Chuck Lewis

The Chuck Lewis Project rehabilitated a mile of the Yampa River (channel and riparian areas) above and below the Gilroy Bridge on County Road 14F just north of Haymaker Golf Course. The project was conceptualized in January 2002 by Bill Chace a member of the Yampa Valley Fly Fishers and endorsed by YVSICT in March 2002.

At the time of its inception the Chuck Lewis Project was the largest project of its kind by a volunteer organization in the history of the state of Colorado.

Bill Chace’s handwritten field notes indicate that “71 cars spread through the one mile of river channel” and needed to be removed; that “high water against banks no riparian habitat banks erode quickly nothing to hold soils”; and there was an “enormous annual loss of river banks [at the] upper end of project”.

A 2003 electroshocking survey found 70% of the catch to be northern pike, while only 12% were salmonids. The [then] existing habitat conditions clearly favor[ed] the proliferation of northern pike over salmonid species.

The work included 2 years of fundraising, planning, and a year of preconstruction efforts (data collection, permitting, and identification of access points and material storage sites) before construction began in the fall of 2006.