Utah Water Guardians

Utah Water Guardians is sponsored by the communities of Boulder and Escalante, Utah.  We stand for protecting water for its own sake. We see water not just as a resource but as life giving presence. Currently we are working to protect the watershed of East Fork Boulder Creek which has been treated with Rotenone in the past. Our goal is to work with UDWR and USFS to use NON-POISON ALTERNATIVES to aid in the reintroduction of Colorado Cutthroat.

The Utah Water Guardians website provides the history of the Reintroduction of Colorado River Cutthroat Trout on East Fork Boulder Creek (Boulder, Utah) project with current updates, a library of independent scientific studies on public health, ecological, and legal implications of the dangers of Rotenone use as a piscicide, plus letters written by community members opposing Rotenone use in the area.

UDWR/USFS poisoned the East Fork Boulder Creek without notification to local residents in the Fall of 2009 as a means to reintroduce native Cutthroat trout. They used a picscide containing Rotenone. Residents hiking in the area discovered this two days later when happening upon hundreds of dead fish in the water at a creek crossing. In contacting UDWR and meeting with them, Boulder residents found the situation unworkable. With the help of Montana based Alliance for the Wild Rockies, we forced the USFS into an Environmental Assessment on Rotenone use. There was a ‘Finding of No Insignificant Impact’ (on the part of the Government Agencies) so the town of Boulder and local residents appealed the process in 2011. After extensive interviews where we expressed our concerns and presented independent research of Rotenone use, USFS agent, Rob Macwhorter temporarily shutdown the project. Since then legal ramifications to poisoning with Rotenone formulations as a means to trout reintroduction have been changed at a state level, thereby bypassing a typical EA/EIS process. Most recently in 2015, the UDWR contacted the residents of Boulder to update us and work with us on the future of the East Fork of Boulder Creek.