Aspen Journalism
A fly-fisherman is pictured Nov. 28 on the Blue River in Silverthorne. A downstream ranch is proposing adding phosphorus to the river in an effort to improve fish habitat.
Photo by John Herrick / Aspen Journalism
ASPEN — A private ranch is seeking Colorado environmental regulators’ permission to inject the Blue River with phosphorus — a chemical regulated as a pollutant — as part of an experiment that could help improve trout habitat at a popular High Country fishing destination.
Kremmling-based Blue Valley Ranch, owned by the billionaire philanthropist Paul Tudor Jones II, proposes beginning the project as soon as next summer on an 8-mile stretch of the river running through its 25,000-acre ranch, which is located on both sides of the river between Green Mountain Reservoir and the Colorado River.