In 1998, Tony Kay, who was president of Colorado Trout Unlimited at the time, knew something was wrong at Windy Gap Reservoir. Aquatic life was dying at the spot where the Colorado River had been dammed.

Northern Water’s Municipal Subdistrict had created the reservoir near Granby through a diversion damn that disconnected the river. The project, completed in 1985, helps store and supply water to the Front Range — but it had unintended consequences.  

Kay partnered with Colorado Parks and Wildfire biologist Barry Nehring, who was conducting studies about whirling disease at Windy Gap. This unsettling disease had devastated the area’s rainbow trout. It also was the “seed of the project” that eventually led to the creation of the Colorado River Connectivity Channel. Today, this channel is almost fully completed.

A ribbon cutting over the river

At a recent ribbon cutting ceremony for the new connectivity channel that restores the once-broken river, Kay recounted how he, Nehring and many others collaborated to create the channel.

The ceremony took place Oct. 15. As Kay looked behind him at the restored flows of the upper Colorado River, he expressed his deep appreciation.

“This is one of the happiest days of my life to see the project come to fruition,” he told the audience.

Kay had called the first meeting in 1998 to discuss Windy Gap’s environmental impact. Staff from Northern Water, Parks and Wildlife, and Colorado Department of Natural Resources attended, along with local naturalist Bud Isaacs. In this meeting to restore the river, they knew they’d have to make a significant change.

“During our meetings, we came up with the idea that maybe if we took Windy Gap offline, we wouldn’t lose any water, and we could get this thing to work,” said Kay.

According to Kay, the initial plans were literally drawn up “on the back of a table napkin — maybe a little bit more advanced than that.” These plans were for a river bypass around the reservoir.

After this, Isaacs took the reins. He founded the Upper Colorado River Alliance and reached out to the Grand County Manager Lurline Curran for support. She eagerly joined forces with their alliance.

It took some time for the idea to get funding, but a turning point came in 2011. Nehring and other Parks and Wildlife biologists published a study about the far-reaching impacts of the reservoir. It caused sediment buildup, raised water temperatures downstream, and resulted in the loss of aquatic insect species (including the total loss of the giant stonefly), native sculpin and trout populations. 

“Their core conclusion was that we needed to build a bypass,” said Kay. “That’s the only way we could fix the river.”

Many other players stepped up in the process, including: Mely Whiting, Trout Unlimited Colorado River legal counsel; Kirk Klancke, president of the Colorado River Headwaters Chapter of Trout Unlimited; Senator Michael Bennet and others.

Now, 13 years since that influential study, the Colorado River Connectivity Channel is a reality.

Life thrives at Windy Gap

The channel’s groundbreaking occurred in July 2022. Then in fall 2023, crews released the first flows through the channel. This marked an interim trial period to ensure the channel was functioning. In fact, its success surprised those who have been studying the waters.

At the Oct. 15 ceremony, Kay said that sculpin fish are an important indicator of river health. They vanished after Windy Gap’s construction — this September, biologists observed juvenile sculpin in the channel.

“It blew my mind and blew everyone else’s as well,” Kay said. That’s not supposed to happen this soon.”

Kay feels that this is one of the most significant milestones of the connectivity chanel. Sculpin are sedentary creatures, serving as food for larger fish like trout.

“That is the measurement of success of a river project; if you’ve got sculpin in there, you’ve got a healthy river,” he said.

Trout are also making their way down the channel, traveling almost the same path they took before the reservoir was created. Grand County Commissioner Randy George was present when the first flows were released through the channel in 2023. At the ribbon cutting ceremony, he recounted the experience.

“We saw that it was designed in a way that really was going to work marvels,” George said. “In the first few minutes, we saw fish in the connectivity channel. It wasn’t hours, but minutes and they were already there.”

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As fish, invertebrates and vegetation all return to the channel over time, people will be able to return, too.

Forty million people across the country rely on the Colorado River, but Grand County residents and visitors will have a backstage pass to enjoy the channel. By 2027, the channel will be open to the public. Anglers can then access over 1 mile of public fishing access, and others can recreate beside the Colorado River made new again.