CPW opens new life jacket loaner station at Miramonte Reservoir in memory of drowning victim

John Livingston
Southwest Region Public Information Officer
970-759-9590 / [email protected]
@CPW_SW

NORWOOD, Colo. – A first-of-its-kind life jacket loaner station was opened Tuesday by Colorado Parks and Wildlife. It wouldn’t have happened without a unique bond formed with Norwood resident Pamela Barrett.

Barrett lost her son, Tanner Chesnut, to a drowning incident in May 2018 at Miramonte Reservoir. CPW Boating Safety Program Manager Grant Brown was called out to Miramonte in the recovery effort for Chesnut, who had been kayaking without a lifejacket on when his kayak capsized and he went into the water. He was only 21.

Six years later, his memory was honored Tuesday with the opening of two life jacket loaner stations at the boat ramps at Miramonte Reservoir at the Dan Noble State Wildlife Area. Now, when boaters, kayakers and paddleboarders recreate on the reservoir but do not have a life jacket, they will be able to borrow one for the day from the CPW stations.

“The reason we are here is to honor Tanner,” said Brown during Tuesday’s ceremony. “We felt there was no better way to do such than to bring in this life jacket loaner station at one of his favorite places to recreate. Pam wanted to put this here to have something positive out here after such a tragedy. It took us some time to get it all done, but we made it happen.”

Brown vividly remembers getting the call to report to Miramonte Reservoir for the recovery in 2018. He was in Moab, Utah, at a boating safety conference when the call came out.

“This one struck me differently than many of them. It was one of my first callouts of my career,” he said. “We threw a lot of resources at it, a lot of counties assisted, and we were unsuccessful. We spent hours looking at sonar here for weeks. Every time, we saw the family standing right here on the boat ramp, and each time you just wanted to bring them some closure.”

Chesnut’s body was eventually discovered by an angler weeks after the incident.

“A couple years after his accident, I couldn’t come up here,” Barrett said Tuesday from the same shore she stood on for weeks during the recovery mission. “Then it got to a point where I needed some more information. That’s when I started reaching out to everybody I knew who was a big part of the search.”

While it took Barrett years to discuss the loss of her son, she eventually formed a bond with Brown. They started talking about how to turn sadness into a positive. The idea was a life jacket loaner station.

Each life jacket loaner station at Miramonte has eight vests in it: four for adults and four sized for children. CPW will restock the boxes if jackets become damaged or go missing.

The reservoir is located roughly 20 miles south of the small town of Norwood in southwest Colorado, where forgetting a life jacket at home can spoil a day of fun on the lake. Now, boaters won’t have to risk their safety and can follow all regulations by borrowing a life jacket for the day.

“If everybody treats it respectfully and uses it for what it’s intended to be used for, it will be a big benefit to the people visiting Miramonte,” said CPW District Wildlife Manager Mark Caddy.

Barrett also was given a supply of the life jackets to resupply the boxes.

“I come out here and see people on paddleboards and what not, from young kids to older people, and it makes me cringe now seeing someone out there without a life jacket,” Barrett said. “I guess I never thought about it before Tanner’s accident. When you experience something like that, I feel like I’m the boat safety police now or something. From that aspect, these stations couldn’t be a better thing to have at this lake. It’s amazing, I love it, and I just hope they get used.”

The life jacket loaner stations at Miramonte are the first at a CPW State Wildlife Area. CPW manages more than 350 State Wildlife Areas across Colorado.

CPW has more than 40 life jacket loaner stations located across its state parks and at properties managed by various municipalities.

“We know life jackets are so important,” Brown said. “If this station saves even one life, that’s worth it. This year, we’ve already had 18 water-related deaths in Colorado, and it’s not even Father’s Day yet. That’s not good. Hopefully, getting some life jackets out here and some awareness can help stem that a bit.”

CPW has urged the public to remember to wear personal floatation devices whenever recreating on the water.

In Colorado, boaters must carry one wearable PFD for each person on board. If the boat is more than 16 feet in length, an additional throwable device is required. Children 12 years of age and younger are required to wear a PFD whenever their vessel is on the water, except when they are in an enclosed cabin or below deck. All required PFDs must be U.S. Coast Guard-approved, readily available to passengers and in good condition. Each must be the proper size to fit the person for whom they are intended.

While regulations only require adults to have a life jacket with them aboard their vessel but do not require them to be worn, CPW has seen many incidents in which people become separated from their boat, kayak or paddleboard and are not able to retrieve their PFD before being in danger.

“The biggest thing in waters here in Colorado is how cold they are,” Brown said. “Cold water is the biggest thing that ends up killing or seriously injuring our boaters and paddlers. The air temperature may be very warm, but the water is cold. You cramp, you can’t breathe, you panic, you go into cold-water shock, there are all kinds of factors. It’s not about your swim ability at that point.”

There were 32 water-related deaths in Colorado in 2023 and a state record 42 in 2022. With 18 already on record in 2024 and summer not even in full swing yet, the push is on to increase awareness about the importance of PFD use.

“People think we are the fun police when we ask them to wear their PFD,” Brown said. “We want you to have fun. Boating and paddling are fun. We don’t want people to be afraid. But you have to respect the water and the conditions. We don’t want other families to have to go through what this family has gone through.”

And if people recreating on the water won’t listen to CPW’s advice on the matter, Brown hopes they will listen to Barrett.

“This dedication ceremony brings that home,” Brown said. “When you decide whether or not to put on that PFD, it’s not just a personal responsibility issue. When you drown, it affects your parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents who all have to deal with you suddenly being taken from them. It’s so sudden, and oftentimes it is witnessed by your friends and family who are there trying to help, and then you’re gone in seconds. Give yourself a chance to be rescued, wear the life jacket.”

For more information on Colorado boating regulations and statutes, go to: https://cpw.info/2024BoatingHandbook.