Evergreen Completes Major Project
CTU chapter reduces pollution and repairs habitat

by Hugh Gardner

The Denver area’s Bear Creek, formed on the eastern flanks of the Divide and flowing down to the South Platte, is one of the metro area’s most priceless gems: A genuinely lovely, productive, Class 1 Coldwater trout stream only 15-20 minutes from downtown with abundant public access. In good water years, 15” fish are commonly taken.

Recent years of drought, however - compounded by human abuse - have been very tough on the aquatic inhabitants of the creek. The summers of 2000 and 2002 were devastating in the eleven miles of foothills canyon water below Evergreen dam down to Morrison, with fish losses numbering in the thousands both years.
According to the EPA, CDOW, and the state Water Quality Control Division, the cause wasn’t just the drought, but also chemical and thermal pollution from Evergreen’s sewage treatment plant. Indeed, Bear Creek became a statewide poster child for a trout stream in trouble.

These losses were especially heartbreaking for the Evergreen chapter of Trout Unlimited (ETU), whose home water is the Bear Creek watershed. A twofold strategy was developed to prevent recurrences.

First, we would fight back against pollution. We figured out how to do our own scientific temperature research and prove our thermal pollution suspicions, so that we could pursue “impaired stream” status under the Clean Water Act, which would kick in special protections. Although the state Water Quality Control Commission turned us down (reversing their own staff), the EPA overruled in our favor and designated Bear Creek as an “impaired water.”

Second, we would set a positive, proactive example with a major project to reduce the plight of the fish by improving low-water habitat. ETU made a complete survey of the creek, rating different sections for potential and feasibility. At the top of the list was O’Fallon Park near Kittredge, where the stream was so badly degraded that some parts couldn’t support fish.

Spearheaded by ETU member Troy Thompson, a professional stream restoration engineer with Ecological Resource Consultants (ERC), application was made to the “Fishing is Fun” program at the Colorado Division of Wildlife, which redistributes federal taxes on tackle sales to improve local fishing opportunities.
The Bear Creek Improvement Project plan called for $183,700 to improve a 1500’ stretch of creek along the highway and entrance road at O’Fallon. $119,390 was asked of CDOW, with the remaining $64,310 in cash and services to be raised by ETU and project partners: Denver Mountain Parks (which owns the site), the watershed group Friends of Bear Creek, and The Evergreen Naturalists Audubon Society.

The project’s overall goal was to improve the park’s riparian zone by creating a more stable stream system with improved trout habitat and angling opportunities. The channel would be reshaped, new in-stream features added, and native plantings made to benefit fish, birds, and other wildlife. Specific features included five new bend pools, eight riffle pools, four habitat cover logs, channel narrowing to improve oxygenation, bank stabilization, and revegetation. Each feature addressed the key needs of trout: Silt-free riffles for healthy insect life and spawning; areas of slow, deep water for surviving both winter and summer extremes; appropriate riffle-to-pool ratios for feeding and resting; well-vegetated banks and in-stream boulders for cover and hiding places.

After a year of detailed planning and permitting, the grant award became official in the spring of 2004. Heavy construction was completed by Labor Day, just in time for the annual migration of spawning Bear Creek browns to recolonize it. The following weekend, about 35 ETU members and friends turned out to finish large-scale replantings of native riparian trees and shrubs.

With green-up last spring, planting survival rates proved very high, over 95%. Healthy insect populations have returned, and so have the trout. A special ceremony was conducted at the park last September to install a commemorative sign and honor the many contributors to this very gratifying effort.
According to ETU past president Rich Reynolds, “We’ve done stream improvement projects before, but nothing on this scale. We are committed to improving Bear Creek as our legacy project, and we’ve already started planning for the next phase.”

According to Denver Mountain Parks manager A.J. Tripp-Addison, “This is a perfect example of how partnering with community groups can make good projects happen that we simply don’t have the staff or resources to do ourselves.”
A 25-minute documentary DVD of the project will be completed by year’s end and made available, with showing rights, to any other TU or watershed group requesting it ($10 including S&H, POB 1974, Evergreen 80437).