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Ask Your Senator to Support SB23-270 for Stream Restoration in Colorado

Healthy, functioning river corridors for fish and people need your help now.

Healthy rivers and watersheds provide broad-based benefits to all Coloradans – providing habitat for fish and wildlife; supporting our State’s robust recreation economy; improving wildfire resilience, drought mitigation, and flood safety; and promoting water quality for all those who rely on it from fish to farms to cities and towns statewide. But over the last 200 years, more than half of Colorado’s 105,000 stream miles and river corridors have been significantly degraded.

The Colorado legislature is currently considering SB23-270: Projects to Restore Natural Stream Systems, a bill that clarifies where stream restoration could occur without water right enforcement actions. The bill provides a solution to the lack of clarity and consistency across the state on the question of how stream restoration may impact water rights and hence may or may not need administration. With the bipartisan infrastructure law offering major federal funding in the coming years, the bill also positions Colorado for once-in-a-generation opportunity to support watershed and river health through those federal dollars.

As a Trout Unlimited constituent, you know the value of these projects. From the successful restoration work at Fraser Flats, to the Hidden Mile project on the Conejos, TU and our partners have a long history of collaborative stream restoration work. Unfortunately, new and inconsistent interpretations of Colorado water law vis a vis stream restoration are now putting these kinds of projects at risk and forcing new restoration projects to be shelved until the issue is resolved and SB23-270 is passed.

Without strong stream restoration support, Colorado’s trout, rivers, and people will face an uncertain future with unacceptable consequences. You can help by asking your Senator to support passage of SB23-270, enabling stream restoration projects to continue in Colorado and provide broad benefits to our environment and communities.

Please take a moment today to ask your Senator to support SB23-270 and continue stream restoration for Colorado.

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Colorado State Senate

Subject: Please support SB23-270: Projects to Restore Natural Stream Systems

Message:

As your constituent, I write today to strongly ask your support of SB23-270: Projects to Restore Natural Stream Systems. Healthy streams and riparian areas provide important benefits that all Coloradans depend upon, including maintaining water quality, supporting fish and wildlife, and improving resilience to drought, fire and floods. From local governments to nonprofit watershed restoration groups, Coloradans for years have stepped up to conduct stream restoration projects and create these shared benefits – but emerging inconsistencies in the state’s approach to stream restoration and water rights now could endanger existing projects and place new efforts out of reach.

This bill is central to enabling us to restore our watersheds, streams, and rivers; and allows Colorado to capitalize on the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to receive funding now from the federal government so that we can have healthy streams and rivers for decades to come. If we wait, we risk losing access to hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding, as well as $45M in state funding for watershed restoration efforts that can increase our state’s resilience to drought and wildfire.

The legislation before you now creates pathways for Coloradans and their communities to restore healthy river systems and improve community water security while incorporating sidebars providing certainty to water users. Stream restoration projects, like the type that SB23-270 would support, have already proven to be successful by engaging diverse stakeholders and thoughtfully respecting water rights while benefiting Colorado communities throughout the state.

Stream restoration can help protect fishery resources and the local recreation economies they support. Further, this legislation is critical if we are to prepare Colorado for more extreme weather events; protect against wildfire and drought impacts; ensure the resilience and health of our rivers and streams; and give our communities the resources they need to exist in a hotter, drier future.

Please support SB23-270 and enable stream restoration to continue to benefit Colorado's future.

Ask Your Senator to Support SB23-270 for Stream Restoration in Colorado

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Thank you for lending your voice to support stream restoration in Colorado.