Hey, have you seen the Contemporary Sportsman yet? Check it out — it’s a beautiful new online fishing/hunting mag. Great articles about steelheading, wingshooting, etc. Yours truly has a column (see p. 54) in the most recent summer 2010 edition about Idaho’s Teton Canyon and the need to protect this great wild canyon and its Yellowstone cutthroats.
Yes, 
TU folks are often fishing on the weekends. But on a recent Saturday morning, Western Water Project staff and Idaho volunteers put on their running shoes as part of a TU relay team at the Teton Dam Marathon near Rexburg, Idaho. TU helped sponsor the event this year to raise awareness about a proposal to rebuild Teton Dam, which would destroy a spectacular wild canyon and native Yellowstone cutthroat trout fishery. (Here’s a video about the canyon.) All of the runners finished strong and showcased the teamwork between national staff and local volunteers that makes TU such a nimble, fleet-footed organization. In the photo (from left), that’s Jennifer Honney, Hilary Smith, and Kimberly Gillett, local Teton Valley TU volunteers; and Laura Ziemer, Melinda Kassen, and Kim Trotter of TU’s Western Water Project. Yours truly manned the TU educational booth at the finish line, where I burned untold calories handing out information and talking about the Teton Canyon and its endangered resources.  All in all, a fun day and event.  TU sent a clear message: We will go the distance to protect Teton Canyon. Go Team TU!
At a recent TU staff retreat in Utah, we got a tour of an exciting restoration project on Fish Haven Creek, a tributary of Bear Lake on the Idaho/Utah border. TU biologist Kirk Dahle and project parters have been working to boost spawning habitat for native Bonneville cutthroat trout, including replacing an old culvert barrier on a lower stretch of the creek with a fish-friendly structure. These and other improvements will allow the Bonnevilles–some of them bruisers of 6 to 8 pounds! (see pic)– to reach spawning habitat upstream for the first time in 60 years. Very cool. Read a recent article in Salt Lake Tribune about the project.
This is great news: after months of behind-the-scenes talks with Trout Unlimited and other groups, the state of Idaho and Bureau of Reclamation have decided to broaden the study of rebuilding Teton Dam to also include water solutions such as conservation and aquifer recharge. These cost-effective alternatives to the dam would have the added benefit of protecting the wild Teton River canyon, a stronghold for Yellowstone cutthroat trout. It’s an encouraging sign that a new model of water planning is emerging in the water-stressed West — one based on collaborative planning and a respect for diverse needs, including the health of rivers and streams.
Here’s an article in John Deere’s Furrow magazine (see “Common Ground”) about how TU’s Western Water Project has helped end the “water wars” between sportsmen and ranchers in the parched Jefferson River basin in Montana. In the past decade, severe drought and irrigation have drained the river at times and decimated trout populations, creating tension between ranchers and anglers. But TU forged relationships with irrigators and enlisted their help on several restoration projects and a dam upgrade that will deliver more water for struggling rainbow and brown trout populations–and maybe even return the Jefferson to its glory days as a destination fishery. More proof that, working together, sportsmen and the ag community can often find common ground on conservation issues.
Check out this cool video from TU’s Denver Chapter, which has undertaken an ambitious project to restore the S. Platte River in the Denver metro area and boost its trout population. If we want kids to reconnect with nature, and provide more angling opportunities for an increasingly urban population, we need to restore and reconnect our rivers and streams close to home. This is a good example of the kind of exciting, innovative projects that TU chapters are pursuing on the ground.
Here’s an in-depth article about a new study on future water availability in the Colorado River basin.  Many experts believe that, due to climate change, the Colorado basin in coming decades will be hotter and probably drier, at least during late summer months when water is most needed. The data suggests that managing water supplies to meet diverse needs, from agriculture to fisheries, will become more complicated. As Trout Unlimited’s Drew Peternell recently wrote, we’re entering a new era of water limits that will require innovative, collaborative new approaches–not business as usual.
 
At a time when the state of Idaho is studying a proposal to rebuild Teton Dam and destroy the beautiful Teton Canyon, the Bureau of Land Management is studying a proposal to protect the canyon as a Wild and Scenic river.
This is a no-brainer for anyone who cares about wild places and wild trout. Take action today: Write the BLM and let them know you want this rugged, spectacular canyon protected for future generations.
Developer Aaron Million wants to build a 560-mile pipeline to deliver Colorado River basin water from the Flaming Gorge of Utah to the Front Range–but with some studies estimating the Colorado River nearly tapped out, will there be any extra water to take? “That’s the center of our concern,” says Chris Treese of the Colorado River Water Conservation District. “How do we develop whatever’s left, or do we rush headlong into pursuing and approving very large projects that race us off the edge of the cliff before we know how close we are with regard to the Colorado River Compact? You don’t want to ever be in a deficit position. The Million project is perhaps taking us over the edge of that cliff.”
With Idaho facing serious budget shortfalls, Idaho Statesman reporter Rocky Barker asks the question that TU has been asking for some time: Why is Idaho planning to spend $400,000 on a study of rebuilding a dam that few people think is economically, environmentally or politically viable? Check out his blog. And be sure to see the TU video about saving Teton Canyon’s spectacular natural resources from this boondoggle.