Housatonic River Projects

07/30/2009
Housatonic River Projects
By: Kathryn Boughton

Nineteen Litchfield County projects have been included in the final draft of the Housatonic River Basin Natural Resource Restoration Plan. The plan is designed to restore the Housatonic River Basin as nearly as possible to the state it enjoyed before being contaminated by PCB pollution from the Pittsfield, Mass., General Electric plant.

The plan was officially accepted by the Connecticut Natural Resource Trustees at a meeting in Kent Tuesday night. The Natural Resource Trustee SubCouncil now begins funding agreements with the sponsors of each approved project.

Funding comes from a 1999 settlement with General Electric (GE) that included $7.5 million for restoration projects in Connecticut aimed at restoring, rehabilitating or acquiring the equivalent of the natural resources and recreational uses of the Housatonic River injured by the release of the PCBs.

"Today is a landmark day for the beautiful Housatonic River, one of Connecticut's many treasured natural resources," said DEP Deputy Commissioner Susan Frechette. "Although the river has not always been protected as it should have been, the money allocated today will help all interested parties to restore and conserve critical habitats and improve recreational opportunities for the public."
The Natural Resource Trustee SubCouncil consists of the "Connecticut SubCouncil," comprised of the Natural Resource Trustees from the State of Connecticut and the Federal Departments of the Interior (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) and Commerce (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration).

The restoration projects receiving final approval in Litchfield County are restoration of coarse wood habitat in Housatonic impoundments, proposed by the Connecticut Bass Federation, costing $46,050; Blackberry River fish passage restoration, proposed by the DEP, $650,000; increased law enforcement patrols and Bull's Bridge trout and bass management area, DEP proposal, $75,000; Salmon Kill restoration and enhancement, Trout Unlimited, $617,260; fishway repair and riparian vegetation restoration in Cornwall, Housatonic Valley Association, $73,000; Schaghticoke Indian Reservation waterfowl and migratory bird study for habitat creation, Schaghticoke Tribal Nation, $1,680; Young's Field Park, Riverwalk and Greenway, New Milford, $180,000; wetland habitat restoration on Lower Housatonic River, DEP, $963,313; Audubon Carse Brook wetland restoration, Sharon Audubon, $36,000; Indian Field Wildlife Preserve, Northwest Conservation District, $348,500; conservation of the Frost and CL&P riverfront properties in Sharon, HVA and Sharon Land Trust, $740,468; Salmon Creek/Housatonic River land protection project, Nature Conservancy, $557,810; car top boat launch on North Kent Road, Town of Kent, $250,000; Schaghticoke Indian Reservation car top boat and canoe access ramp, STN, $8054; Campville fishing access, Town of Harwinton, $42,000; Sega Meadows Park enhancement project, Town of New Milford, $75,217; recreational and conservation easements for the Housatonic Basin streams, DEP, $900,000; Housatonic Valley River Trail, King's Mark, $56,020; "The Bend" riparian vegetation, shoreline and recreational access improvements, HVA, $222,586; Wimisink Preserve restoration and access, Naromi Land Trust, $100,000.

Other projects approved include Housatonic and Naugatuck trout stock and stream restoration, Trout Unlimited, $7,500; Ball Pond and Short Woods water quality improvement, Town of New Fairfield, $150,000; Halfway River Fishery access, Town of Newtown, $326,000; Beacon Falls Riverfront Park system, $100,000; O'Sullivan's Island Peninsula fishing and habitat enhancement, Valley Council of Governments, $325,000; Ballentine Park stream bank restoration and stabilization, Town of Southbury, $180,000; Transylvania Brook Culvert Crossing at East Flat, Town of Southbury, $40,000.

Biologists give new life to brook trout

COSBY, Tenn. -- Looking as if they were prospecting for treasure, four men wearing waders and wielding long-handled nets and white buckets clambered up Cosby Creek in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The treasure they sought wasn't gems or gold but a precious commodity nonetheless. They were collecting the park's only native trout species, the Southern Appalachian brook trout.

Park fish biologist Steve Moore led the way, poking an electroshocking pole into the swift-flowing stream. The device produced a 500-volt, 0.6-amp charge that knocked out the brookies but didn't harm them. Moore's colleagues scooped up the stunned fish and deposited them in the buckets. Soon frisky again, the diminutive brookies measured 5 to 8 inches long.

The captive brookies in the next few hours would go through a piscatorial equivalent of an alien abduction. They would ride 30 miles to the south in the dark tank of a state hatchery truck and reemerge in sun-dappled Lynn Camp Prong in the Tremont area. These and other found ing fish eventually will repopulate an 81/2-mile section of the stream in what Moore said is the park's single biggest brook trout restoration.

"Some of them won't survive the winter," Moore said. "But if the older fish spawn and then die, and their progeny hatch out, and they will, we're still accomplishing our goal, which is establishing a reproducing population of brook trout."

Foreign trout

For eons brook trout ruled the streams in what is now the 520,000-acre park and could be found at elevations as low as 1,600 feet, Moore said.

But extensive logging beginning in the early 1900s damaged streams and eliminated brookies. To revive sport fishing, land managers stocked rainbows from the West and northern brook trout. The park's own stocking program continued to run until 1975. Now mostly limited to high-elevation streams, brook trout have lost 75 percent of their range to the more aggressive rainbows.

Rainbows had owned Lynn Camp Prong for three-quarters of a century, Moore estimated. Converting the section back to brook waters meant getting rid of the squatters. The stream qualified for restoration because of a 40-foot-high cascade at the downstream end of the section, a necessary natural barrier that will prevent rainbows from returning upstream.

The park first let anglers for two weeks last fall catch unlimited rainbows (the legal limit otherwise is five a day with a minimum size of 7 inches). Moore said 130 anglers took 564 trout. Then biologists treated the stream with the chemical antimycin, killing the remaining 8,000 to 10,000.

Black bears sniffed out a free lunch and reaped a bonanza of sushi. Moore said one day he saw, at different times, five bears slosh upstream, Alaska style, feeding on dying rainbows.

Did anglers support the purging of rainbows?

"Some hate to lose this stream for a couple of years," said Byron Begley, who owns a Townsend, Tenn., fly-fishing shop and founded the Little River chapter of Trout Unlimited, a national conservation group. "Some objected to killing the rainbows. Most favor a brookies stream."

Fish costs

Restoring Lynn Camp Prong isn't cheap. Moore estimated the multiyear cost, including park personnel salaries, at $300,000. Of that, some $224,000 came from cash, donations and volunteer time. The Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture, a partnership dedicated brook trout conservation, contributed $100,000, and the Little River chapter of Trout Unlimited gave $17,000.

At Tremont, biologists transferred the vagabond fish to clear plastic bags with chlorine-free ice. They pumped the bags full of oxygen, put the finny cargo on an ATV and released a bag of fish every 60 yards or so. Once in their new digs, the brookies quickly scattered to the safety of rock shadows.

Moore said another 1,200 to 1,400 brookies will be collected and released into Lynn Camp Prong this fall. Stream monitoring will follow. It may be four to seven years before fishing can resume, depending on when the stream population reaches a sustainable density.

"If we get it back up to where it's 1,800 to 2,000 trout per mile, we may open it up," he said.

The restoration program not only enhances the biological integrity of the park but also helps conserve the genetically distinct fish for future generations.

"To me, they're kind of like our heirlooms," Moore said.

Today Show Goes Fly Fishing in Lake George - Meredith & Ann Need More Casting Lessons

For 'Today,' it was a day at the beach
National TV exposure can help tourism, local officials say

By LEIGH HORNBECK, Staff writer
First published in print: Tuesday, July 28, 2009

BOLTON -- When Joanne Conley at the Warren County Tourism Office took a June call from a "Today Show'' assistant producer, she didn't know it would lead to a two-hourlong promotion of the Lake George area.

In a summer of sagging tourism, Lake George boosters said they could not have asked for better exposure than a visit from the county's top-rated morning show.

Hosts Meredith Vieira and Ann Curry used the Sagamore Resort in Bolton Landing as a base to broadcast a potato sack race with local children and bantered over s'mores, ice cream and fishing poles with either the lake or the graceful hotel as their backdrop. The show was interspersed with taped segments of the women learning to fly fish, touring the lake and narrating its recreational history.

Kate Johnson, director of the tourism department, said the number of visitors to the area is down this summer, but the arrival of track season at the Saratoga Race Course and the national TV exposure are "certain to bring more people here."

The visit was part of the show's "Today Show Takes a Vacation," which continues today in Key West. Fla., with Matt Lauer and Al Roker.

The show's producers quickly chose the Sagamore, Johnson said, even though in June when they were scouting locations, the resort's tiered veranda was covered with construction equipment.

"I got the call July 10, and I guaranteed we would be ready," said Kevin Rosa, director of marketing and sales for the resort. "Then I went out and told my construction manager."

The six-month, $20 million renovation wrapped up just five days ago, Rosa said.

Luisa Craige-Sherman, executive director of the Lake George Chamber of Commerce, also expects increased interest in the lake and its shoreline communities as a result of the show.

"Of the hundreds of thousands of places they could have picked, we're one of four. It's a pride thing," Craige-Sherman said.

The broadcast featured local talent. Ken Lingle, the Sagamore's executive chef, cooked chanterelle mushrooms picked on Tongue Mountain, dandelion greens and black raspberries. Vieira and Curry danced to music from the Stony Creek Band and took a fly-fishing lesson from John Tarrant, who lives on the East Shore and runs Mickey Finn Fly Fishing.

Two tour guides from Fort William Henry also had a surprise opportunity to appear on live TV. Steve Wood, 18, from South Glens Falls and John Jensen, 22, from Bolton Landing stopped by the Sagamore dressed in character.

The men represent soldiers from the 16th Regiment of Royal Americans, which fought in the French and Indian War. The "Today Show'' crew spotted Wood and Jensen's bright-red uniforms in the crowd and invited them to talk to Vieira and Curry on camera. The men plugged the fort as an "accessible piece of history."

"We were all cheering when they came to work," said Kathy Muncil, CEO of Fort William Henry.

Other faces in the crowd included Joyce Rice of Silver Bay, who arrived at 5:30 a.m. hoping her grandchildren would see her dressed as "Freddy Fox" on TV, and Karen Hudson from Hagaman, Montgomery County.

She held 3-pound, 4-ounce Tallulah, a Yorkshire terrier with a pink bow on her head. Tallulah is fresh from a movie role, Hudson said.

"I've always wanted to be on the 'Today Show,' " Hudson said. "It's the most important show for me."

Leigh Hornbeck can be reached at 454-5352 or by e-mail at lhornbeck@timesunion.com.

Victory in PA

Water permit denied

By MIKE FAHER
The Tribune-Democrat

BAKERSVILLE — State regulators have denied a permit for a controversial bottled-water operation, saying the proposal would have a severe impact on local streams.

The plan by Cooper Springs Trout Hatchery had spurred vehement opposition from local residents, who argued against drilling a large well in a watershed that already is considered endangered.

Nonetheless, many believed that the state Department of Environmental Protection would side with Cooper Springs. So Monday’s announcement was a pleasant surprise for those who are battling further development in Laurel Hill Creek watershed.

“We’re extremely happy with the DEP’s decision,” said Scott Hoffman, president of Chestnut Ridge Trout Unlimited.

“Laurel Hill Creek has been under attack from various users withdrawing water,” Hoffman added. “We think that stream is and can be a great asset to the region, provided that it’s kept intact.”

Cooper Springs wanted to draw as much as 108,000 gallons per day from a well near Shafer Run, a tributary to Laurel Hill Creek. The water would have been sold to unidentified bottling companies.

Opponents argued that the watershed already is oversubscribed, with Laurel Hill Creek and Shafer Run sinking far too low during the drier summer months.

Earlier this year, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit ranked Laurel Hill watershed as one of the nation’s 10 most-endangered.

Residents also worried about truck traffic from an estimated 14 tanker trucks that would have visited the Cooper Springs site each day.

At a public meeting in late June, Cooper Springs consulting geologist Jeff Evers said testing had shown that the bottled-water operation would have only minor impacts on four private wells and no significant impact on Shafer Run.

But on Monday, DEP officials announced that further testing showed a “startling” 40-percent drop in Shafer Run stream flow.

“A 40-percent drop in stream flow would have a detrimental effect not only on Shafer Run, but also to the entire Laurel Hill Creek watershed,” said Ronald Schwartz, acting director of DEP’s southwest region.

Cooper Springs has 30 days to appeal the DEP decision to the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board.

The company also could reapply for a permit.

However, DEP spokeswoman Helen Humphreys said changes would be necessary.

“For the department to consider a future application, there would have to be some demonstration that it would not in the future impact Shafer Run,” she said.

It is unclear what action, if any, the project’s administrators might take. Contacted Monday, Evers said he had not yet heard about the permit denial and needed further detail before responding.

If Cooper Springs tries again, the company likely would again meet stiff opposition.

Over the past few months, supervisors in Jefferson Township had expressed concerns about the bottled-water operation.

And officials in Somerset Borough, which draws much of its drinking water from the Laurel Hill area, had written a letter asking the state to deny the Cooper Springs permit “on the grounds it will decrease the base flow of water available within the Laurel Hill Creek.”

State Rep. Carl Walker Metzgar, R-Somerset, and state Sen. Richard Kasunic, a Democrat whose district covers most of Somerset County, jointly authored a June letter questioning the project’s merits and requesting that DEP deny the permit.

On Monday, Kasunic said the DEP’s decision was “based on sound scientific evidence.”

“It was proven what the folks out in that watershed were saying – that it would have a significant impact,” Kasunic said.

Concerned residents also had taken the battle to Harrisburg. Gary and Page Wetterburg authored a lengthy letter to a top DEP official earlier this month, saying state officials needed to take a closer look at the cumulative effect of water withdrawals in Laurel Hill Creek watershed.

Cooper Springs’ proposed well did not represent “a huge amount,” Gary Wetterburg said Monday.

“But it’s the principle. You can nickel and dime the watershed with smaller permits,” he said.

“You nickel and dime it, and then you lose track of the dollars.”

Great White Shark on the Fly!

Outdoors
Fisherman releases great white
By Ed Zieralski
Union-Tribune Staff Writer
2:00 a.m. July 21, 2009

Ocean fly-fishing guide Conway Bowman has stared into the eyes of giant mako sharks as he unhooked a fly from their toothy jaws, but he felt compelled to do more after his client Jeff Patterson hooked a great white shark Friday off La Jolla.

“We took the fly out and both patted it on the head,” said Bowman, who owns Bowman Bluewater, a guide service that covers the ocean and local lakes. “This was a catch of a lifetime.”
Bowman, also the reservoir keeper at Lake Hodges, estimated the great white shark, a protected species, was 6 feet long and weighed about 150 pounds. It is believed to be the first great white shark hooked off the California coast with a fly rod and single action fly reel.

Patterson, director of sales for Abel Automatics in Camarillo, manufacturer of the reel, was testing company products on Bowman's boat. Patterson said he casted a foot-long artificial fly tied to imitate a bleeding bonito or mackerel to the shark as it made its initial run through the chum slick and at the boat.

“The grab was instantaneous, and the shark cooperated with a quick left turn to allow the proper hook set,” Patterson said.

Patterson said the great white's initial run was estimated at 275 yards. The fight lasted some 25 minutes.

Patterson used a Scott 15-weight rod and Abel Super 13 reel loaded with Rio Leviathan 550 grain line and 380 yards of 50-pound gel spun backing.

“I thought it was a mako shark at first,” Bowman told listeners Sunday night on All Outdoors Radio. “But then I got a good look at it, and when we got it to the boat, I was sure. To see a great white shark that close is the pinnacle of my guiding career. To stare into its eyes and know that some day it could grow to 20 to 22 feet and weigh 1,800 to 2,000 pounds, it was almost surreal.”
Bowman knew something was up when a sea lion that had been in the chum slick began acting squirrelly and moved farther out.

“All of a sudden the sea lion split and sat out there 100 yards from the slick,” Bowman said. “That usually means a big mako is in the area. But all of a sudden, the great white shark rolled up. It was something, seeing a small great white like that. Usually, even the smaller ones are 10 to 12 feet, not 6 or 7 feet like this one.”

Bowman wondered if the juvenile great white had a mother nearby.

“If she would have shown, I would have started the motor and got out of there,” Bowman said.
In addition to catching and releasing the great white, Patterson caught and released eight blue sharks and three mako sharks over two days of fishing.

Information about fishing for sharks is at bowmanbluewater.com.
Union-Tribune
Ed Zieralski: (619) 293-1225;

Using Trout to Cure Cancer

http://kezi.com/news/local/135392

Jeff SkrzypekJuly 24, 2009 CORVALLIS, Ore.-- When it come to disease and reasearch testing, lab rats and mice have been the standard for years, but now that's changing.

A group of scientists from Oregon State University are using Rainbow Trout, which they say is proving to be more accurate because the fish have less natural occurrences of cancer to begin with.

Salmon DNA Used to make organic LED

Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Making Light Bulbs from DNA
Dye-doped DNA nanofibers can be tuned to emit different colors of light.
By Prachi Patel

By adding fluorescent dyes to DNA and then spinning the DNA strands into nanofibers, researchers at the University of Connecticut have made a new material that emits bright white light. The material absorbs energy from ultraviolet light and gives off different colors of light--from blue to orange to white--depending on the proportions of dye it contains.

The researchers, led by chemistry professor Gregory Sotzing, create white-light-emitting devices by coating ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with the material. They are even able to fine-tune the white color tone to make it warm or cold, as they report in a paper published online in the journal Angewandte Chemie.

The new material could be used to make a novel type of organic light bulb. The light emitters should also be longer-lasting because DNA is a very strong polymer, Sotzing says. "It's well beyond other polymers [in strength]," he notes, adding that it lasts 50 times longer than acrylic.

The color-tunable DNA material relies on an energy-transfer mechanism between two different fluorescent dyes. The key is to keep the dye molecules separated at a distance of 2 to 10 nanometers from each other. When UV light is shined on the material, one dye absorbs the energy and produces blue light. If the other dye molecule is at the right distance, it will absorb part of that blue-light energy and emit orange light.

By changing the ratio of the two dyes, the researchers can alter the combined color of light that the material gives off. Varying the amount of dye also lets them make finer tweaks. For example, by increasing the proportion of dye in the DNA from 1.33 percent to 10 percent, they can change the white light from cool to warm. "As you go across the white spectrum, if you want a soft yellow-type light or blue-type light, you can get these very easily with the DNA system," Sotzing says.

Others have used nanostructured materials such as silica nanoparticles and block copolymers--self-assembled materials containing two linked polymer chains--to get the right spacing between the two dyes. But, says David Walt, a chemistry professor at Tufts University, "the advantage in the present system seems to be that the DNA fibers orient the dyes in an optimum way for efficient [fluorescence energy transfer] to occur." Furthermore, when larger amounts of dye are used in the other materials, they start to aggregate. This has two effects: it decreases energy transfer between them, dimming the light output, and it also prevents precise color tuning.


To make the fibers, Sotzing and his colleagues make a solution of salmon DNA and mix in the two types of dye. The solution is pumped slowly out from a fine needle, and a voltage is applied between the needle tip and a grounded copper plate covered with a glass slide. As the liquid jet comes out, it dries and forms long nanofibers that are deposited on the glass slide as a mat. The researchers then spin this nanofiber mat directly on the surface of an ultraviolet LED to make a white-light emitter.

During the fiber-spinning process, the two different dye molecules automatically attach themselves to two different locations on the DNA. The researchers have found in previous work that the nanofiber mats produce 10 times brighter light than thin films of the dye-containing DNA.

"It's really very cool [work], and I think that it has practical promise," says Aaron Clapp, a professor of chemical and biological engineering at Iowa State University. "[But] it seems like an overly dramatic way of doing it."

Clapp speculates that instead of relying on energy transfer between the two fluorescent dyes, you could just change their ratios and get the colors you want.

However, each dye would then require a different input energy source as opposed to just one UV source, Sotzing points out. What's more, energy transfer between two dyes gives better control over the color of the output light.

Walt says that it may be possible to use the first dye to transfer energy to multiple dyes and get an even wider range of colors. "The results reported here suggest DNA-[energy transfer] light emitters are promising," Walt says, "but the ultimate utility will depend on factors such as lifetime and power efficiency."

Copyright Technology Review 2009.

83 Pound Trout Landed in Canada!!!

A resident from Deline, N.W.T., out fishing with his son last Friday got more than he bargained for when he netted a fish that weighed approximately 38 kilograms (83 pounds).

George Kenny and his son Jordon, 13, caught the huge trout while fishing near Broken Plate Creek along the Great Bear Lake. The lake is home to the biggest lake trout in the world.

Kenny said his son was a bit startled when he first spotted the large trout.

“He was kind of … scared of it,” Kenny told CBC News on Monday. “But I told him it’s only a bit alive. It’s not going to do nothing.”

Kenny said the trout was badly tangled in the net. He tried to return the fish to the water but it wouldn’t come around. So he brought it back to Deline and weighed it.

Word of the large catch quickly spread through the community. People came out to see and photograph the giant fish.

Kenny said he caught an even bigger trout last year but he retuned that one to the water.

The Deline Land Corporation plans to mount the fish, Kenny said.

Angling proves a good catch for region

Survey indicates fishing is boost for area businesses
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
By Edward Munger Jr. (Contact)Gazette Reporter

CAPITAL REGION — Small waves from the Great Sacandaga Lake gently rolled through Vincent Donofrio’s legs as he stood near the shore, casting a spinner lure into the glistening water on a sunny afternoon last week.

He wasn’t having any luck yet, but Donofrio and his friends were catching trout and walleyes the week before.

Donofrio, of Gloversville, said he doesn’t believe it costs much money to go fishing, but he pays between $70 and $80 to fill up the tank on his boat when he isn’t fishing on the shore, as he was Friday.

That’s a small price to pay, he said, for a peaceful day on the water in search of some of New York state’s various sport fish that draw anglers to roughly 7,500 lakes and 50,000 miles of rivers and streams each year.

“It’s worth it, just being out in the sun. If you’re catching the fish, it’s good eating,” he said.

Donofrio is one of hundreds of thousands of people who participate in the sport, which is considered a multimillion-dollar boost for businesses throughout the state.

Research published last week estimates that anglers spent more than $530 million during the 2007 fishing season in the state — more than $4 million in Saratoga County and $3 million in Fulton County, the two largest sums in the Capital Region.

Estimates on spending and reports on popular destinations are among details in the New York Statewide

Angler Survey, a joint project by the state Department of Environmental Conservation and Cornell University’s Department of Natural Resources.

Statewide, anglers spent an estimated $202 million heading to a fishing spot and another $331 million once they got there, according to the report.

Results from the survey rank Saratoga County at 22 out of 57 counties outside of New York City for spending, with $4.19 million spent by anglers that year.

Fulton County came in 24th, with about $3.34 million spent by anglers, a figure that exceeds estimated spending by anglers in Albany, Montgomery, Schenectady and Schoharie counties combined, according to the report.

Though fishing has long been a popular activity in the Adirondack foothills of Fulton County, the area’s 44 lakes and the money they draw have been the focus of concerted promotion efforts since about 2006, Fulton County Chamber of Commerce President Wally Hart said.

“We’re sponsoring four [fishing] tournaments in September alone. These are hundreds of fishermen that come in and spend money,” Hart said.

Opportunities for boating and fishing hold prominent places on the chamber’s Web site, and fishing tournament coverage on the sports channel ESPN helps draw curious guests to the county’s waters, Hart said.

“That’s part of the reason we put so much effort into the fishing tournaments. There’s boats, equipment, and we know that they go grocery shopping. That’s why we do it, because we know they’re going to come here and spend money,” Hart said.

At Dave’s Bait & Tackle on Bunker Hill Road in Northville, Dave Allen said business appears to be better this year than last.

Allen suspects people are spending the bulk of their money on food at local eateries and for fuel.

But anglers need tackle and often seek a bit of advice from bait shop owners, Allen said.

“I’m just here trying to help them out, and it seems to be working. I’m selling a lot more stuff,” Allen said.

Allen said he’s been showing people a new lure scented with squid oil that’s been helping catch northern pike, walleyes and brown trout in the Great Sacandaga Lake.

‘I can’t complain’

“It’s nothing but increasing here in sales over the past few years. I really can’t complain,” Allen said.

“New York state, in the Adirondacks here, is some of the best fishing around. Right in this area, the trout fishing, the walleye fishing is as good as anywhere in the state,” Allen said.

Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce President Joe Dalton said fishing could probably be a bigger draw for Saratoga County, but he believes many people are scared away from fishing the Hudson River because of PCB contamination and reports of dredging.

Health advisories caution people against eating fish from a large stretch of the Hudson River primarily because of contamination from PCBs, for which a multimillion-dollar dredging project is currently under way.

Women of childbearing age and children younger than 15 are advised not to eat any fish from the Hudson River downstream of the Corinth Dam.

But Saratoga Lake and the Great Sacandaga Lake are big draws for tourists and outdoor enthusiasts, he said.

“There’s a big history of fishing around this area,” Dalton said.

For the tourism-heavy Saratoga County, the $4.19 million in spending for fishing in 2007 is a small piece of the overall tourism impact.

Dalton said excluding revenue from the Saratoga Performing Arts Center and the Saratoga Gaming and Raceway, tourists spend roughly $111 million in the county each year on lodging alone.

Given the large volume of rivers and streams in New York state, the economic impact of sport fishing comes as no surprise, said Shaun Keeler, inland fisheries section head at the DEC’s bureau of fisheries.

“Freshwater fishing has been a big-dollar industry in New York for years,” Keeler said, something many New Yorkers already know. “A big chunk of it is just the residents of the state itself in addition to out-of state people,” he explained.

Lodging, boating equipment or boat rentals, fuel and food are considered the typical items people spend money on when they head out to fish, Keeler said.

According to DEC data, 373,260 New York state residents purchased an annual fishing license for the 2007-08 year, 42,647 purchased resident senior citizen licenses, and 16,000 residents purchased a seven-day fishing license.

More than 24,000 out-of-state anglers purchased one-day fishing licenses, and 57,540 non-residents purchased fishing licenses for the season. More than 71,000 non-residents purchased a seven-day fishing license.

The New York Statewide Angling Survey contains detailed information about the most-popular fish sought after by anglers at particular water bodies and other data.

Maine Trout Unlimited school truly teaches

By DEIRDRE FLEMING/ Maine Sunday Telegram

SOLON, ME — As dusk fell and rain poured on the Kennebec River, a dozen diminutive fishermen were still, save for the stripping of line and the occasional back cast.
This group, ages 13 to 17, wasn’t bothered by the downpour. These fishermen knew what they were doing.

That, of course, is why they were at the sixth annual Maine Trout Unlimited Camp at Evergreen Campground, where young conservationists from across the country are brought each year.
The fishermen came from as far as Pennsylvania and Illinois, as well as from around Maine — from Caribou to Gorham.

The all-expenses-paid, six-day camp is funded through the Kennebec Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited and its sponsors. A dozen fishermen are chosen through an application process that involves a personal essay about fish ecology and conservation.

For most of those six days, that is what the camp is about. It’s like a junior college for environmentalists.

Remarkably, that’s why these teenagers come.

“We learned the parts of the fish, the parts of the skeleton yesterday. That helps you learn where to find fish, how to read the water,” said Kyle McLain, 14, of Fairfield. “We use nets (in the river) to dig down under rocks. You see how much life is in these things and where the bugs can be. You see what fish eat. It’s pretty cool.”

Greg Ponte, president of the Kennebec Valley Chapter, started the camp six years ago after attending the nation’s first Trout Unlimited youth camp in Pennsylvania.

The Kennebec Valley Chapter has long been active in teaching youths and women how to fly-fish, but the Pennsylvania trout camp goes further by teaching young fly fishermen what game fish need to survive and why. Ponte brought this approach to Maine.

“I want the best students who want to know what clean, cold water is — and that trout need clean, cold water,” Ponte said.

Biologists and professors volunteer to teach fish ecology and conservation, as do the expert fly fishermen who guide for free.

The state’s fish pathologist led a class in fish dissection. An entomologist spoke about what bugs fish eat. A biologist with the Maine Atlantic Salmon Commission explained how and why some of the best game fish are not as prolific.

It would be boring classroom stuff on a beautiful spring day to some. To this group of ultradevoted anglers, it’s boot camp on how to fish.

“How many kids are up at 4:30 a.m. and to bed at 10 p.m. to be up to go fishing? All of them are,” Ponte said. “Fly-fishing is the medium. Every morning, I ask them the same question: ‘Do you want to be here?’ They all say, ‘yes.’ ”

The campers study flies collected from the Kennebec River, then duplicate the patterns they see in nature at the fly-tying table. They test their work early in the morning, when the fish are feeding — and practice catch-and-release when they get one on.

Andrew Chione, 16, of Illinois came to the camp specifically to catch brook trout. The lectures teach him how. Chione can appreciate Maine’s precious little game fish.

“You learn about fisheries and the different kinds of conservation efforts for wild trout. This is the only state that has a lot of wild brook trout,” he said.

Evergreen Campground owners Lorena and Joe Labuit look on and smile at the collegiate-like intensity at the trout camp.

“When they leave here, they are experts. In a week, they get 20 years of experience,” Lorena Labuit said. “It still amazes us. If they get to dinner 10 minutes early, instead of waiting for food, they sit down and tie flies.”

Dusk is a favorite time. While the participants lean over vices and fashion feathers into patterns, they watch for the clock to hit 6.

When it does, three boys fly out of the dining room to suit up in waders.
As the sun drops and fog rises off the river, dark profiles of fishermen line the Kennebec. Each student has a guide, but not everyone needs to be guided.

In half an hour, three fish are caught; but there’s no hoopla, no trash talk here.
McLain of Fairfield has good luck for a second day, and the local is touted; but Ponte, ever determined to turn out future conservationists, pays the catch no mind.

“It’s because he pays attention. I don’t think any of these kids are naturals,” Ponte said.

Scientists try to crack salmon mystery

The special coastal character of New Brunswick, with lots of inland rivers, makes it a destination for a fellow often referred to as the 'King of Fish,' the Atlantic Salmon.

However, there has been a daunting challenge in the King's Court over the past 25 years.

Is there a glimmer of hope and potential good news on the horizon?

In order to try to solve the problems it seems to be encountering lately, scientists have been gathering some very significant research, using sophisticated technology, to better understand the highly evolved and adapted lifestyle of this amazing fish.

The adult Atlantic Salmon returns to its native river of birth with amazing fidelity, often spawning within 100 metres (300 feet) of where it was born several years earlier.

Those eggs laid in the gravel beds in the fall hatch the next spring into 'alevin,' which look like insect larvae with very large eyes.

They come out of the gravel as small 'fry' and soon grow and change into a 'parr,' which resembles a Speckled Trout.

They live in their areas of birth for two to three years (longer in northern regions of North America) to reach the next stage of development, the 'smolt' -- about 15 centimetres or six inches long -- that heads out to sea.

The journey from their favourite protective rock site in a freshwater stream to the vast salty ocean brings on a whole new set of challenges, along with some awesome physiological changes.

The smolt are equipped with very sophisticated 'on board technology' to meet challenges that are far too complex to visit in this commentary. Suffice to say they have salt pumps to die for, literally!

Some co-operative efforts from the Atlantic Salmon Foundation, the Miramichi Salmon Association and Fisheries and Oceans Canada just may be starting to bear fruit. That persistence may prove to be rewarding.

In the 1970s, it was realized the numbers of returning adults and juvenile fish (parr) in the Miramichi watershed, which is a very significant 14,000 square kilometres (3.5 million acres or 1.4 million hectares), were too low to sustain healthy returns of adult fish.

The commercial fishery was closed and anglers were mandated to release all salmon over 63 cm (24 in.)

This allowed female fish with cargoes of 10,000 or more eggs (compared to the 1,500-egg cargo of grilse, that is salmon under 63 cm) to proceed to the spawning grounds to complete their mission.

This double effort worked beautifully.

The number of juvenile fish in the river started to rise steadily until monitoring counts in 2008 showed the number of juvenile fish in the Miramichi River to be near historic highs.

This also meant historic numbers of smolts were heading to sea to replenish the adult supply to return and spawn.

This is what should have happened . . . but it didn't.

The number of returning adults simply did not correspond with the high number of smolts going out to sea.

The smolts seemed to be simply disappearing into an ocean 'black hole' that no one could identify.

Some state-of-the-art 'sonic telemetry' -- by inserting tags that could be monitored electronically -- has taken place in the Miramichi River system beginning with modest efforts in 2003, and building to a much larger program currently.

The work showed that an adequate number of smolts were indeed successfully leaving fresh water and the estuary to enter the ocean.

So why are they disappearing into this yet-to-be-discovered black hole and failing to return?

But while the mystery remains, the Atlantic Salmon Federation believes this work provided good evidence that the problem is not in the freshwater portion of the salmon's life.

After the Atlantic Salmon spawns in late fall it remains in the rivers for the winter, quietly resting under the ice and not feeding.

As the ice melts away in spring, there is a movement of adult salmon back out to sea in the latter half of April and May.

They immediately start to feed heavily (smelt are haute cuisine).

There is a very active recreational fishery for these fish, however it is almost all hook-and-release and the fish are released unharmed to continue their mission to the sea, to feed, and return with precious cargoes of spawn.

Some sonic tagging and monitoring work by the Atlantic Salmon Federation and the Miramichi Salmon Association has potentially demonstrated a second very significant and valued role these fish (kelts) have.

Monitoring has shown that although the kelts and smolts leave the river at different times, they mingle together at the same time on their sea migration across the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

This leaves a very possible theory that the juvenile smolts are following the kelts to the ocean feeding ground.

The kelts, who have already made the ocean migration once, may indeed be the leaders for the juvenile smolts to follow.

If this is indeed the case, the value of these outgoing spring adults may reach an even higher plateau of importance.

Something happened in 2008.

The number of returning adult salmon to the Miramichi River and many other rivers seemed to take a noticeable increase.

This same scenario occurred in several other rivers that still had Atlantic Salmon runs.

Also in 2008, something surprising happened with the Northern Cod stocks.

The cod stocks 'tanked' approximately 20 years ago and constant yearly monitoring since then has shown no significant recovery for 16 years.

However, in 2008 the cod stocks blossomed up -- five-fold that of the preceding years.

Has whatever it was out in the vast ocean that was 'swallowing' our cod and salmon stocks let go just a little bit?

Is the mystery 'murder case' been cracked before we can even discovered what it was?

Are the conservation efforts of closing the commercial fisheries for these species and the mandatory release of large adult salmon finally being rewarded?

Maybe . . . just maybe it has!

Hail the King, and may your court prevail.

* Nelson Poirier, from the Moncton area, is a veterinarian by trade and a naturalist by nature. His column appears each Saturday and he can be reached at P.O. Box 25091, Moncton, N.B. E1C 9M9 or e-mail nelson@nb.sympatico.ca.

Maine's Fishy Culverts

Maine's Fishy Culverts

Submitted by George Smith on Sun, 07/12/2009 - 8:05pm. Maine Nature
If your life depended on moving upstream, you’d care more about culverts.

Poorly constructed road culverts have been devastating for many creatures, from tiny aquatic organisms to big Atlantic salmon, and for my favorite fish, officially designated by the legislature as a Maine Heritage Fish, our wild and native brook trout.

This is no small problem. Maine’s cut of the federal stimulus package includes $1.7 million from NOAA to install better culverts in the upper Machias River to improve natural water flow and accessibility for sea-run fish. That’s $1.7 million, for just one stretch of one river.

Seth Koenig, executive director of Project SHARE, the Washington County organization that will administer the funds, told Bangor Daily News reporter Bill Trotter the federal money will be used to replace culverts. “Basically, the problem is undersized round culverts. In total, there will be about seventy sites affected.”

The project will also receive $600,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and $150,000 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. I’m no math wiz, but my calculator reports that this is about $35,000 per culvert. Perhaps they’re silver-lined.

They’ll begin replacing culverts any day now, another one of those “shovel-ready” jobs that is supposedly stimulating our economy and creating jobs.

Problem culverts also got the attention of the Maine legislature this year. The organization in which I serve as executive director, the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, joined four environmental organizations in support of LD 1333, An Act to Ensure that Replacement Culverts Permit Fish Passage. The bill was sponsored by House Speaker Hannah Pingree.

The environmental groups, to be fair, carried the water on this one, particularly the Maine Audubon Society whose lobbyist Jenny Burns Gray did a superb job on the bill, with a supporting cast of Maine Rivers, Atlantic Salmon Federation, and Maine Council of Trout Unlimited. LD 1333 began its upstream swim as a major piece of climate control legislation, but that’s a story for another day. At the end of the day, all that was left of the climate control bill was the provision for better culverts. The legislative process is a beautiful thing – sometimes.

Forgive me for making fun of this, because, as an avid angler, I do get angry when I see poorly installed culverts. Road workers just do not understand the impact of their poor work. Perhaps they just aren’t anglers.

The Maine Department of Transportation actually has an excellent manual that outlines the correct installation of culverts for its workers, and municipalities are supposed to use these best practices at the local level. But hey, who is looking?

Just a few crazy anglers, that’s all. And we haven’t been very effective in speaking up in the name of correct culverts.

Thousands of road culverts are too small, poorly installed, or not maintained, eliminating critical upstream passage for fish and aquatic organisms seeking food, spawning grounds, or cooler water. In the Lower Penobscot River alone, a recent survey found that 91 percent of the 533 crossings present passage problems for fish. And 54 percent of the problems were severe.

Better late than never, LD 1333 amends the Natural Resources Protection Act to limit exemptions to the current law’s requirement that natural stream flow be maintained for upstream and downstream passage when culverts or crossings are repaired or replaced. The bill also requires the Department of Environmental Protection to tighten up its abbreviated “permit by rule” process to require municipalities to meet the same stream flow requirement when replacing or repairing culverts and crossings.

It will take decades to repair not just the culverts, but also the damage we’ve done to native fisheries and aquatic resources. But doing it the right way, from here on, will save money in the future and assure a sustainable native fishery for generations to come.

Of course, the legislature just tiptoed into the stream this session. They required the DEP to bring their new rules back to the legislature for approval in 2010. Those rules won’t take effect until approved by the legislature next year.

Colorado wants to revise plan for roadless areas

DENVER—Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter says the state is drawing up changes to its draft plan for managing roadless areas and will seek additional public comment and review this summer.
Ritter told the U.S. Forest Service on Monday that Colorado has unique needs because it has to combat a bark beetle epidemic and promote and protect its travel and natural resource industries.

The proposed Colorado roadless rule, published in July 2008, would create a permanent conservation framework for 4.1 million acres of roadless land within the 11 national forests in the state.

Since then, the state has been working with the Forest Service and the public on improvements to the draft, updating the roadless inventory to add approximately 160,000 acres of high-quality roadless forests.

"From my first day in office, I have worked to provide lasting protections for Colorado's backcountry and roadless heritage," Ritter said.

Dave Petersen, Colorado field director for the conservation group Trout Unlimited, said politicians and environmentalists have been debating the issues since 2001 and the majority of people have backed stricter regulations.

"I think in one way, an additional public comment period is good, but nothing is going to change. Sporting groups said this is a disaster, it would give us one of the weakest protections in the country," he said.

But Suzanne O'Neill of the Colorado Wildlife Federation, which includes hunters and anglers, said it appears the state and Forest Service have been working to improve Colorado's proposal over the last several months.

"We'd like to see a strong rule that protects wildlife habitat in roadless areas," O'Neill said, "but we also recognize that there area some particular issues in Colorado that need to be addressed."

One of those issues is the best way to avoid catastrophic wildfires where roadless areas are close to homes and other development, O'Neill said.

Ritter said the goal is to balance the need to protect mountain communities and water infrastructure at the edge of roadless areas from fire risk with the overall goal of conserving roadless values.

He said the Colorado recommendations would also eliminate a loophole in the 2001 rule that allows pipelines to bisect roadless areas. Additional revisions by the state also would eliminate new roads for grazing.

Conservation, hunting and angling groups recently asked Colorado's congressional delegation to urge Ritter to delay completion of the state's plan while the Obama administration considers a long-term policy for 58 million acres of roadless forests nationwide.

They contend the plan would leave Colorado's roadless areas the least protected nationwide because it would allow temporary roads for wildfire prevention, expansion of existing coal mining and some utility infrastructure.

Some ski area terrain would be permanently removed from the inventory of roadless areas.

Colorado began crafting its own roadless rule amid legal battles over a Clinton-era ban on new roads in national forests.

Ritter called a state plan an insurance policy as different federal courts upheld and overturned the road-building ban and a Bush administration policy that opened some of the land to development.

Shoreline Fishing License Requirements Begin August 1

Florida's new shoreline fishing license requirement takes effect August 1. Resident anglers who fish for saltwater species from shore or a structure affixed to shore must have a $9 shoreline fishing license or a $17 regular saltwater fishing license.

Nonresident anglers need a regular nonresident saltwater fishing license to fish from shore or from a vessel. Short-term and annual nonresident fishing licenses cost between $17 and $47.

Additional fees may apply to all fishing licenses, depending on where an angler purchases the license.

The shoreline requirement allows exemptions for resident anglers who fish in their home county, using live or natural bait, on a line or pole without a line-retrieval mechanism. This exemption does not apply to anglers who use nets, traps, gigs, spears or who gather seafood by hand or any type of gear other than hook and line.

Other exemptions apply for anglers who qualify for temporary cash assistance, food stamps or Medicaid. Also, resident anglers who are age 65 or older and children under age 16 may fish without a license. Active-duty military personnel may fish without a license while home on leave in Florida.

Licensed fishing piers have licenses that cover everyone who fishes from them.

The FWC suggests the $17 regular saltwater fishing license may be the best option for most resident anglers unless they are certain they will fish only from shore or a structure affixed to shore all year.

By creating the shoreline fishing license, the Florida Legislature arranged for Florida anglers to be exempt from a more expensive federal angler registration requirement that will take effect in 2011.

Contact:
Henry Cabbage (850) 488-8843

Lake Michigan Coastal Program Accepting 2010 Grant Pre-proposals

The Lake Michigan Coastal Program will accept pre-proposals for the 2010 funding cycle until September 14, 2009. Pre-proposals that receive favorable recommendation from the Coastal Advisory Board will be eligible to submit a full proposal.

Funding for approved projects begins in July 2010.

"The Coastal Advisory Board determined many emerging coastal issues to be priority for the 2010 Funding Cycle. The priorities include improving public access to our natural areas and waterways, promoting sustainable community planning and addressing our unique coastal hydrology issues," said Jenny Orsburn, program specialist of the CAB's plans for making funding selections.

DNR director Robert E. Carter Jr. said: "We are proud of the Coastal Grants Program and all the projects funded over the years. We look forward to another great batch of projects this year to further improve our coastal environment."

The Lake Michigan Coastal Grants Program is an annual competitive grants program that awards up to $650,000 to units of local government, regional and state agencies, colleges and universities as well as non-profit organizations. The LMCP funds may be expended on low-cost construction, land acquisition, planning and coordination, education and outreach, and applied research projects. Projects must be located entirely within the Lake Michigan coastal area, which is the northern portion of Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties.

The DNR's LMCP was created to coordinate efforts between local, state and federal governments as well as local organizations, and to support projects that protect and restore natural, cultural and historical resources in Indiana's coastal region.

The LMCP is funded through the Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Office of Coastal Resource Management.

For more information see http://www.IN.gov/dnr/lakemich
Contact:
Mike Molnar, LMCP program manager, (317) 233-0132