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Category: CRAPPIE HABITAT
Water Quality and Fish Habitat
| “An important factors in fish health and human health is water quality. We all need clean water to stay healthy, and forested waterways play an important role in maintaining clean water supply.” More information: |
People need clean water. In the western United States, almost all municipal water—the stuff we city-slickers use—comes from forests. About 70% of these same forests are also actively managed for timber harvest. Thus far, municipal water quality has been sustained while other forest uses, logging and recreation for example, have also been sustained. With a growing population in the West, can we keep it up? See the dozens of unique artificial fish habitat models, fish attractors and fish cover used at fishiding.com, the industry leader and only science based, man made and artificial fish habitat, proven to provide all fish with cover they prefer to prosper.
Fish need clean, cool water. Fish and other aquatic animals, are not limited to the forested reaches of waterways. Salmon, for instance, use waterways to travel from the highest reaches, the often-forested mountains where adults spawn, all the way to the oceans where juveniles grow to adulthood. Because animals like salmon use all stretches of waterways, it will take more than forest-covered mountains to keep our streams healthy for them. Every stretch of river—whether in the mountains, in agricultural valley-lands, in the city, or along the coast— is important in maintaining water quality, forested or not!
Trees play an important role in our waterways. Fish need cool, oxygen-rich water in order to survive and stay healthy. Trees help shade waterways, keeping the water temperature down and the dissolved oxygen high. Also, sediments washed into waterways from adjacent land can coat the bottom of streams where fish lay their eggs, suffocating them before they can hatch—tree roots can stabilize river banks, reducing erosion of sediments into the stream. Tree roots can also regulate the flow of water in the ground—this water can move more slowly through the soil, giving microorganisms like fungi and bacteria a chance to degrade pollutants before they reach the waterway! Similarly, tree leaves—both green leaves in the tree canopy and fallen leaves on the forest floor—absorb the impact of raindrops, protecting easily eroded soil surfaces.
Because trees can play such an important role in maintaining water quality, many times we can often minimize water quality problems by “buffering” a waterway from harmful impacts. In some cases we do this by leaving borders of trees and understory vegetation; we call these “buffer strips”.
Buffer strips are successfully used to reduce negative impacts on riparian areas in a variety of circumstances. In fact, one can see them along streams in agricultural, urban, and forested areas. They are used as filters for animal waste-rich waters that percolate from pasture. They are used as live barriers to keep livestock away from sensitive areas like easily eroded streambanks They are used to provide myriad benefits to forested areas adjacent to fish-bearing streams—trees are still harvested from upslope stands, but the valuable services of streamside trees and other plants are maintained.
As you can see, trees and other plants are important factors in water quality. Woody vegetation like trees offer something else that few other plants can however; large woody debris. Woody debris in streams creates slow spots in fast-moving water where fish can rest. It creates pools where fish can grow and escape predation. Woody debris becomes both home and food for insects that make up a fish’s diet. It also provides fish the physical cover needed to avoid predators. And, as mentioned before, it can serve as a filter for pollutants and sediments by acting as a biological “scrub-brush” for the water!
Pork producer hit with fines
Pork producer hit with fines
Jun 12, 2011
Written by
SETH SLABAUGH
UNION CITY — A pork producer recently paid $12,693 to the Indiana Department of EnvironmentalManagement to settle a complaint that his hogs’ manure killed nearly 47,000 fish in 2008.
Rick Kremer and State Line Agri, Ansonia, Ohio, paid the civil penalty on Friday, about two months after an IDEM inspection found that he had not completed three “supplemental environmental projects” required in an agreed order on July 24, 2009.
At that time, in lieu of paying the civil penalty, Kremer agreed to replace existing county drainage tile that is 112 years old, to install a grass and tree buffer along Price Ditch to help filter and reduce potential contaminants, reduce soil erosion and improve wildlife habitat and to install a tree buffer and windbreak around hog buildings to screen, filter and disperse potential air contaminants exhausted from the buildings.
The agreed order called for the projects to be completed by July 24, 2010.
“Part of the supplemental environmental project was prohibited by dry weather last fall, and they had difficulty getting the rest of it done, so they opted to pay the balance instead of completing the project,” said IDEM spokesman Barry Sneed.
Kremer already had reimbursed the Indiana Department of NaturalResources $13,696 for the value of damage to an estimated 46,962 bass, bluegill, carp, catfish, creek chub, darters, minnows, stonerollers, suckers and other fish killed in an eight-mile stretch of Little Mississinewa River.
“A plan is being developed to use the funds for a fish habitat project that will help native fishes recover and repopulate in or near the kill zone,” said Phil Bloom, a DNR spokesman. “The project has several partners: DNR, Randolph County Soil and Water Conservation District, Randolph County surveyor, U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Indiana State Department of Agriculture. The goal is to have the project installed later this year or in 2012.”
Kremer had land-applied manure when soil and weather conditions were unsuitable.
The supplemental environmental projects would have cost Kremer much more than the civil penalty. He previously paid $2,800 of the original civil penalty of $14,000. He had agreed to complete the environmental projects in lieu of paying the remainder of the civil penalty.
The penalty he paid Friday included the remaining $11,200, plus $1,493 in interest.
Damages to the fish population were determined using American Fisheries Society guidelines that calculate the average cost for a hatchery to raise a fish of the same species to the same size.
“All fish have a value,” Bloom said in 2009. “The larger the fish, the more it’s worth.”
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Artificial PVC Fish Attractors for New Pond Construction and Renovation
Here’s another great story written by Brad Wiegmann, outdoor writer, professional angler and fishing guide. Artificial fish habitat, fish attractors, fish cover, PVC fish habitat, artificial fish attractors……..what kind do I need just to catch a few bass or crappie?
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