Who We Are
The Colorado River Headwaters Chapter of Trout Unlimited is located in beautiful Grand County Colorado. We are north-west of Denver and on the west side of the Continental Divide. We're located just where you'd expect based on our name: at the headwaters of the Colorado River. That means we're where the human population density is low and wildlife density (including fish) is high. Our moose count far exceeds our stoplight count. Grand County is roughly the size of the state of Delaware with a population of around 14,000. The main communities here are Winter Park, Fraser, Tabernash, Granby, Grand Lake, Hot Sulphur Springs, Parshall and Kremmling. We are fortunate to fish the Colorado and its first tributaries near their source, and the fishing here is wonderful.
Trout Unlimited Colorado and National
TU is a national non-profit with local chapters (like ours) across the country. Each chapter is within a state organization. TU is a 501(c)3 non-profit.
What We do
Everyone on our board is a dedicated, talented unpaid volunteer who works hard to ensure the money you invest in us and your participation in our projects makes a real difference in our rivers and wider environment.
We believe in doing local on the ground and in the river projects that have tangible benefits rather than spending our time and efforts in endless, fruitless litigation against the diverters. We wish our forefathers hadn’t sold their local water rights a hundred years ago but they did. We need to be realistic and make the best of a situation we wish were different.
Each year here in Colorado's high country, we accomplish a lot in Grand County! Unfortunately, the pandemic prevented us from repeating out 2018 and 2019 willow planting 2020 but we were back on the riverbanks in 2021 and 2022 thanks to the efforts of our board and our amazing volunteers:
On September 12, 2020 we held a cleanup project on the Fraser between Safeway and Rendezvous. We’re pleased that we came up with less trash than we did in this same area a few years ago!
In 2020 we worked with both Grand County and Denver Water on drought preparedness and response.
On May 4, 2019 we harvested willows for our second year of planting along Ranch Creek near Devil's Thumb Ranch.
On May 7, 2019 we inventoried our results from our 2018 planting in the same area. We had a fabulous 73% survival rate.
On May 18 &19 we planted our recently harvested willows.
Willow Harvesting 2019.
Become a Trout Unlimited Member
The lifeblood of Trout Unlimited is its 150,000+ members, over 11,000 of which are in Colorado. They volunteer their time and contribute much needed funds, strengthening our ability to protect Colorado’s rivers and watersheds.
Please be sure to indicate you want to be in the Colorado River Headwaters Chapter, #547.