San Luis Valley, Colorado: A case study in trout and farm recovery
Nestled in south-central Colorado, the San Luis Valley boasts 14,000-foot peaks, Gold Medal waters, incredible biodiversity and even Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.
As the largest alpine valley in the world, this area has been called home by the Navajo, Ute, Apache, Kiowa, Comanche and Spanish before becoming part of the United States. Today, that means the valley distinguishes itself from other parts of Colorado through a unique blend of Indigenous, Spanish and Mexican cultural influences.
History of acequias in the San Luis Valley
The influences and practices of the Spanish and Mexican cultures extend to the governance of a portion of the water supply that is administered in the valley today. Known as acequias, this method of water management remains prevalent in parts of Colorado and New Mexico, and Colorado has taken steps to legally define the differences between the acequia system and the more common governance structure known as the doctrine of prior appropriation. This legislation will ensure that the acequia-based communities will continue to persist into the future.
According to the Alamosa Citizen, “Acequias [are] gravity-fed, community-managed irrigation systems – distribute water and snowmelt through hand-dug channels to agricultural fields for both crops and livestock. The acequia system was brought to the southwest United States by farmers emigrating to the San Luis Valley from Mexico. Used in arid landscapes around the world, the practice originated in North Africa to distribute water from rivers to desert valleys. It was brought to Spain by the Moors and brought to Mexico by the Spaniards during the colonial period.”
Of the nearly 1000 acequias that exist today, the San Luis Valley is home to the state of Colorado’s oldest continuously used community ditch, known as the “Peoples’ Ditch.” However, many families in the region can trace their lineages well before this event in 1852 and they continue to make a living on the same lands and waters of their ancestors.
Acequia history is important to this story because of how this cultural dynamic permeates throughout the community. Again, from the Alamosa Citizen, “acequias function on the idea of communal maintenance and equal water sharing during times of abundance and shortage, overseen by mayordomo or ditch manager. This structure instills important cultural values centered around collective responsibility and respect for community and the environment.”
In short, the Valley acequias practice a system of accountability – not without differences of opinion or trusted compromise – towards one another, even as the concepts of federal, state, private and tribal lands have been introduced over the past couple hundred years.
This sensibility is reflected in the various examples where Trout Unlimited has either spearheaded or served as a partner on a project to serve the Valley’s residents in time of historic drought and the challenges that arise from it.
Working together towards a common goal
As you might expect, TU started working here decades ago with a focus on the health of the native Rio Grande cutthroat trout, which now occupies just 12 percent of its historical range due to habitat loss, drought and competition from nonnative species.
But, because of the interwoven nature of these water rights across the Valley, our work has expanded to include new, innovative approaches to address these challenges to make the most use out of every drop of water. Each of these examples represents the types of efforts being undertaken by different entities in the Valley to address the water challenges before them.
U.S. Forest Service
As part of our national agreement with the U.S. Forest Service, TU has undertaken a number of priority projects in the Rio Grande, Carson and Santa Fe National Forests.
While many are geared towards Rio Grande cutthroat reintroduction and the protection of conservation populations, TU will also lead projects to reconnect watersheds by replacing and/or building new infrastructure across the forest.
This work has included, but is not limited to, replacing outdated culverts, removing invasive species, reintroducing native trout after wildfires, installing fish screens, building fencing to prevent overgrazing, undertaking streambank stabilization projects, restoring miles of stream habitat and even the replacing vault toilets – which TU staffers have informally renamed “Trouthouses.”
Trinchera Ranch
For more than a decade, Trinchera Ranch has been a key partner in Rio Grande cutthroat trout recovery in the San Luis Valley. What’s unique about the ranch is that it is protected by conservation easements with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Colorado Open Lands for the benefit of wildlife, including the Rio Grande cutthroat trout, Rio Grande sucker and Rio Grande chub. Its ambitious conservation efforts reflect a long-term vision rooted in stewardship, ecological integrity and the protection of native species.
Most notably, Trinchera has committed to restoring two of its major watersheds—Placer Creek and Trinchera Creek—ultimately creating 72 miles of protected stream habitat. Placer Creek is the only place in the world where whirling disease has been eradicated, making it an ideal habitat for trout.
Because of their dedication and partnership in the San Luis Valley, TU successfully nominated Louis Bacon and Trinchera Ranch as the recipients of the 2025 Western Division American Fisheries Society’s Conservation Achievement Award. This prestigious honor is awarded annually to an organization that has made significant, lasting contributions to fisheries conservation across 13 Western U.S. states.
Winter Flow Program
Born on the Conejos River in 2014, TU’s Winter Flow Program is designed to restore stream flows by establishing a restoration and ecosystem-based marketplace for businesses seeking to offset their water impacts. This program gives TU the financial ability to coordinate the program and to incentivize and provide cost-share with San Luis Valley water partners to adaptively manage water for multiple uses, including restoring stream flows and aquatic habitat.
In 2025-2026, the Winter Flow Program delivered 2,529 acre-feet of water out of three on-channel reservoirs. The water provided by the program’s water leases can extend flows some 255 miles, with some deliveries making an impact beyond the Colorado-New Mexico state line to provide in-stream benefits for trout and coldwater fisheries for over 100 miles in New Mexico, including the Wild and Scenic section of the Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument.
Farms and Fish Flow Program
Like the Winter Flow Program, this new multi-benefit program launched in 2025 on the Conejos River during the irrigation season. In partnership with the Conejos Water Conservancy District and Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW), this voluntary program provides a coordinated way for farmers to time deliveries of stored irrigation water to benefit the Conejos River during critical time periods when natural flows below Platoro Reservoir are less than 5 cubic feet per second (CFS) and occasionally completely dry up.
As predicted, the timing of the program was spot on when the reservoir registered zero or negative inflows for eight days in August 2025. Without the Farms and Fish Flow Program, there would not be a single drop released from Platoro during that time – just as we experienced in 2018. Additionally, there were another twelve days in August 2025 that had inflows of less than 5 CFS. Instead of facing that 2018 dry-up scenario again, we’ve collaborated to make something remarkable happen: Participation from the irrigators far exceeded expectations, with 32 farmers delivering 2,681 acre-feet of water through the program. Incredibly, the Farms and Fish program resulted in an average flow rate of 43 CFS in August 2025!
So, instead of a dry river, we had real water in the system, water that allows us to overcome the devastatingly dry natural conditions and enhance stream flows while enabling water to reach our hard-working farms and ranches downstream. Our on-the-ground relationships and trust between TU, CPW and the farmers and ranchers are now stronger than ever.
Over the last decade, we’ve realized that if we work together to deliver water from one important, high-elevation on-channel reservoir, Platoro Reservoir, we could achieve multiple benefits simultaneously. Therefore, we could maximize the legal and ecological benefits of a shared and finite resource: water.
Auto Tarp
In the Gunnison River Basin and Rio Grande River Basin, TU is using the Conservation Innovation Grants program to test innovative auto-tarp technology that allows irrigators to remotely control headgates for more efficient water application.
The Auto Tarp program allows farmers and ranchers to remotely drop irrigation gates and monitor weather and soil conditions from their phones. TU’s Colorado restoration program manager, Jesse Kruthaupt, started working on the tool in his garage several years ago. He decided that water users without a lot of money should still have access to water efficiency tools.
Since its invention, it has garnered positive acclaim and attention across the agricultural world and has been increasingly installed across these watersheds because of their short growing seasons.
Partnerships
As you can see, TU works with a number of valued partners at the local, state and federal levels. Working in unison to support the native Rio Grande cutthroat and water users in the Valley, TU has built collaborative relationships with private landowners/ranchers, acequia districts, San Luis Valley Trout Unlimited, Running Rivers, World Wildlife Foundation, Rio Grande Basin Roundtable, CPW, Colorado Division of Water Resources, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, among many others.
Successful Collaboration
By hoof, foot, hand and helicopter, TU and partners like those mentioned above have been working closely for decades to restore native Rio Grande cutthroat populations.
In early December 2024, the US Fish and Wildlife Service determined that the Rio Grande cutthroat is not in danger of extinction nor likely to become so in the foreseeable future, a testament to the progress being made by state and federal agencies and partners like TU to restore this iconic native trout species.
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