The camp is designed to educate students on the importance of coldwater conservation and provide hands-on fly-fishing instruction. Approximately 20 students are selected each year, based on their qualifications and a written essay on why they would like to attend the camp..

“Our hope is that kids who attend our camp today will become the conservation leaders of tomorrow," said Shawn Bratt, a veteran Youth Camp counselor and winner of national Trout Unlimited's Outstanding Youth Education Volunteer. "It’s important for these students to understand the value of healthy streams and clean water and how they relate to our everyday lives. The camp curriculum has been structured to provide the necessary foundation for that education.”

Camp classes include: principles of ecology, hydro-geology, aquatic vertebrate and invertebrate sampling, hydrology, trout behavior, trout stream entomology, the biology of pollution, acid deposition, and politics of conservation and human effects on the Rocky Mountains.

In addition, the camp will include hands-on classes such as fly tying, fly casting, streamside ethics, angling literature, streamside botany, wader safety and survival, and the evolution of an angler. Students will also participate in a watershed project to repair habitat in a nearby stream.

The River Conservation and Fly Fishing Youth Camp includes faculty from various environmental fields and state agencies such as the Colorado Division of Wildlife, Department of Environmental Protection and National Forest Service. The cost to attend the six-day camp is $450. Click on the link at left to download an application, or contact Mike Nicholson at 303-987-8425 for more information.