President Barack Obama plans to designate the Browns Canyon National Monument in Colorado on Thursday. Browns Canyon is near Salida.

“This designation will provide permanent protection that is long overdue for this incredible area,” Keith Baker, Executive Director of Friends of Browns Canyon, said. “Residents and visitors to Chaffee County have always understood that Browns Canyon is a national treasure. The national monument designation is supported by hunters and anglers, businesses and conservation groups, veterans and youth groups.”

A broad cross-section of local groups and businesses have supported the national monument designation for Browns Canyon, including the Colorado and Arkansas River Outfitters Associations, Chaffee County Visitors Bureau, the Salida Business Alliance, sportsmen, youth, faith, veterans and Hispanic groups, local businesses and county commissioners. Recent polling from the Colorado College showed that 96 percent of Coloradans support the protection and conservation of natural areas. As of right now, Browns Canyon says there “will not be a charge for visitors under national monument status.”

“Browns Canyon is intricately connected to the fabric of our communities and is key to our quality of life,” Joel Benson, Mayor of Buena Vista, said. “The Browns Canyon National Monument will also boost local economic vitality via increased visitation and awareness of Buena Vista and Chaffee County. As a father and a business owner, I welcome this monument designation because it ensures that this irreplaceable location will be permanently protected for the well-being of our community, our local economy, and our children.”

Wednesday, Feb 25, 2015 at the State Capitol, Denver, Colorado

This rally aims to educate public lands users about the problems with transferring ownership of federal lands to states and the importance of public lands to sportsmen and women. Several western states have introduced bills in their legislatures to transfer federal lands to states despite its illegality, fiscal realities and just plain irresponsible nature.

January 7th; 6:30 PM – Upslope Brewery

1898 S. Flatiron Court Boulder, CO 80301, Boulder, CO

Stephanie Scott of Colorado Trout Unlimited will be joining us to discuss CTU’s recent accomplishments and ongoing/upcoming efforts.

Stephanie is the Outreach Coordinator for Colorado TU. At this role she works with the chapters throughout the state to engage TU members and their surrounding communities in conservation. She comes from the National Audubon Society where she coordinated their grassroots efforts and managed all of their conservation programs in Colorado. She graduated from Metropolitan State University of Denver with a BS in Biology with an emphasis in Zoology. During her undergraduate work she has also taken wildlife management courses in South Africa through the University of Pretoria, studied zoology and field research techniques in Australia at the University of Tasmania, and studied forest ecology in Costa Rica. For her senior research project she studied the correlation between climate change and the transmission rate of West Nile Virus in the raptor species of Colorado, and also designed a lab at her University to study mate selection behavior in Convict Cichlids; which students are still conducting research in today. She is also a certified geographic Information Systems (GIS) Analyst. Stephanie lives in Thornton with her husband Tyler and their 95lb lap dog.

Last weekend, some Boulder Flycasters journeyed to North Park and fished a number of rivers and streams in the area.  These included the North Platte, Illinois and Michigan rivers and some small stream tributaries.  The trip was provided by North Park Anglers who were very accommodating and took us to several of their great fishing areas on these rivers.  We hope to organize another trip next year!

BFC John LoPorto and Dave Clark with North Park Angler guide Joey.  Getting ready to fish!  NPA guide Drew with BFC Vince Kotsubo and Ron AndersonBFC Dan Miller and NPA guide Bob with a nice rainbow.That’s a nice fish, John! 

BFC Rob McCormack sneaks up on a fishNice Brown Rob!

BFC Chad Pettrone and NPA guide Tim show off a beautiful Brown trout.  “We had a great time” says BFC Bob Head!

On Saturday, October 11th, Boulder Flycasters hosted a clean-up of Boulder Creek.  We were greeted with wonderful weather and by 30+ eager volunteers.  We successfully cleaned-up Boulder Creek from approximately the mouth of Boulder Canyon to Barker Dam.  Countless orange colored trash bags now sit along the Canyon waiting for the Colorado Department of Transportation to pick them up (big thanks to CDOT)!

A very BIG thanks to all of the volunteers!!!  Also, as an added bonus to the day, the Boulder Fish and Game Club took the opportunity to stock some fish in the creek.  This added to the satisfaction of making Boulder Creek a fun place to visit (and fish)!  Here are a few pictures.  We look forward to seeing everyone next year.

Boulder Flycaster Marian Clark waits for the rush of eager volunteers

BFC Chad Pettrone helps with the fish stocking

Eager Volunteers!!

BFCs Greg Nelson and Mark Riley enjoying lunch after a morning’s hard work.

Christine and Sasha are happy volunteers!  Job well done!!

Boulder Flycaster’s annual creek clean-up will get underway Saturday Oct 11th at Boulder Flycasters Memorial Park approximately 2.5 miles up Boulder Canyon. The park is about 150 yards past the tunnel on your left.

We’ll meet between 8:00 and 9:15 a.m. for registration and clean-up beat assignments. Bring gloves and waders if you’d like to pull out trash from in the stream. An old rake can do wonders to help with in-stream work. We’re planning on cleaning up both the stream and along the highway from the mouth of Boulder Canyon up to Barker Dam if we have enough volunteers.

Each volunteer will be responsible for about 1/2 mile of stream and we’ll have teams of two so bring a buddy or another family member to help us!

We’ll have plenty of trash bags and safety vests provided by the county and they’ll pick up all trash we gather later on during the week.

Boulder Flycasters will provide coffee, snacks, lunch and beverages for all those who help. You can sign up right now, email: [email protected]