Friends and Colleagues:
   
In September, TU's Colorado Water Project won a monumental legal victory over a short-sighted U.S. Department of Interior plan, which would have decimated the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and its world-famous trout fishery. 

In 2003, the Department of Interior and the State of Colorado reached an agreement regarding seasonal stream flows in the Black Canyon.  This agreement allowed Interior to waive the federal government's right to claim seasonal water flows.  This decision flew in the face of Interior's own science, which clearly demonstrated that these flows are critical to the Park's trout fishery and other natural resources. 
 
TU and several of its conservation partners challenged the agreement in federal court, arguing, among other things, that it constituted a violation of Interior's obligation to preserve the natural resources of the Black Canyon National Park.  The court sided with the plaintiffs, ruling that the agreement would impair the environment of the Black Canyon and that Interior's decision was an "abuse of discretion" and "nonsensical."  In an editorial (linked below), The New York Times noted that the agreement would have left nothing but "dramatic cliffs with a dying river between."
The court's ruling sets TU on the path toward permanent protection of stream flows in the Black Canyon and may prove to be a valuable precedent as TU's Western Water Project works to protect flows in rivers and streams across the region - and the trout and salmon that depend on them.   

Drew Peternell, Director
Trout Unlimited Colorado Water Project