive solutions that meet the challenges facing coldwater fisheries and the larger environment.
We’ve learned that the best conservation work comes from true partnerships between landowners, agencies, non-profits, municipalities and other stakeholders.
We strive to protect important habitat, reconnect degraded waterways and restore trout populations and we’ve found that the best way to actually achieve those goals is through conversation rather than confrontation.
Educate Yourself!
Water Education Colorado is a non profit dedicated to increasing our understanding of water issues in the west and even water law. They provide excellent resources and as of February, 2021 have again updated their information. We encourage you to increase your understanding of the complexities of water issues. Check out their website by clicking here.
accurate climate change data comes from the oceans
The world’s oceans are an amazing “sink” for atmospheric changes in both CO2 and temperature. Our oceans moderate the speed of word-wide atmospheric changes but there are limits to their capacity. Accurately monitoring changes in ocean temperature and CO2 levels reveals much about climate trends. Learn about ocean temperature monitoring resources here.
Water Related Stories
The Learn More buttons below will take you to stories about some of our regional issues. For the national Trout Unlimited website’s conservation information, click here. For the equivalent page for Colorado TU, click here. For the basics of Trout Unlimited’s overall conservation approach, click here.
In addition, TU’s Advocacy Page makes it easy to send comments to politicians on environmental issues. The page is frequently updated as issues change.
Colorado water conservation board
The CWCB was intimately involved in the creation of Colorado’s Water Plan, is critical to our statewide drought monitoring and helps mitigate the effects of fire on waters. The CWCB also aids us in understanding the growing interest in the use of alternative transfer methods (ATMs) and other voluntary, temporary, and compensated approaches for enhancing environmental and recreational flows and providing temporary municipal supplies in times of shortage, and much more.
Ski Seasons May Shorten by 50%
The non-profit organization Water Education Colorado reports that ski seasons in parts of Colorado may shrink by half between now and 2050 due to climate change.
Climate change impacts stream flow
A detailed article in the Journal of Hydrology addresses climatic factors behind streamflow declines and the resulting challenges for water demand. Threats to water sharing agreements and reducing greenhouse gas emissions as a possible mitigation strategy are brought up.
Take Action
Colorado Trout Unlimited maintains a page dedicated to actions you can take as a citizen to protect our rivers.
Greenback Cutthroat Recovery Program
A new project is underway to help in this Colorado Native fish’s recovery and reintroduction.
NOAA’s Colorado Basin Forecast
The official US Government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) website provides information about snow pack, stream flow, weather projections and much more.
Colorado TU & Conservation
Trout Unlimited works hard to protect our rivers and environment statewide.
Colorado water plan
See the official water plan for our state.
Learning By Doing
TU has “a seat at the table” with water diverters through the Learning By Doing program.
Water Resource Management
Check out our county government’s water information and resources.
Diversion Study Censored
Some Western Slope participants have expressed their concern about Front Range water diverters interest in censoring results of science-based studies
Oil & Gas Wastewater
What is oil and gas wastewater? Where does it come from and where does it go? For an excellent discussion about these and other related questions, click below.
Fraser River Progress
This article is a few years old, but shows the start of positive changes.
Fish Shun Modern Dam Passages
Unfortunately, recent studies point to many dam bypasses, fish ladders, etc. as unsuccessful in allowing fish to travel around dams. Here's an article from Scientific American.
Politician’s Conservation Records
Interested in the conservation credentials of a particular politician? TU does not support any politicians or candidates. To find information about a particular candidate's conservation record, go to the League of Conservation Voters web site.
Water Law Information
Water law in the west is complicated and a bit strange. The laws were written when it was still legal to own a slave and have changed little since then.
Moffat Diversion Info
The Moffat Diversion moves lots of water from Grand County to the Front Range.
Drones & Efficient Irrigation
Maximizing the efficiency of agricultural water use by using all the technological tools available is critical.
Additional Resources
Lots of great water-related information is now available. Resources include Trout Unlimited’s national website, Grand County Water Information Network and many others. Click the button for some starting points.
Overview of Colorado Basin Water Issues
Looking for general background information about water issues in the Colorado Basin? As a freshman in college during the Lincoln administration, your webmaster read a book that still presents an excellent "big picture" perspective of the difficulty and importance of water-related issues in the west. The book is Water and Choice in the Colorado Basin. It's readable, free and brief at just over 100 pages. Also check out the similar results when you Google "water and choice in the Colorado basin".
Western Rivers Action Network
Is one of Audubon’s conservation efforts. Their focus skews to birds while ours skews to fish, but we share the same fundamental goals. They are wonderfully action-oriented and provide information about water-oriented meetings, timely petitions, forms for letter writing and much more.