Yampa River enthusiasts worry about future flows
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STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. — After four decades as co-owner of Straightline Sports, Brett Lee has watched the Yampa River — the heart of his fishing gear business — change dramatically. While there are always outlying, lucky years, he said flows are almost always lower each year than the last.
“It’s not good at all, but we have to adapt,” Lee said.
As of April 1, the Yampa/White/Little Snake Basin saw 93% of its typical snowpack this year. When Lee chats with customers about fishing gear and the best local spots, he is acutely aware that the landscape around him is shifting beyond his control, likely for good.
“It would be nice if Mother Nature would help out a little bit and give us a little more moisture, but it's kind of a trend all over the West,” Lee said.
Lee believes Steamboat Springs is luckier than other Colorado mountain towns because it has 50 lakes in a 50 mile radius of town. Some of them are only accessible by hikes, and the fish may not be as plentiful as they are in the Yampa River, but he said adaptability is key.
“Just because you can’t fish the Yampa doesn’t mean you can’t fish,” Lee said. He points fishers to Stagecoach Reservoir and Lake Catamount to the south, and Steamboat Lake and the Elk River to the north.
The Yampa River spans about 250 miles, beginning in Yampa and flowing west through Steamboat Springs, Milner, Hayden, Craig and into Dinosaur National Monument. There, it joins the Green River before the Colorado-Utah border and eventually flows into the Colorado River.
The Yampa River is one of the last free-flowing rivers in the West — a vital resource for the region’s water supply. In the summer, it also serves as Steamboat Springs’ most beloved hub for recreation.
But as human activity contributes to our warming climate, winters in the Yampa Valley bring thinner snowpacks and warmer temperatures. Summers, meanwhile, grow drier.
In response, Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the city of Steamboat Springs have shortened the river recreation season. The river opens to tubing, kayaking and rafting when flows drop below 700 cubic feet per second, and closes when levels fall to 85 cfs, or when the water hits 75 degrees for two straight days — a move designed to protect fish from the stress of warm water and human activity.
For the last several years, the river has opened in late May or early June and closed sometime in July. In the 1980s and 1990s, the river opened in late May and remained open until August, sometimes September.
“The river is the lifeblood of this community and while not everyone has the means to raft or float it, everyone is connected to it in some way,” said Lindsey Marlow, executive director of Friends of the Yampa, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting the river through conservation and education efforts.
“And the largest threat to it is climate change and the warming of water,” Marlow said.
Chris Welch, who co-owns Backdoor Sports, an outdoor sporting goods store, said his business hopes that bringing more people to the river while educating about conservation is how the community can prolong the river’s life.
“The more people that actually see how amazing this river is and get to experience it with a guide who knows the history and can speak knowledgeably of everything, the more people are going to want to conserve this land,” Welch said.
Welch said protecting the river should be a valley-wide effort, including the visitors who come to town to recreate.
“Rivers have always been here. They’ve always helped shape our world and right now, our focus is on things that are much more impermanent,” Welch said. “Living our lives in a virtual world that isn't necessarily as real as what’s been here and connected to the ground for millions of years.”
The Yampa Valley Community Foundation created the Yampa River Fund in 2019 to award grants to organizations working on river conservation efforts. The fund awarded seven recipients in 2025. Past projects have included planting trees along river banks, improving aquatic habitats and stabilizing eroding banks.
Marlow called river recreation the “gateway drug” to conservationism.
“Every person that loves conservation, when you ask how they got there and what's their story, they’ll always tell you about the time they recreated in [the Yampa River],” Marlow said. “The environment it provides and the mental health benefits are a person's entry to caring about the river.”
While those recreating on the river can’t fix global warming on their own, Marlow said following Leave no Trace principles and respecting river closures can go a long way in preserving the river’s health.
Even though the Yampa River is the only spot in town for tubing, Marlow encourages visitors to kayak and paddleboard on nearby lakes. Water is still a great tool for tourism, she added, even if it looks different than it did in previous years.
“We’re encouraging a different way of looking at things,” Marlow said. “You can enjoy yourself just as much, you just have to be open to other possibilities of where and how to use water.”
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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