Improvements Underway on the Blue River

Golden-based Ecological Resource Consultants began a four-week project Monday morning that will improve fish habitat in a section of the Blue River behind Silverthorne Town Hall and a larger portion a few miles downstream near The Ponds housing development.

“We’ll have a large excavator working in the river ... to try to make the channel a little more meandering or sinuous than it is now,” said Troy Thompson, president of the company.

The goal is to create a series of riffles, pools and glides to enhance food options, disperse angling pressures on the river, and create a wintertime refuge for trout when the water is flowing as low as 50 cubic feet per second, Thompson said.

Excavators will mechanically move the stream to create the pools and glides and will use control devices to create the fast-moving riffles, which serve as prime habitat for the aquatic insects that trout eat.

Thompson’s team will install steps to make walking down the river easier, stabilize the slope and revegetate sections of the river bank.

The fish will be displaced for the duration of the project and, while the work will put some stress on the trout, they’ll move back in upon the job’s completion, Thompson said.