A habitat restoration project aimed at restoring Gold Medal fishing status along a stretch of the Blue River that flows through Silverthorne is being impacted by a federal funding freeze.

The Blue River Watershed Group — a local nonprofit that received $1.8 million in grant federal funding for the restoration project in December 2023 — told the Silverthorne Town Council earlier this month that the federal government has paused disbursement of those funds.

“Grant funding for this project through the Bureau of Reclamation’s WaterSMART Aquatic Ecosystem Project grant is affected by the recent pauses in federal grant funding,” Blue River Watershed Group executive director Vanessa Logsdon said in a statement Thursday, March 28. 

The Blue River Watershed Group has partnered with Trout Unlimited and the town of Silverthorne, which has provided $150,000, on the project. The $1.8 million federal grant is to complete the engineering and design for the habitat restoration project, which focuses on the stretch of the Blue River from the Dillon Reservoir to the Columbine Campground north of Silverthorne.

Studies have shown that that stretch of river is impacted by unnatural temperatures from dam releases that can be too warm in the winter and too cold in the summer, disrupting the life cycles of aquatic organisms such as trout. The project aims to get the Blue River back to a more natural cycle and restore the Gold Medal fishing status that stretch of river lost in 2016.

Logsdon said that the Blue River Watershed Group is “continuing to work on aspects of this project in the hope that disbursements of the grant” will resume but has had to pause work on other parts “of this community-led project to ensure that the project costs are covered.”

Shortly after taking office in January, President Donald Trump issued the “Unleashing American Energy” executive order that included language requiring all federal agencies to immediately pause disbursement of funds appropriated through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The WaterSMART grants, including the one dedicated to the Blue River Watershed Group, were funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed by Congress under the Biden Administration.

In February, a federal judge ordered the Trump Administration to unfreeze federal funding impacted by his executive orders.

“The broad categorical and sweeping freeze of federal funds is… likely unconstitutional and has caused and continues to cause irreparable harm to a vast portion of this country,” U.S. District Court Judge John McConnel wrote in his order.

But National Council of Nonprofits chief operating officer Rick Cohen said last week that the council has heard from nonprofits across the country that continue to have federal grant funds frozen, despite the federal judge’s order.

Cohen noted that most nonprofits that receive federal funds from the government work on a reimbursement basis, completing the work and then filing for a reimbursement based on the completed work.

“Usually when (nonprofits) submit their documentation their reimbursement would come through relatively promptly. But a lot of groups are finding that their submissions are in a review status that they’ve never seen before and it’s lasting a long time,” Cohen said. “A lot of nonprofits don’t have flexibility in their budget to essentially float the government along until things get unfrozen, especially if they don’t know if things will get unfrozen.”

Colorado’s federal legislators in Washington, D.C., have also responded to the funding freeze impacting the Blue River Watershed Group’s federal grant. 

“President Trump’s unlawful funding freezes are harming conservation programs across the state, jeopardizing efforts to preserve our natural resources,” U.S. House of Representatives Assistant Minority Leader Joe Neguse, whose district includes Summit County, said in a statement. “We will continue to push for the release of these funds and ensure the federal government fulfills its obligations.”

U.S. Senator Michael Bennet in a statement said that “the Blue River Watershed Group is doing critical work to protect Colorado’s headwaters.”

“The Trump Administration’s delay in releasing these funds puts our mountain environment, community organizations, and local businesses at risk,” Bennet said. “We can all agree that the Federal government should be a reliable business partner and should pay its bills on time.”

Blue River Watershed Group has watched as other federal grant funding become unfrozen in recent days and weeks, Logsdon said in her statement. For that reason, she said, “We anticipate this pause in work to be brief.”

As long as the funding resumes, Logsdon said, “Our hope is that (the pause) will have little effect on the overall planning and design phase aside from delaying the timeline.”