Got me to thinking about Stewardship

Greenback cutthroats. Catch and release waters.  Fish strained with low water levels in this summer’s high temperatures.  

 

For the past couple of weeks, I have been thinking a lot about stewardship of Colorado’s natural beauty all around us.  A recent post on our Facebook page asked what you would do if you saw a person take a fish caught in catch and release waters back to his car or to his campsite.  One reader commented about the pounding some of our fish take in catch and release waters.  So that comment got me to thinking about stewardship of our fisheries.

 

Our Facebook posting came just after the news of the discovery of the Greenback Cutthroat Trout in Bear Creek.  Of course, that small area in our own backyard has received a lot of attention as concerned folks in our area try to restore Bear Creek and protect that small stream from the effects of erosion and sediment in a multi-use recreational area.  The Cheyenne Mountain Chapter of Trout Unlimited, the Rocky Mountain Field Institute, patrons of Angler’s Covey, and others in our community have all joined forces to protect this fragile area.  And that got me to thinking about stewardship.

 

This past summer, due to high water temperatures, the DOW asked fishers to be particularly cautious in handling fish and suggested that we even impose our own moratorium on fishing during the hotter parts of the day.  Particularly in the Yampa River drainage, fish were taking a beating.  That got me to thinking …

 

I am relatively new to fly fishing.  And I am hooked.  When I head to the mountains, by the time I get to Divide on the way to the Canyon I feel the week’s tensions and worries drift away.  So I got to thinking about my role, my stewardship, in protecting our waters and our fish.