Today’s blog is an update to a post from last month on the Searsville Dam. You can read the original post below the update, or by viewing it here.

American Rivers expects Stanford University to release its decision by the end of March on what it plans to do with Searsville Dam, their 125 year old, obsolete dam that blocks endangered steelhead trout from reaching more than 10 miles of historic spawning habitat and dries up the stream below the dam. American Rivers has been working with partners such as Beyond Searsville Dam for 15 years to push Stanford to address the harm caused by Searsville and their other dams and live up to their own “core sustainability principles”.

For over 100 years, Stanford has operated Searsville and other dams and diversions in the San Francisquito Creek watershed to supply water to its golf course and campus landscaping. The dams have blocked endangered steelhead trout from reaching over 25 miles of historic spawning habitat and have impacted the creeks downstream.  Even though Stanford no longer needs these dams for water supply, they have been reluctant to eliminate them.  That is about to change.

In fact, Stanford will soon begin removing one of its dams, the 10-ft tall Lagunita Diversion Dam, in response to a suit brought in 2014 by Our Children’s Earth Foundation  and Ecological Rights Foundation.  Although Stanford abandoned the dam years ago, the university has refused to remove it to allow steelhead to swim upstream to spawn, despite American Rivers and BSD efforts to address the problem dating back to 1998.  In January a District court ordered Stanford to remove the Lagunita Diversion Dam and provide regular progress reports to the court to ensure the university does not drag its heels.

Stanford’s 60-foot tall Searsville Dam has been blocking steelhead and drying up the creek since about 1890.  Now 125 years later, the reservoir is 90% filled with sediment and is no longer needed for water supply. Two years ago Stanford launched its Searsville Alternatives Study process to gather information on several options for the dam including full removal, punching a hole in the bottom to function as a “dry dam”, and dredging the sediments and operating it as they have been for a century. Stanford has completed the Alternatives Study, and the university President and Provost are poised to pick a path forward.  The community upstream of the dam, Portola Valley, recently sent Stanford a letter supporting the restoration of sea-run steelhead trout, and American Rivers’ supporters have recently sent more than 25,000 letters to Stanford calling for dam removal.

Choosing the best alternative for Searsville is not a simple task, but now that the Alternatives Study process has concluded, Stanford certainly has enough information to know that they have better water supply options, and more importantly, that they can remove the dam and improve flood safety for downstream communities. Moreover, removing the dam as a barrier to fish passage is the only option that will fully comply with the Endangered Species Act and California water law that require Stanford to protect the threatened steelhead trout.  With compelling evidence for the benefits of removing Searsville Dam in hand, we hope that Stanford will do the right thing for the communities, the creek, and the fish.  In doing so, Stanford would also achieve its own principle that demands it “preserve and manage environmental resources to allow … the long-term persistence of native species.”

Georgia is not the only place you can catch shoal bass (Micropterus cataractae) in the world, but it is the best place and the most reliable place.

Native to the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) river system, shoalies—as they are affectionately known—have been severely depleted in the Chattahoochee side of the system due to habitat fragmentation from over a dozen dams up and down the river.

The fish was introduced to Georgia’s Ocmulgee River several decades ago and has thrived there. However, the Flint River remains the shoal bass’s center of abundance (on the planet!) due to long, undammed reaches of river and due to the fact that throughout its length the Flint provides prime rocky shoal habitat: Class I, II, and III whitewater rapids in the upper Flint and vast limestone shoals in the lower Flint.

Shoalies have excellent sporting qualities, hitting hard and fighting hard, with frequent jumps, readily taking artificial lures presented on casting and fly tackle.

Fisherfolk who wade, kayak, use jon boats, and operate high-powered bass boats all target the species, and tournaments typically won with stringers of largemouth bass have seen the bacon taken home by a savvy shoal bass angler who ran far above flat reservoir water to target this lover of fast-running water.

Georgia is home to the highest black bass biodiversity in North America primarily due to its many types of running water in over 70,000 miles of creeks, streams and rivers. Home to the world-record largemouth bass (Georgia’s state freshwater fish), the state draws anglers from all over the planet to the variety of fish offered by so many types of water. Shoal bass are very special among this pantheon of fine game fish.

Now, Georgia Wildlife Federation and Flint Riverkeeper are supporting a bill in the Georgia General Assembly (House Bill 483) to declare the shoalie Georgia’s official native riverine sport fish, honoring the species itself and highlighting the importance of undammed, clean, flowing water to support the shoalie and Georgia’s fishing economy, heritage, and culture.

The teamwork by American Rivers, Flint Riverkeeper and other partners to restore and protect habitat and healthy flows in the upper Flint River is critically important to maintaining a robust shoal bass fishery and the economic benefits it creates.

As goes the Flint, so go the creatures who call it home… among them the shoal bass, one of the planet’s finest game fish.

Our work to remove dams and restore rivers often hinges on more than a single issue. Nowhere is this truer than our efforts to remove the Bloede Dam on the Patapsco River in Maryland. While the primary driver for this restoration effort is the opening of more than 65 miles of spawning habitat for migratory fish, safety and the need for ongoing maintenance are just as critical at this site.

Removal of the Bloede Dam is an investment in Maryland’s future. It solves a critical infrastructure issue that has plagued the state since at least the 1980’s— costing Maryland millions of dollars in repairs, studies, and staffing over time. If the dam remains in place, the cost of repairs needed to comply with Maryland Dam Safety requirements could exceed $1 million. Removing the Bloede Dam enables the restoration of a natural, resilient river system and eliminates any future financial obligations by the State for repairs and long-term maintenance.

Located within the Patapsco Valley State Park, one of the most popular state parks in Maryland, the dam is also an attractive nuisance that has played a significant role in more than nine deaths and untold injuries since the 1980s, including two in the last two years. Despite signage and regular patrols by Maryland Park Service staff, many summer visitors ignore the posted warnings and continue to put their lives in jeopardy.

Thankfully, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and others have invested more than $8 million to restore the Patapsco River (including earlier removals of the Simkins and Union dams). Removal of the Bloede Dam is the key to realizing the benefits of this comprehensive watershed restoration effort.

Maryland State funding is also critical to implementing this project and eliminating future state liability associated with the dam, and this funding is currently in jeopardy. The Maryland General Assembly is considering the Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act of 2015, which includes cuts to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ budget that will mean the loss of $1 million previously allocated to remove the state-owned Bloede Dam. Governor Hogan committed to ensuring the funding is available in a recent Bay Journal article; however, funds must be reinstated in the budget to ensure that funding remains dedicated to the Bloede Dam removal.

In a recent 5280 magazine article, Kate Siber asked, “Can a Water Plan Actually Work”? At times she came close, but never really answered her own question. The answer is a solid “it all depends”.

The Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) Director James Ecklund and his staff have put a tremendous amount of time, effort and political capital into the fledgling Colorado Water Plan. So have the nine Basin Roundtables and the Inter-Basin Compact Committee (IBCC). So have the thousands of people from all around the State who have been engaged, submitting comments and learning more about how water “works” in Colorado.

With support like this, how could the Water Plan fail? Well, that depends.

The success of the Colorado Water Plan depends on the sincerity and willingness to abide it receives from the established water community. When work on the Plan began, some detractors replied that Colorado already has a water plan. It’s called prior appropriation. And they are right, for the most part.

The Colorado Water Plan is an advisory document. It is a blue print for how we should manage water for all our needs, but it has no force of law behind it. Like a County Master Plan, it provides guidance for the future based on how we see it today. In Colorado, while the people own the water itself, the right to use it is an individual property right that can’t be abrogated without due process.

So the Water Plan falls back on how much people, especially people who make decisions about water use and development, respect it. The State does have some permitting authority for water projects, as do local County governments. The State also has considerable funding capacities for water projects and efforts such as the Roundtables. These can provide powerful incentives for project proponents to comply with tenets of the Water Plan, but only to the degree that decision makers continue to support the Plan.

Whether the Colorado Water Plan works or not boils down to a matter of faith – faith in our institutions to do the right thing. Change doesn’t come easy, but it will come. How we shape that change using guides like the Colorado Water Plan is how we shape our future. James Ecklund, in Kate Siber’s essay, echoes a common sentiment that “If we keep doing things the way we’ve done them for the past 100 years, we will be in trouble.” That’s putting it mildly.

No one expects the doctrine of prior appropriation to go away, but changes will be needed, especially if we want rivers and watersheds to be healthy and resilient while keeping productive agriculture and growing communities “vibrant”. Times and values have changed since 1876 and we need to understand that.

The changes also need to be in how we’ve traditionally provided for water in the past through more storage and more diversions from one side of the Continental Divide to the other.  The past is no longer a guide to the future. We need a new water paradigm for Colorado, a new way of thinking that looks more towards conservation, efficiency and 21^st century technologies.

Other places with climates similar to or even drier than ours have gone in this direction. It is amazing how much the Israeli’s can squeeze from a drop of water! Doing this in Colorado will require changes in laws, traditions and practices; and that will not come easy for some.

If the Colorado Water Plan is going to work we will need to use it, not as a roadmap from the past but as a creative guide for the future. It will also take substantial goodwill and cooperation among all the users and uses we have for the scarcest of western resources, water.

As someone who lived through the worst oil spill disaster in American history, I’m going to tell you an unpleasant truth – oil spill cleanups are a myth.

I was among the thousands of workers who were hired to clean up the 11 million gallons of North Slope crude that hemorrhaged from the Exxon Valdez when it ran aground in Alaska’s Prince William Sound on Good Friday in 1989. During my first stint on the spill cleanup, my crew of 200 workers was hired on a Friday and fired the following Monday. A USA Today crew was helicoptering out to one of the hardest hit beaches for the weekend, and Exxon wanted to show the American people that it was doing everything possible to clean up its mess.

A quarter century later, you can still find oil along that remote coastline by digging down a few inches into the gravel. Despite enlisting 10,000 cleanup workers, 1,000 boats, 100 aircraft and spending $2.1 billion over a period of four years, Exxon was able to clean up just ten percent of the spill. Most experts say the cleanup effort did more harm than good.

The cleanup tally was even worse when Exxon’s Silvertip Pipeline spewed 63,000 gallons of oil into the flood-swollen Yellowstone River by Laurel in July 2011. Despite spending $130 million on the cleanup, less than one percent of the oil was recovered.

So imagine how successful Bridger Pipeline LLC will be in cleaning up the 40,000 gallons of Bakken crude that gushed into the Yellowstone River by Glendive when its Poplar Pipeline ruptured on January 17. At the peak of the cleanup, a company spokesman told the Glendive Ranger-Review that it was recovering one teaspoon of oil every ten minutes from holes that it cut in the ice. At that pace, it would take 1,753 years to clean up the spill.

It wouldn’t be fair to blame Bridger Pipeline for its inability to clean up the spill. After all, the surface of the river was frozen solid for 20 miles below the ruptured pipeline, and a swift current was carrying the oil underneath the ice towards North Dakota. It’s doubtful that more than five percent of the oil could have been cleaned up even under optimal conditions.

But it is fair to blame Bridger Pipeline, and the federal agency that oversees pipeline safety, for not preventing the spill in the first place. When the Poplar Pipeline was last inspected in 2012, it was buried just eight feet under the bed of the Yellowstone River. That’s four feet deeper than the minimum depth required by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). A large, dynamic river like the Yellowstone can scour twice that depth in a single flood event.

So it should have come as no surprise when investigators discovered that 120 feet of the Poplar Pipeline was totally exposed following the spill. It was an accident waiting to happen. And you can bet there are scores of other ticking time bombs lurking in the 18,000 places across the country where pipelines cross under rivers, streams and lakes.

Since it is virtually impossible to clean up oil once it’s spilled into our waterways, our focus must be on spill prevention. While the energy industry will complain about the cost, we need to demand common sense safety measures like burying pipelines much deeper under rivers, constructing them with thicker steel, requiring automatic shut-off valves, mandating more frequent inspections, and dramatically increasing fines for acts of negligence. Failure to implement these measures is an invitation to more oil spills, more contaminated water supplies, more sickened people, and more fish and wildlife kills.

Better yet, we should accelerate our nation’s transition away from dirty fossil fuels and toward cleaner, safer renewables like wind and solar. For as it’s been said, when there’s a major solar energy spill, it’s called a nice day.

Today we highlight another of the new Wild and Scenic Rivers that were designated recently by Congress.  The Missisquoi and Trout Rivers became the first Wild and Scenic Rivers in Vermont.  These are another example of the Partnership Rivers model, a collaboration between local communities and the National Park Service to protect and mange Wild and Scenic rivers. Below is the captivating testimony of Chris O’Shea, board member of the Missisquoi River Basin Association who we worked with way back in 2008 in support of the legislation to study the Missisquoi & Trout Rivers for Wild & Scenic River status. His words really capture why communities are fighting to keep their wild and scenic rivers as they are.

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Thursday, April 24, 2008 at 10 a.m

U.S. House Natural Resources Committee

Good morning. On behalf of the deer, moose, ospreys, beavers, brown trout, loons, brown bears, bobcats, beavers, foxes, bald eagles, snapping turtles, fisher cats, porcupines, mink, ravens, muskrats, coyotes, geese, herons, owls, river otters, and the good people of the ten communities that lie along the Missisquoi and Trout Rivers, I thank you for hearing this testimony on why these two rivers are worthy of study by the National Park Service for possible inclusion in the Wild & Scenic program.

Where these rivers run there are no shopping malls, no big box stores, no multiplexes, no four-lane highways, no gated communities, no stoplights.What’s there, is open spaces of forests and fields, beautiful four-season open space that stretches from Lake Champlain to the Green Mountains and beyond. The defining factor in all that open space is the Missisquoi River, it’s broad flood plain lending itself to agriculture from the time of the Abenakis to the days of Agrimark. In summer it’s a ribbon of green, in winter a frozen white wonder. If you love to hunt or fish, skate or swim, paddle or pedal, you will love where these rivers run.

The Missisquoi, the name comes from the Abenaki term for crooked river, is one of the last watersheds remaining in the United States that is devoted almost entirely to family dairy farming. Even within the boundaries of the villages that the rivers flow through you will find family farms along its fertile banks. And while many will decry agriculture as a major cause of water pollution, it is the main reason the Missisquoi and Trout Rivers are worth the time and money to preserve them and the way of life family farming offers. Agriculture and clean water can co-exist where the people are willing and the necessary funding is available.

There is plenty of pollution, mostly in the form of excessive phosphorous, along these rivers, as our group has documented. Missisquoi Bay, where the river empties into Lake Champlain eighty miles from its headwaters, is impaired and the current object of a multi-million dollar federal Clean & Clear clean-up program.

None of the ten villages along these two rivers has more than a thousand people living in it, and most have less than five hundred. Only three have the infrastructure necessary for further economic expansion, and this is another place where the Wild & Scenic program could aid those communities with both guidance and funding.

Why, you may ask, seek Wild & Scenic status for a place that is already wild and scenic? Because we want to keep it that way and without the ways and means to hold off the forces of urbanization, the greater Missisquoi Valley will eventually look just like everywhere else. As an old dairy farmer said to me recently: you know, we’re a place that can still pretty much feed it’s own, and I do believe that’s worth something to somebody.

Already we are seeing market forces eroding the family farms. Go big or get out is the mantra too often heard. Or go small and organic. The river flows to the sea, the milk to market, and the money to the agri-giants. If by preserving the river we can preserve the families living along it, then we will have made government that is truly of, by, and for the people.

It is these family farms that provide easy access to the river, whether you want to fish, swim, paddle, or ride your bike along the rail trail. Some of the best flatwater paddling in New England can be found on the upper reaches of the Missisquoi and the Trout are a place where a fly-fisherman can have a pool to him or herself on a Saturday morning. Big Falls will make you afraid of the river, Green River Farm will make you want to jump in it.

Although the Trout is much smaller, it should be included in the study as well because it is largely a microcosm of the greater Missisquoi, deep pools, shallow runs, open farm meadows, hard and softwood forests. If our studies reveal that the Missisquoi is not suitable for designation, we are quite certain that the Trout will be. And if both make the grade, as any brother and sister should, it’s a good day for the wild life.

Another unique factor in this designation is that the Missisquoi flows north into Quebec for fifteen miles and then turns back south into Vermont in the town of Richford. Already our Canadian friends have asked about what kind of possible joint venture this wild & scenic designation sets up between our two countries. In an era of growing fear and loathing along our borders, leave it to a great river to calm troubled waters. As the river changes its flow with each new spring, so too must we change to keep it clean and healthy. We are not fighting change here, only trying to channel it in a direction that benefits the river and the living beings along its banks. It may not happen in my lifetime, but by my children’s time a glass of clean water will become far more valuable than a barrel of crude oil. Please help us leave our children those healthy waters.

 

The Colorado River Initiative connects river recreationalists to some of the more off-the-beaten-path sections of the Upper Colorado by developing new river access points and connecting existing public lands through land acquisition and conservation easements. Since 2011, six new parcels have been acquired in underutilized reaches of the Upper Colorado as a part of this effort.

Eagle County is fortunate to have two beautiful rivers flowing through its boundaries, which are assets for recreation, tourism and community health. The Eagle River Blue Trail, comprised of the Eagle and Upper Colorado Rivers is building on attitudes favoring conservation and protection of these natural community assets. The Blue Trail works to connect a number of existing initiatives on both the Eagle and the Upper Colorado together to form a strong, connected river corridor system for locals and tourists to enjoy.

The keys to the success of the Colorado River Initiative are an organized and focused Open Space Program and strong partnerships with local entities.  Thank you to Eagle County Open Space, Eagle Valley Land Trust, Eagle River Watershed Council, Bureau of Land Management, The Conservation Fund, Great Outdoors Colorado, and Colorado Parks and Wildlife for working seamlessly to protect the river corridors that help make Eagle County a special place to live and play.  American Rivers is excited to be a part of this great group as we embark together on the Eagle River Blue Trail.

Would you like to learn more about the great river access available to us through Eagle County Open Space?  Check out the Colorado River Recreation Opportunities Map or the Eagle County Open Space Website for more information.  How have you been enjoying the new recreation opportunities along the Eagle and upper Colorado Rivers? Let us know in the community forum!

If it can be said that it takes a village to raise a child – meaning that it takes more than just the parents to develop a young person into a happy and productive adult – the same could be said for protecting our natural environments. It takes more than just one organization or one community to protect our open spaces and river environments – it requires a collaboration that accepts many hands.

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In the Eagle Valley in central Colorado, American Rivers has partnered with the Eagle Valley Land Trust to expand and protect key open space lands along the Eagle and Upper Colorado Rivers. One of our valued partners in that effort is Matt Stern, the Land Stewardship Specialist at the Eagle Valley Land Trust. We recently were lucky enough to grab a few minutes of Matt’s time to learn a little more about the Eagle Valley Land Trust (EVLT) and the great work they do to protect rivers and open space in Eagle County.

Matt, thanks for taking the time to talk with us and thank you for your involvement in protecting the Eagle River corridor. I wonder about your background – did you spend a lot of time outside as a kid? What drew you to the work that you now do for the Eagle Valley Land Trust?

I grew up exploring western open lands and rivers in the West with my family. We were always looking for a new river to fish, a lake to paddle, or a mountain to climb. This enjoyment of wild places, coupled with a degree in Environmental Studies from Montana State University, inspired me to pursue a career in protecting rivers, agricultural lands, and open spaces.

That sounds like a great way to grow up! I can see how that would shape your interest in conservation. What do you do for EVLT and how does that fit into the conservation landscape of Eagle County?

Over 7,000 acres of open space in Eagle County has been preserved in perpetuity by the Eagle Valley Land Trust (EVLT) and its many partners. The Eagle Valley Land Trust itself currently has four properties under easement, protecting around 600 acres adjacent to the Eagle River. In total, we are protecting nearly 4 miles of the Eagle River corridor, ensuring that the Eagle will continue to welcome access for recreation, while supporting habitat for beavers, river otters, bald eagles and a local winter elk herd.

These places are what define our community, our economy, and our way of life.

Long-term protection of conserved land into the future is central to the mission of any land trust, and with each conservation project success there comes a permanent responsibility for preservation of those lands. One of the most beautiful and challenging aspects of land conservation is that the land is constantly in motion, changing with the seasons and the years, ever evolving. New noxious weeds sprout up, fencing deteriorates, floods change the course of rivers and streams, animals inhabit new areas, and social trails develop. It is a constant process and EVLT helps landowners address these complex problems to preserve their property. My position provides a toolkit of information and guidance for landowners in the face of these ever-changing conditions.

I know river recreation is very popular in Eagle County – how have you used recreation as a tool to build support for your conservation work?

Public access to our rivers and streams is a priority for our community.  EVLT’s work supports recreation on public lands, particularly those owned by towns and Counties. Because the public can recreate on places like the Eagle River Preserve or Miller Ranch Open Space parcels, they support our conservation work. Our active, outdoor lifestyle in Eagle County and the Central Rocky Mountains revolves as much around our waterways as it does around our mountains.  The Eagle River is a hub of activity for our residents and guests, and the river serves as a prime economic driver for our local outdoor recreation and tourism-based economy.  Whether your passion is fly fishing, paddle-boarding, boating, rafting, kayaking, tubing, berry picking, bird watching, or simply enjoying a leisurely stroll while listening to the sounds of rushing water, there are some wonderful stretches of land and hidden gems that have been protected forever along the Eagle River. It is vitally important that we continue to protect and preserve access to our Eagle River for people – for ourselves, our future generations and our economic well-being.

I imagine that protecting a lot of these parcels takes coordination among many different stakeholders. How do you work with your community and elected officials to engage them in recreation and conservation initiatives?

Several marquee conservation projects led by The Eagle Valley Land Trust, in partnership with Eagle County’s Open Space Department, local municipalities, and our philanthropic investors, have preserved important lands along the Eagle River for the benefit, education and enjoyment of our locals and guests.  EVLT and our conservation partners are excited about our positive and successful work to save the natural spaces and special places that provide public access to our rivers, creeks and streams.

Although Eagle County’s current leaders also care about permanently conserving important land to benefit the public, the Land Trust has no formal relationship with the County. The County and the Land Trust occasionally come together to collaborate on conservation projects in a couple of ways.When the County uses its dedicated open space funds to purchase land for conservation, the County may seek out a contract with EVLT in the same way that we may contract with a private property owner, because that contract ensures the land will be conserved in perpetuity.

How do you work with private landowners to protect parcels of land?

One of the ways a conservation project can come to our attention is when a property owner approaches the land trust with area parcel of land they are interested in protecting with a conservation easement, and an assessment is made about the conservation values that exist on that land.  “Conservation values” has a specific legal meaning defined by the IRS and falls into four categories:

• Recreation
• Habitat
• Open Space
• Historic Preservation

The Land Trust evaluates every project a landowner may bring to us using these four criteria.  If we find significant conservation values do exist and determine they are compelling to protect and preserve for our community, we will begin working with the landowner to apply protections to that land. We work with some landowners who may want to provide public access, and other landowners who don’t – either is okay.

EVLT has a number of privately-owned parcels along the Eagle River, including The Miller Ranch Community Open Space, which provides public access on 32-acres and over a mile (that’s more than 17 football fields!) of river frontage along the Eagle just east of Edwards.  Additionally, the Eagle River Preserve is a 72-acre open space oasis in the heart of Edwards which boasts over a half-mile of public river access for our community.

In some cases, EVLT has helped landowners preserve their private ranches and farms, for the purpose of helping produce more local food. The results of this approach is that the community’s food is grown closer to home, is fresher and requires less energy to produce, and is holistically more sustainable.  Preserving these farms also reduces water demands, increasing opportunity for our rafting and fishing experiences, while diversifying our local economy by retaining these sectors as population grows and development pressure increases.  By protecting private land, EVLT and the community can continue to preserve its roots in ranching and other important local history into the future.

For those who have travelled in Colorado along Highway 24 to and from Leadville, the wetlands habitats to the west of the highway (a few miles north of Leadville and just north of the old closed down gas station) are areas that will forever be protected.Is there a specific project that EVLT has worked on that highlights all the key components of furthering conservation and recreation goals?

The Taylor City Conservation Easement represents two different conservation values rolled into one.  First, Taylor City represents a 19^th century mining town that was part of the historic mining and railroad past of Colorado.  This storied past is gone now and in Taylor City, as in other forgotten towns of Colorado, there are only a few foundations, relics and mining pits to remind us of what once were the “boom towns” that brought to our state many of the residents who helped create the Colorado we know today.  Second, this conservation easement protects over 30 acres of land that includes the headwaters of the Eagle River and associated wetlands. The total acreage protected by the Taylor City Conservation Easement is 62 acres was conserved in 2003 through a collaborative effort of the Eagle Valley Land Trust and the Eagle River Watershed Council.  Funding was obtained through Great Outdoors Colorado, Natural Resource Damage Funds and private funders.

The Taylor City conservation easement land is best described by its owner, Marjorie Westermann, who said:

I have lived on Tennessee Pass since 1978. I now have the opportunity to fulfill a dream by placing the entirety of Taylor Hill Placer under a conservation easement. I asked the Eagle Valley Land Trust to spearhead this preservation. The wetlands are a riparian paradise – home to busy beaver, muskrat, pine marten, ermine, mink and a host of birds including mallards, green-winged teal, lesser scaup, red-tail hawk, ptarmigan and owl. Until the ponds are snow-covered and frozen, brook trout look like a hailstorm at day’s end, catching bugs until dark when the bats take over. German brown trout swim gracefully in the ever-changing channels and chest-deep holes of pure streams. This is a watery landscape and feeding ground for elk and deer, where black bears are occasional visitors but still enjoy a drink. Coyotes howl from the abandoned railroad tracks across the meadow and fox are often seen playing, catching mice or looking in our windows.

Taylor City is one of several conservation areas held by the Land Trust that is under private ownership.  While it is not accessible to the public with physical access to the property, as the headwaters to the Eagle River, it provides an incredible incubation environment for the river.  It also helps provide the scenic panoramas and “visual access” that we all value so highly in Eagle County.  Taylor City is an in-holding in the National Forest, and as a conservation easement, will remain preserved as an asset to the surrounding National Forest property in perpetuity.

There are nearly 1,700 land trusts nationwide doing exactly what we are doing. Over the decades, these land trusts have preserved over 50 million acres nationwide, an area about the size of Nebraska. By working together, groups like the EVLT and American Rivers have been successful at preserving open space, our heritage legacy, and clean water for wildlife, recreation, agriculture, and communities for future generations.

Thank you, Matt for taking the time to chat about the great work you are doing for the Eagle River – one of my favorite tributaries of the Colorado.

Do you have other questions to ask Matt? Interact with us on the community forum and get your questions asked there!

Picture a tranquil dirt road through the forest, sloping downhill until it crosses a dry stream bed and winds away through the trees on the other side. There’s a good chance that the next time it rains, that road won’t be quite so peaceful.

In forested landscapes like the Sierra Nevada Mountains, sediment pollution from roads (especially dirt roads) is a widespread issue with huge impacts on our waterways.

Roads remove the vegetation that normally holds soil in place, and roads also intercept and concentrate water as it flows downhill; both make it easy for water to carry soil from a road to a nearby stream. Enough sediment-laden runoff can alter streams, harm fish and other aquatic animals, and impact the quality of water that people rely on.

Fortunately, well-designed roads minimize the damage by spreading the water out frequently and catching sediment before it gets to a waterway.

The U.S. Forest Service recognizes this, and is in the process of repairing or shutting down the roads with the worst impacts throughout our national forests. American Rivers is partnering with Tahoe National Forest in California to survey roads for signs of erosion this spring, and to identify where to focus resources to solve this problem. Doing so will protect the headwaters of the Yuba, Bear, and American Rivers, which flow out of Tahoe National Forest.

Rivers are more than running water. They’re an accumulation of everything that happens in their watersheds. In order to truly protect rivers, no matter where they are, we need to look past their banks and care for the landscape that surrounds them.

Western Montanans are lucky enough to live amongst truly wild places: valleys created by free-flowing rivers, seas of peaks reaching for the sky, and largely intact habitats that are filled with all of species that were present at the time of European contact. The Rocky Mountain Front – that dramatic geography where the mountains and rivers of the Northern Rockies meet the Great Plains – is one of those places. But until recently, it was a largely unprotected landscape.

The Front harkens back to a different era. Working ranches still dominate the landscape. Wildlife and culture regularly mix in and around the few communities spread along Highway 89/287 as it threads its way north through the prairie. Looking west, jagged, limestone “reefs” rise up from the plains. These walls of rock are incised in regular intervals by canyons containing gin clear water from last winter’s snows.

Numerous trails follow these canyons west into the interior worlds of the Bob Marshall Wilderness complex, worlds inhabited by grizzly bears, huckleberries, and elk living in mountain meadows and verdant thickets, along the sides of rushing rivers that are framed by imposing, snowcapped peaks. Those fortunate to experience the Rocky Mountain Front from either the plains or the mountains cannot help but be moved by it.

When I first moved to Montana 8 years ago and began exploring the Front I thought of it mostly as a backpacker’s paradise. Some years later however,

I bought a packraft, a single-person, 5-pound, packable whitewater raft that begs to be used for exploration. All of a sudden the streams of the Rocky Mountain Front morphed into premier paddling destinations as well.

And what glorious streams they are! Birch Creek, Deep Creek, the Dearborn River, the Forks of the Sun River, the Teton River…. gorgeous, wild, headwaters streams running through a patchwork of federal lands, many with outstanding wilderness characteristics.

For nearly a decade, a coalition of landowners and conservation groups has been working to protect this landscape, hammering out a collaborative solution called the Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act. On December 19, 2014, President Obama signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which just so happened to carry with it a number of natural resources bills that had been waiting for their day in the sun, one of those being the Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act.

While the NDAA sparked considerable controversy in both form and substance – some disagreed with the compromises made and questioned the appropriateness of adding natural resource bills to a must-pass defense bill – the Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act (along with the North Fork Watershed Protection Act) is a clear win.

The Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act protected 275,272 acres along the Front, adding 67,160 acres of Wilderness to the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex and designating another 208,112 acres as a “Conservation Management Area” that aims to protect the front as it is while allowing existing uses. The last time Congress designated a wilderness area in Montana was over 30 years ago in 1983, when it designated the Lee Metcalf Wilderness.

Please join me in celebrating the passage of the Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act. Cheers to the people who worked together to make it happen! In this era of hyper-partisan politics it is inspiring to see concerned citizens from multiple political persuasions working together to protect a place that they love.

Governor Hickenlooper recently received the initial draft of the Colorado Water Plan.  This “plan” has been in the making since the drought year of 2002, and it’s not over yet.  Work on the Plan, including public input, will continue through the coming year, with the Final version due to the Governor in December 2015.

The Colorado Water Plan in many ways is indeed historic.  Water planning and development has traditionally been based upon the needs of individual water rights and utilities.  The Water Court and State Engineer act as judge and referee, but the process has always been on more of a piecemeal basis, rather than following a guiding principle.  This is the first time that Colorado has attempted a cohesive and comprehensive approach to planning for future water needs on a statewide basis, taking into account the array of conflicting priorities encompassed under a single strategy.

So why do this now?

The answer, is growth – we are rapidly outgrowing our supply of water.  To many Coloradoans, this may come as a surprise – water flows thoughtlessly from our faucets, irrigated farms fill the valleys and plains with a lush carpet of green, and sprinkled lawns and parks grace many of our communities.  But streams gushing from melting mountain snows struggle to fill both rivers and reservoirs every year.  This perceived plenty is often interrupted by periodic drought, noticed when watering restrictions are imposed, and the public is alerted to a simmering problem by a frenzied media.  The time of shortage is quickly forgotten with the next heavy snowpack and a return to “normal”.

But the well-watered world we have engineered is not “normal.”  Colorado is an arid state, where water has always been a scarce and often contentious resource.  Despite our best efforts, Colorado has yet to become like Ohio and that isn’t likely to change with the new Colorado Water Plan.  In fact, the available supply of water for growing demands is projected to decline.

The result is what is called the “Gap”, the difference between the water we think we’ll need in the future and the water available to satisfy those needs.  Filling this gap, finding water for a population expected to double by 2060, is the primary goal of the Colorado Water Plan.

The Governor has directed that the Plan must provide for several core values.  These include vibrant and sustainable cities, viable and productive agriculture, a robust recreation and tourism industry, smart land use, and a strong environment, including healthy watersheds, rivers and streams, and wildlife.

Many projects that might supply water for these core values are listed in the Plan.  Hundreds of water storage, supply and other projects have been cataloged.  Among them are many potential conservation efforts that could help restore and protect rivers and watersheds around the state.

But many of the proposed projects could end up doing more harm than good.  Newly proposed trans-mountain diversions would drain even more water from the already heavily tapped and degraded Colorado River.  New dams and diversions may have a place in filling the “gap”, but the truth is that there is only so much water – we can’t create more.  What will these new reservoirs be filled with?  It could be argued that every drop of water from the continental divide to the Utah border has already been spoken for – so now what do we do?

Colorado’s future water supply won’t come by simply draining more rivers to a breaking point.  It must come from greater conservation, efficiency and re-use of the limited water supply we have.  The Colorado Water Plan should devote far more space to this effort, rather than from fanciful pipedreams of imagined new water from the Colorado River system.

We also have to recognize that growth, the catalyst for the Plan, must be dealt with.  Colorado’s population has doubled every 40 years or so through the last century.  The Colorado Water Plan hopes to provide water for a population double what we have today; 10 million, by 2060.  It is reasonable to expect that our population will double again before this century is out, with 20 million Coloradoans by 2100.  Where is the water going to come from for these new, unaccounted for millions of thirsty mouths?

And keep in mind that Colorado is not alone in this dependence – the cities of the lower Colorado River Basin states, including Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Diego, will be growing as well and at a similar rate. Regionally, the situation is difficult to solve, at best.

It’s time we take a hard look at the reality of water and growth in Colorado.  If we really want to plan, and supply water for each of the Governor’s stated core values, we must reexamine more than just how we traditionally secure water – more diversions, engineered rivers, and reservoirs will not increase the state’s basic supply.  We need to think very differently, and more creatively, than the current Plan envisions – that could make the Colorado Water Plan truly historic.

Both visitors and local users of the Waccamaw River Blue Trail have the opportunity to further explore and appreciate the great resources that are available to them. . Here is a quick highlight of some of our greatest successes along the Waccamaw River:

•  The Waccamaw River Blue Trail, which is supported by a diverse group of partners from both North and South Carolina has been expanded to include the complete river, beginning near Lake Waccamaw, meandering through the Waccamaw River Heritage Preserve, City of Conway, and Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge before merging with the Intracoastal Waterway and ends at Winyah Bay near Georgetown. This fall, American Rivers and our partners released a new Waccamaw River Blue Trail map that helps users navigate the river and its sites and interests.
• The Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge, through a strong community partnership, was able to conserve approximately 2000 acres with a $2.5 million grant from the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
• The Waccamaw River Blue Trail has made enormous strides in protection with help from the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust who purchased 670 acres of bottomland hardwoods and cypress-gum swamp along the Waccamaw River just south of Lake Waccamaw State Park in North Carolina. This land conservation acquisition serves to protect the water quality, environmental health, diverse fish and wildlife, and the outstanding recreation opportunities on the Waccamaw.

The new year is shaping up to be even better than the last as regional partners are working hard on pursuing conservation and protection opportunities along the Waccamaw, especially those that emphasize connectivity and promote recreation. The City of Conway has also become a supportive partner of efforts with Mayor Alys Lawson acknowledging that “We know that our environment is really one of the things that sets the City of Conway apart, and it has for generations.”

There are several opportunities for eco-tourism in the area and many are recognizing that natural amenities are a not only of value to the community, but also serve as a draw to Myrtle Beach visitors that may be looking for a change of pace from those salty, sandy beach days. As these pictures of a Waccamaw River winter sunset show, there is definitely a show worth coming for.

The Waccamaw River Blue Trail not only works to improve recreational opportunities as well as supporting the local economy, but it also helps to educate citizens, local governments, and elected officials about the importance of the river as a community asset, increase community involvement in the river, and support conservation. Hopefully 2015 is a year for many celebrations on the Waccamaw. Check back often to see what announcements have been made regarding our work and plan a trip to enjoy this one of a kind river.