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DenverPost.com - Charlie Meyers <br />WEDDINGS <br />YELLOW PAGES <br />helm. <br />HOME <br />Basically, the court ruled that when sufficient water is <br />ETHICS POLICY <br />available, a reasonable part of it should be kept in the <br />streams for boaters to use. <br />SEARCH <br />The obvious consequence is that while this extra water <br />SITE SEARCH: <br />- <br />is on its way to various kayak parks around the state, it <br />also flows to the benefit of fish and fishermen. In an <br />• Erder -_,�-_archterm, <br />environment where there's seldom enough, more water <br />"i ckhr l'fs` <br />•ct[�wkt-�erefor <br />begets better trout habitat and better angling <br />a&-anced sear&i <br />opportunity. <br />Cafe.„ <br />So why haven't angling interests already used this ploy <br />to boost in- stream flows on their own? The answer, says <br />Drew Petternell, attorney for Trout Unlimited's Colorado <br />Search <br />Water Project, lies in a quirk of the law that restricts <br />RICD filings specifically to municipalities. <br />"A fishing group couldn't get a RICD water right unless a <br />municipality sponsored it," Petternell explained. A RICD <br />right also requires some form of control structure that <br />redirects water, as is the case with kayak parks. <br />Communities such as Gunnison, Golden, Breckenridge <br />and Vail already have pushed for such rights. <br />Whitewater parks also have been constructed at a dozen <br />other sites, including locations in Denver, Boulder, <br />Lyons, Longmont, Littleton, Estes Park, Steamboat <br />Springs, Silverthorne, Aspen, Buena Vista, Salida and <br />Durango, with others on the way. <br />This recreational cascade sends ripples of alarm among <br />entrenched domestic and agricultural water developers <br />who historically have had their way with water rights <br />issues. It also signals a shift in the flow of economic <br />impact reflected in a $7 billion tourism industry of which <br />$80 million is attached to whitewater sport. <br />"I've spent a lot of time talking to people, and it seems <br />to me that recreation use of water often is the highest <br />economic use," Denver outdoor activist Chris Crosby <br />said. <br />Depending upon one's point of view, recreational water <br />rights that anchor in- stream flows to Colorado's Western <br />Slope could deliver the added advantage of suppressing <br />trans - mountain diversions, thus limiting growth along <br />the Front Range. <br />This, too, ultimately works to the benefit of the greater <br />outdoor resource, serving to further balance kayakers <br />and anglers in the same symbiotic boat. <br />It also makes me glad I didn't cast that fly in anger on <br />http: / /www.denverpost.com/ Stories /0,1413,36-110- 2835954,00.htm1 <br />Page 2 of 5 <br />4/26/2005 <br />