Colorado is famous for high peaks over 14,000 feet, rushing mountain streams, vast stands of aspen, pine and spruce and stunning views unequaled in the West. This tall country is home to the more elk than any other state, trophy mule deer, bighorn sheep and mountain goat. Here, too, swim the state’s fabled trout populations from native rare cutthroat including the recently-discovered San Juan cutthroat trout, to introduced populations of brook, brown and rainbow trout.  

In the early 2000s when the Bush administration asked the western states to review the Clinton-era Roadless Rule that protected 58 million acres of U.S. Forest Service land in states from Alaska to Arizona, Colorado was one of only two states that stepped up to do so. At the table from the very beginning was Trout Unlimited, armed with data, volunteers, the Colorado Trout Unlimited state council, and national staff all pushing to keep the Centennial State’s roadless land pristine.  

The collaborative process took seven years, hundreds of meetings and a lot of compromise and agreement. At the end of the day in 2012, the roadless rule was finalized, highlighting the culmination of years of cooperation, of people with different ideas and ideals working together to protect a beloved landscape: 4.2 million acres of that landscape, in fact. Trout Unlimited was a leader at the table throughout the process. Then-Senator Mark Udall called the effort, “a great example of a very thorough process, where thousands of Coloradans and stakeholders came together to work out a framework that makes sense for Colorado.” 

The Colorado rule was a hand-crafted, Colorado-specific rule designed to manage the state’s best fish and game habitat. It ensures continued access to the backcountry by anglers and hunters, and it emphasizes the need to keep native cutthroat trout habitat healthy and intact. 

In Colorado, roadless areas provide the majority of habitat for Colorado’s four subspecies of native cutthroat trout, as well as vital habitat for deer and elk . Roadless areas are important to sportsmen because they provide quality habitat needed for fish and game to thrive, which translates into hunting and fishing success in the field. Colorado is one of two states to have their own  roadless  rule, the other is Idaho. Not coincidentally, Trout Unlimited was a leading group at the table in both states.