In 1998, Tony Kay, who was president of Colorado Trout Unlimited at the time, knew something was wrong at Windy Gap Reservoir. Aquatic life was dying at the spot where the Colorado River had been dammed. Northern Water’s Municipal Subdistrict had created the reservoir near Granby through a diversion damn that disconnected the river. The project, completed in 1985, helps store and supply water to the Front Range — but it had unintended consequences. Kay partnered with Colorado Parks and Wildfire biologist Barry Nehring, who was conducting studies about whirling disease at Windy Gap. This unsettling disease had devastated the area’s rainbow trout. It also was the “seed of the project” that eventually led to the creation of the Colorado River Connectivity Channel. Today, this channel is almost fully completed.