A Government Of The People – For The Trout

Reader Contribution by Bruce Mcelmurray
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Government is not always recognized for its efficiency or working properly but when it does readers should be made aware of it.   Not many of us  have very much direct interaction with government but  there are times when we may need assistance from those in authority. Most shy away from even contacting any government agency; however I recently ran into such a situation where I contacted government officials and the result was encouraging. So let me tell you about my experience and maybe you will be encouraged to become more involved if you encounter a similar situation. I was dealing with state agencies but local branch offices which facilitated their involvement since they too are members of the local community.  

We have a beautiful sparkling creek that runs through our community which has native Rio Grande Cutthroat trout that are all but extinct every where except for a couple streams in our general area  This species of trout have been studied by the Department of Wildlife (DOW) for decades.  They study water quality, habitat and maintain data on fish populations.  Our Landowners Association (LOA) decided they wanted to siphon the water from the stream to use on our dirt roads and have water available for potential wildfires. Therefore they inserted a 2000 gallon cistern adjacent to the stream and diverted water from the stream into the cistern. In order to fill the cistern they had to raise the level of the stream which was accomplished with large amounts of rock which literally cut the stream in half.  (See photo) This  prohibited this surviving species of rare fish from swimming up and down the stream with the rock barricade blocking their pathway. 

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