Mountain Biking: Rubber side down- Time for a TurnaroundWell, my friends, things are finally looking up, and good timing, too, since I’m sure you’re all sick of me bitching. Recent bike build, including wheels… fun! In what feels like a fairly short time, I’ve come from sitting around … Continue reading → […]
- This Raised My PulseHey, baby… wanna ride? I may be injured, but I’m not dead yet. I can still have racy thoughts. Here’s more info. In other news, UBI was an awesome success! I had a blast. I highly recommend it. Overhaul day…. … Continue reading → […]
- Time for a Turnaround
- Edgy Veggie
High temps, low water killed 263 Boulder Creek fish
A dead fish lies on the bank of Boulder Creek just west of 28th Street last month | Paul Aiken
The 263 dead fish found scattered on the banks of Boulder Creek last month were killed by a combination of high temperatures and low water flows.
Sections of Boulder Creek were just a trickle on Aug. 20 — with water flowing by the Millennium Harvest House at only 1 cubic foot per second — because of high demand by area water uses. And the high temps pulled the oxygen out of the streamflow that was left.
From today’s Daily Camera:
Carol Ellinghouse, water resources coordinator for the city of Boulder, said a natural — but dramatic — decrease of about 20 cfs was measured in Boulder Creek’s flow at Boulder Falls on Aug. 20.
She called the drop an unusual “natural phenomenon” but couldn’t say specifically what might have caused it. Officials traveled upstream of Barker Dam in Nederland to see if there had been any illegal diversions of water but found none, she said.
Ellinghouse said the state water commissioner for Boulder Creek, who controls how much water is diverted by rights holders along the waterway, was unable to react quickly enough to the sudden drop in stream flow Aug. 20 to prevent the fish kill.
“It was a very dramatic drop,” she said. “He assumed there was a larger influx of water into the river.”
Read the full story at DailyCamera.com or learn more about fish kills in Boulder after the jump. Read more
Gender-bending bass plentiful in Colorado’s Yampa River
Yampa River State Park | www.discoveringcolorado.com
In Colorado’s Yamp River, 70 percent of all male bass now have female characteristics — a phenomenon called “intersex” — according to a new study released Monday by the U.S. Geologic Survey.
Intersex fish have been found in watershed across the country, including Boulder Creek.
The causes aren’t clear, scientists said in the report in Aquatic Toxicology. Nor could they say whether “intersex” fish could reproduce.
But the extent of the intersex fish was startling, said Jo Ellen Hinck, the USGS biologist who led the project.
“When we see 70 percent, we don’t think that’s normal,” Hinck said, referring to a sampling along the Yampa about 18 miles west of Craig.
Many scientists suspect that estrogen compounds — such as birth control and other pharmaceuticals — are to blame.
Read the full story at denverpost.com or learn more about intersex fish in Boulder Creek after the jump. Read more
