From The Valley Courier (Ruth Heide):
Putting more water in the Rio Grande and Conejos Rivers in the wintertime benefits more than the fish, Trout Unlimited’s Kevin Terry told water leaders during the Rio Grande Roundtable’s meeting this week in Alamosa.
Terry works for the national Trout Unlimited Western Water and Habitat Program.
“We look for opportunities to find environmental flow solutions that coincide with agricultural purposes,” he explained. “We are looking for partnerships with agricultural water users.”
When Trout Unlimited (TU) hired Terry in 2013, one of his directives was to increase winter flows on the Conejos River.
Having grown up close to the Conejos River, Terry was familiar with the river but not with all of the water sources that fed into it and the regulations that governed them.
“I wanted to understand the history and constraints of the watershed,” he said. He said he gained a wealth of information from Conejos Water Conservancy District Manager Nathan Coombs.
In 2014 Terry began the Conejos Winter Flow Program to provide more water for the fish in the river, which in turn would provide better fishing for anglers and more tourism for the area.
“There’s a lot of people interested in coming here to fish, bring some money, drop it off and go home,” he said.
“Twenty-two inch rainbow trout need water,” Terry said.
He explained he was particularly interested in increasing winter flows below Platoro Reservoir in the 15-mile stretch between Platoro and the south fork of the Conejos where the high altitude and long winter create icy conditions forcing fish populations to congregate where they can find winter habitat. When the population is too dense, it stresses the fish and increases mortality rates, Terry explained.
Finding more water in the wintertime would bolster the fish population, “because we have close to gold medal quality fisheries in the upper Conejos,” Terry said.
The Conejos Winter Flow Program’s target was 3 cubic feet per second (cfs) during the five non-irrigation months, which would be a 42-percent increase in water through the system.
“You don’t always have to hit the target,” he said. “There’s times you go beyond that 3 cfs and times we don’t have enough.”
This is a totally voluntary program, he added. There are no long legal documents to sign, he said. Willing partners participate as they are able and water is available.
Terry commended entities such as Colorado Parks & Wildlife who have worked with TU to contribute water to the river during the winter and the Colorado Division of Water Resources for making sure everything is accomplished within the rules. Other great partners have been the Conejos Water Conservancy District, SLV Water Conservancy District, Rio Grande Water Conservation District, SLV Irrigation District and Rio Grande Water Users, he said.
“We are increasing the flows for consumptive and nonconsumptive purposes,” Terry said.
He said the water is not just for environmental purposes, but a lot of it is used again for other purposes in the basin.
In addition, efforts on the Rio Grande help the Conejos and vice versa, he said. A project on the Rio Grande ties into the Conejos Winter Flow Program.
“We are looking at water transfers with double duty flow benefits,” he said.
For example, ramping down storage water deliveries more gradually resulted in the Rio Grande still being “floatable” over the Fourth of July holiday when visitors were in Creede and other areas along the Rio Grande wanting to spend time and money.
“We have set a target to keep boats floatable especially during that weekend,” Terry said.
Entities worked together to make that happen, which resulted in the same water producing multiple benefits, Terry added.
“We just want to make the water work harder for us,” he said.