A new coalition aims to re-shape the way people think about Colorado’s Gold Medal fisheries while also rally support for preserving and expanding signature waters around the state.

The coalition is “still very much a work in progress,” said Scott Willoughby, the Colorado field organizer with Trout Unlimited. But the campaign called Colorado Gold has added muscle with dozens of major business partners that include Patagonia and Fishpond, along with angling groups and towns centered around the state’s streams and lakes with the sport’s greatest distinction.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife manages some 322 river miles and three lakes with Gold Medal designations, based on those locations producing “the highest quality cold-water habitats.” The designation is reserved for fisheries producing a variety of trout 14-plus inches.

“When we talk about these Gold Medal waters, people seem to associate them with trophy trout fishing,” Willoughby said. “I think it’s time we shift that thinking from trophy trout to trophy trout habitat.”

With the sport’s growing popularity, Trout Unlimited has identified over-fishing as one threat to those habitats. Colorado Gold has a bold mission to conserve enough habitat to merit a 30% increase in Gold Medal fishing waters by 2030.

Doing this “will help safeguard more Colorado fisheries while redistributing pressure on a currently limited resource,” reads a coalition statement. Colorado Gold’s website adds: “We can’t afford to simply sit back and watch (Parks and Wildlife) do all the heavy lifting.”

One focus is around Windy Gap Reservoir near Granby, of long concern for its sediment build-up and habitat degradation. Trout Unlimited and interested parties have spent years advocating for a channel that they say will allow the Colorado River to flow and bypass the troubled reservoir, creating a smaller, adjacent body of water.

Another focus of Colorado Gold is the Blue River through Summit County. Willoughby said money is needed to further research the loss of trout that has led local guides to look beyond the county.

The 19-mile stretch north of Silverthorne was stripped of its Gold Medal title in 2016.

“We need to figure out how to bring that fishery and habitat back to the Gold standard,” said local John Land LeCoq, Fishpond’s founder and CEO, “and make sure the same thing doesn’t happen to other Gold Medal waters in Colorado.”

That will mean combating climate change, Willoughby said.

Bigger and hotter fires of recent years have been another threat to prized streams. In 2019, officials reported the 416 fire near Durango effectively killed 80% of the fish population along the Gold Medal Animas River.

Anglers have lamented lower flows around the state in recent years, Willoughby said. To assist record-low levels of Lake Powell, western Colorado’s Blue Mesa Reservoir is being steadily diverted this month and next. Boat ramps are expected to close as a result.

“Obviously, (climate change) will take federal action, as well as local action,” Willoughby said. “That’s why it’s so important that we continue to broaden this coalition.”