NEWS STORY AND PHOTO OPPORTUNITY There will be an important press conference on Tuesday, May 15th, at 11 am, at the Placita Overlook, 4.2 miles south of the South Redstone Bridge and the Redstone Coke Ovens on Highway #133. Our speakers will be joined by leaders of several conservation groups to brief reporters on a major environmental announcement concerning the Crystal River. The Crystal River provides drinking water to at least 7,000 people, delights fishermen, kayakers, and sightseers, and delivers water to ranchland irrigators. However, the Crystal River is threatened with a dam and a 4,000 acre-foot reservoir between Redstone and Marble; a significant water diversion from Avalanche Creek, the largest tributary to the Crystal; and a hydropower dam and 5,000 acre-foot reservoir on Yank Creek, a tributary. Speakers will discuss opportunities to maintain river flows and to support the will of the public through permanent river protection. Announcement By: Matt Rice, Director, Colorado Conservation, American Rivers

 

The Trout Unlimited Mission Statement 
To conserve, protect, and restore North America's coldwater fisheries and their watersheds!
The Ferdinand Hayden Chapter is a local chapter of the nation's leading coldwater conservation organization, Trout Unlimited. Our chapter, Number 008, was chartered in November 1970.
Our chapter has about 300 members.  The chapter includes the I-70 corridor betwen Glenwood Springs and Rifle, Colorado and the Roaring Fork, Frying Pan, and Crystal River Valleys between Glenwood Springs and Aspen. We are one of about 20 active chapters, totaling some 9000 members, within Colorado. The state council, Colorado Trout Unlimited (CTU), is one of the few councils that maintains a full-time staff working with state resource issues.

 

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Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden

Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden, after whom our TU chapter is named, was an explorer who led one of four special surveys of the American West.  Wheeler, King, and John Wesley Powell led the others.  These surveys became the US Geological Survey and Hayden became its first director. Hayden's survey covered the whole northern mountain area of Colorado, Wyoming and Montana.  William Henry Jackson, his photographer, was the first to picture the Mount of The Holy Cross and make its fame worldwide.
 It was also around a campfire during Hayden's survey, at the headwaters of the Madison, Gallatin, Snake and Yellowstone Rivers that the idea of setting aside a part of the west from open exploitation first was brought up.  Yellowstone, the National Park system and a great deal of conservation are the results. The fight to establish Yellowstone was hard.  It was a beginning from which we all owe a debt of gratitude.  The fight to keep the idea alive isn't over.  We are the heirs of Hayden's most significant contribution.

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Thanks to Ken Krehbiel for the use of these photos

 

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