Fwd: The poisoning of Long Draw Reservoir
Lorenda Volker
 | Lorenda Volker County Manager |
Commissioners' Office 200 W Oak St, Fort Collins, 80522 | 2nd Floor |
From: Charles Gindler <scr...@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Jul 16, 2024 at 9:43 AM
Subject: The poisoning of Long Draw Reservoir
To: <bo...@larimer.org>
Dear Commissioners,
This is a request that your office intercede to stop Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) and the U.S. Forest Service (UFSF) plans to poison tens of thousands of Colorado River Cutthroat Trout in Long Draw Reservoir. This is slated to occur later this year or next year. Long Draw Reservoir provides some of the best fishing in the Rocky Mountains. The Colorado River Cutthroats there are very large, very fat, very healthy and very plentiful. These native trout are endemic to waters less than one mile from Long Draw Reservoir, but will be killed and replaced with Greenback Cutthroat Trout as part of the Poudre River Headwaters Project (PHP). For the replacement Greenbacks, if they survive, to reach that same size and numbers is doubtful and would take many years.
The PHP is a joint partnership of Water Supply and Storage Company, Trout Unlimited, US Forest Service, Rocky Mountain National Park, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and Colorado State University. I am not opposed to the reintroduction of Greenback trout that are native to streams east of the Continental Divide. I have participated in a similar, but smaller, project on Larimer County’s Red Mountain Open Space. Nor do I oppose the PHP reintroduction of Greenbacks in the 40 miles of streams below Long Draw Reservoir. But killing the Colorado River Cutthroats in Long Draw Reservoir simply because they are just a mile outside their native range on the headwaters of the Colorado River seems ridiculous, cruel and unnecessary. Long Draw Reservoir is not an integral part of this project.
Long Draw Reservoir is nine miles south of Chambers Lake off Highway 14, Poudre Canyon Road. It is about two miles long, and its west end is a mile from the Continental Divide at La Poudre Pass. There is developed and dispersed camping nearby. I have camped and fished from northern British Columbia to southern New Mexico, and I have never seen a more beautiful place to camp or had better fishing than Long Draw.
When I asked a representative of Colorado Parks and Wildlife how they would dispose of tens of thousands of poisoned Colorado River Cutthroats there, he said they didn’t know. The vision of the banks and waters of Long Draw Reservoir covered with bloated, stinking dead fish is disturbing.
This plan has been in the works for a long time with very little public outreach. I am very connected with local natural resource management and I have been fishing at Long Draw for decades, and neither myself or my fishing friends had heard about this plan until recently.
So please consider taking action to protect this unique public resource. Thank you.
Respectfully,
Charles M. Gindler
CC:
Senator John Hickenlooper
Senator Micheal Bennet
Congressman Joe Negus
State Senator Janice Marchman
State Representative Judy Anabile
Larimer County Commissione