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Dutch Fork to be refilled starting next fall

Shawna Herleth-King, of the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), inspects Rainbow Trout that were netted July 14 at the mouth of the Rosewood Beach ravine. Five fish species, including two listed by the state as “species in greatest need of conservation” were found in the Highland Park ravine system. | Photos courtesy of the Park District of Highland Park

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Updated: July 28, 2011 3:17AM

The Park District of Highland Park’s ravine restoration program continues to show signs of healthier local fish habitat as two endangered species were recently found to be hatching eggs in the city’s stream system.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.

Longnose Dace and Lake Chub baby fish — both included in the Illinois Wildlife Action Plan — were noted in the latest ravine study conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers near Rosewood, Mallard and Moraine parks.

Baby White Suckers also were found this month, officials reported, and were likely hatched in the ravine streams as a result of spring migration by the adult fish.

Scientists made the series of discoveries July 14, while continuing its larger analysis of Highland Park’s lakefront parks and preserves.

Funded by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, local improvements have included the installation of natural cobbles to create pool and riffle habitat; steel groynes at the outlet to the lake were cut lower to allow easier fish access; and sheltering overhangs were built using large stones. Native trees and plants now provide additional shaded areas while also providing soil stabilization along the stream banks.

Rebecca Grill, the Park District’s natural areas manager, explained that rising water temperatures over the years has worked to suppress fish vitality.

“The only way we could really change anything about water temperature is to provide shade to make the water cooler, or make it deeper,” she said. “We knew Rainbow Trout were hiding (in our streams), but we were really excited because they found those other species, too.”

The district’s long-range goal is to ensure Highland Park’s streams remain safe havens for fish to find shelter from the lake to hatch eggs.

“To know they can be successful here is really exciting,” Grill said. “We are hoping it also helps people understand our connection to Lake Michigan. The lake is a huge resource for northern Illinois and the nation. It’s our source of drinking water, and we should care about its health for our own health.

“And to think we can support these fish species, these living creatures at the base of our ecosystem, that’s miraculous considering how urbanized we are.”

The fish-friendly habitat restoration project also brought in volunteers from the Gary Borger Chapter of Trout Unlimited, a national conservation organization, and was designed by Northfield-based Shabica and Associates, and constructed by V3 Companies of Woodridge.

“Nobody on the federal level suspected that fish could be in these streams and have reproductive success,” Grill concluded. “We’re going to show that with a little bit of work, they can. It’s been very rewarding.”

Fish habitat improvement

In 1992, the Lake Havasu Fisheries Improvement Program began construction and placement of fish habitat structures in 42 coves throughout the lake, with the objective of enhancing and sustaining the game fish population. Since completion in 2002, the program has continued to maintain these structures. Residents feel strongly about protecting fishing on the lake for generations to come. Countless volunteers have contributed more than 210,000 hours to the program thus far.

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.

The Bureau of Land Management leads a seven-member partnership for the program that includes the Arizona Game and Fish Department, Bureau of Reclamation, California Department of Fish and Game, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and Anglers United, a private nonprofit group.

As one of the largest and most successful fish habitat improvement projects ever undertaken in the U.S., it stands as a shining example of what can be accomplished when government natural resource agencies, anglers and interested members of the public and private sector companies work together on behalf of the future of fishing. (For more information, contact Kirk Koch, BLM, at 928-505-1237.)

The combination of natural resources and careful management make Lake Havasu one of the best fishing lakes in Arizona.

The Western Native Trout Initiative, a venture of the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and a National Fish Habitat Partnership, is pleased to announce the recipients of the first round of the new “Small Project Funding Program.”

The purpose of this program is to provide a source of funding to organizations desiring to become involved in the conservation – protection, restoration or enhancement – of western native trout at the local level. The small project funding program specifically supports collaborative approaches and partnerships involved in local efforts or community-based programs that provide for habitat, educational, or public recreational angling programs that contribute to the Initiative’s efforts to conserve western native trout.

WNTI received 14 applications for small projects in 2011, and the WNTI Steering Committee determined the funded projects at their recent summer meeting. The following projects were funded:

1.   Rattlesnake Creek Community Stewardship Program: $1485

2.   “Every Cutthroat Counts” Upper Teton River Signage: $775

3.   Chicago Creek WCT Re-introduction Project: $3000

4.   Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers Outreach Project: $2,000

5.   Apache Trout in the Classroom Project: $3000

6.   “Surviving Climate Change” RGCT Watershed Assessment: $3000

7.   McDonald Creek Water Quality Protection (partially funded): $1740

The WNTI is seeking additional funding for projects in future years. The current round of projects was funded by a $15,000 grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).

WNTI National Fish Habitat Action Plan 2012 Request for Proposals

Each year, the Western Native Trout Initiative posts a project proposal request on its web page that is sent to cooperators across the West.

National Fish Habitat Action Plan (NFHAP) proposals are added to the FWS’s Fisheries Operation Needs System (FONS) list, and then each FWS Regional office in the WNTI geographic area works with the states to determine the top 10 projects for their Region. These lists are completed by the end of November each year. 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.

In December, the WNTI Steering Committee reviews the “top 10” lists and determines which projects will be prioritized for a NFHAP funding allocation for fish habitat conservation. Due to budget negotiations in the U.S. Congress, the amount of funding available to Fish Habitat Partnerships in 2012 is unknown. However, the WNTI is requesting project proposals be submitted as usual for 2012 funding.

Note: The deadline for WNTI NFHAP 2012 project proposals is September 15, 2012.  For details, please visit the WNTI website (www.westernnativetrout.org) and download the WNTI 2012 Project Request form.

The Mission of the Western Native Trout Initiative is to serve as a key catalyst for the implementation of conservation or management actions, through partnerships and cooperative efforts, which result in improved western native trout status, improved aquatic habitats, and improved recreational opportunities for native trout anglers. For more information on our work and the people who make it happen, visit www.westernnativetrout.org.

Posted by SuzieDowning 2 days ago ()
Category: Science | Tags: National Geographic

(NewDesignWorld Press Center) – A controversial plan to remove four dams from the Klamath River to save endangered salmon could make its way to Congress in the coming weeks.

Capitol Hill lawmakers will consider taking down California’s Iron Gate, Copco 2, Copco 1, and John C. Boyle dams at a cost of about $1 billion, half of that potentially funded with federal tax dollars.

The removal plan has the backing of several Native American tribes on the Klamath who rely on the river for salmon fishing, as well as farmers who depend on its water for irrigation. The plan also has the support of PacifiCorp, Warren Buffett’s power company, which owns the dams.

Buffett’s company could benefit from dam removal because it might cost more to install the required modifications for fish passage if the dams remain. But if dams come down, salmon would be the biggest winners.

(Read the 2008 National Geographic magazine article on the Klamath River.)

Salmon runs have dwindled in the past century—from millions of fish to less than 100,000 in most years—primarily because of the dams, according to nonprofit environmental groups such as American Rivers and native tribes that depend on the fish. Those same groups say hits to water quality such as farm runoff are also to blame.

Mike Belchik is a fisheries biologist for the Yurok Tribe in California. The tribe maintains that it has relied on the fish since “time immemorial,” Belchick says, adding that archaeologists say humans have lived and fished in the area for at least 9,000 years. He says taking out the dams would allow the fish to return to their historic and more productive cold-water mountain streams, which are currently blocked by the dams, and help resolve disruptions to the main stem Klamath where they’re just barely hanging on today.

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.

No Silver Bullet

But a recent scientific review of the dam-removal plan warned that if dam removal went forward, it would not be a silver bullet.

The independent report, commissioned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, reported that dam removal could help boost Chinook salmon population if other factors, such as water quality and warming due to climate change are in kept in check.

Belchik and the other proponents agree.

Dam removal, even with its uncertainty, would open the door for a salmon rebound, he says—and help assure their long-term survival.

“That water’s going to be stable even in the face of climate change. We need to get these dams down and get these fish to these cold water springs,” he says. “That’s their future.”

Crash in the Klamath

The Klamath River originates in eastern Oregon and empties into the Pacific in northern California. Its diverse course—beginning with huge snow-fed springs and flowing over high desert on its way to the sea—supported thriving migratory salmon populations for thousands of years. In turn it also supported people who depended on the fish including the Yurok, Karuk, Klamath, and Hoopa Valley Indian tribes and, more recently, non-tribal fishermen.

Just before the start of the 20th century, farmers moved into the basin. Some dams—including two on the upper Klamath that aren’t planned for removal—were put in for irrigation.

The other four Klamath dams—the ones on the chopping block—are used solely for hydropower. Previous estimates have suggested the dams together produce the energy equivalent of 360 tons of coal, or enough to power about 70,000 homes.

As the Klamath was developed, its salmon runs dwindled. Spring-run Chinook salmon have gone extinct near the dams, and species such as the Coho are so imperiled they can’t be fished.

Now, subsistence and commercial fishers alike are relying on just the fall-run Chinook. Once teeming with a million adult salmon, that run now sees fewer than 100,000 fish. Federal agencies are working on an economic analysis of the fishery, but it is not ready yet.

Still, when the Yurok and Karuk tribes first asked more than a decade ago for the removal of the dams, “We got laughed at,” Belchik said.

But that was before 2001, when irrigation was shut down for the salmon’s benefit, hitting some Klamath farmers’ bottom lines. The next year, the government erred in the other direction—giving farmers too much water at the expense of the fish—resulting in a devastating fish kill.

“Those disasters got the farmers and us talking,” Belchik said.

Greg Addington, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association, which unifies the river’s farmers, said most of his members believe there should be more dams, not fewer. But, as part of the dam-removal plan that the association now supports, irrigators will be guaranteed a reliable amount of water from year to year out of the Klamath. It’s less than what they’d like, but it will allow them to stay in business, Addington said.

(Read Addington’s account from the field in “After Decades of Conflict, Adversaries Join Forces to Save the Klamath River—and Themselves.”)

Ambitious Plan

Last year, 28 stakeholders, including the famers, the tribes and PacifiCorp, signed the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement. It spells out a laundry list of preliminary requirements that must be completed—studies, interagency agreements, and approvals all the way up to Congress and the Interior secretary—leading to removal of the dams by 2020. The recently completed scientific review was one of the requirements.

The public utility commissions in both Oregon and California have signed off on the agreement, and Congress is the next stop.

The forthcoming legislation won’t request any congressional funds for the actual removal of the dams. The various interest groups have pledged the necessary $450 million for that. But Congress would be required to approve up to $500 million more over the next decade for companion projects necessary to restore fish habitat, such as replanting along the sides of streams, restoring water quality, and working with farmers and ranchers on water conservation.

Rep. Tom McClintock, R-California, who chairs the House Water and Power Subcommittee, would be a pivotal figure in any congressional negotiations.

“The attempt to destroy four perfectly good hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River at a cost of more than a half-billion dollars and at a time of severe electricity shortages is insane,” he wrote in an email, adding that the proposal would also shut down the state-owned Iron Gate Fish Hatchery, which has started its own salmon recovery efforts.

Should the agreement make it through Congress, the next step is for the Interior secretary to sign off by next March.

(See dam, irrigation, and water infrastructure photos.)

A Precedent

Klamath dam-removal advocates could get a boost from two dam-removal efforts in Washington State that are slated to start this fall. American Rivers is celebrating the pending removal of the Elwah River’s 210-foot Glines Canyon Dam, as well as the Condit Dam on the White Salmon River, a tributary of the Columbia River.

“When the dams were built 100 years ago, they served a useful purpose,” Amy Kober, an American Rivers spokesperson, wrote in an email. “Today, we value our imperiled salmon runs and free-flowing rivers, and all the recreation, spiritual, and economic benefits they provide.”
Discuss   Bury

Wildlands Conservancy helps return waterway in oft-overlooked downtown park to health.

(from left) Billy Hazlet, 20, Amber Troxell, 20, and Tommy Howard, 19, all of Allentown, workers for Allentown’s “stream team” use brush cutters to cut down Japanese Knotweed at Trout Creek Park in Allentown. They are removing a variety of invasive plants such as Japanese Knotweed and Japanese Hops that line the creek as part of $150,000 effort to rehab Trout Creek spearheaded by the Wildlands Conservancy’s Rivers Conservation Department. This is being done to improve the water quality for city residents to enjoy as well as the native insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and fish that inhabit the creek. (EMILY ROBSON / THE MORNING CALL)

• Related
• PICTURES: Giving Trout Creek a makeover
• Topics
• Rivers
• Bodies of Water
• Trout
• See more topics »

By Scott Kraus, Of The Morning Call7:41 p.m. EDT, July 24, 2011

Five years ago, when Greg Weitzel became Allentown’s parks director, he took a tour of every one of the city’s outdoor venues.When he got to Trout Creek Park, he couldn’t help but notice that the creek the park draws its name from was in bad shape.

“I walked along Trout Creek and it was in need of major work,” Weitzel said. “The Japanese knotweed was so prolific. It was so big we said, How do we even tackle this? We needed help.”

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Japanese knotweed is a stubborn, aggressive weed that crowds out native plant species that provide habitat for local wildlife. It’s one of several invasive plants that keep the region’s naturalists on their toes.

That’s not Trout Creek’s only problem, said Abby Pattishall, director of conservation science for the Wildlands Conservancy. Its stream banks are badly eroded and it is full of failed man-made structures aimed at fixing the creek.

“It is very urban, it is very heavily used, it is pretty typical of our more neglected urban spaces,” she said. “But at the same time there is huge potential to restore the wildlife habitat to become a model of what an urban park could be.”

Relief is coming. The Wildlands Conservancy will begin work in August with the city and the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission to wipe out the knotweed, repair about 1.5 miles of stream bank and remove multiple hunks of concrete and man-made barriers that have damaged the stream.

The $150,000 project—the conservancy’s largest single stream restoration — is being made possible by grants from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The city is contributing parks employees’ labor, and neighbor Imperial Excavating is also donating its services.

“[The project involves] removing acres and acres of invasive plants, regrading the stream banks to reconnect the stream with the flood plain, installing a lot of man-made but naturally designed habitat structures for fish, amphibians and reptiles. The idea is to return nature to this pretty neglected urban park,” Pattishall said.

Today, stretches of the stream’s banks where the flow has been redirected by man-made structures are badly eroded. At one point, a dam has created a stagnant pool where clear, cool spring water should be pouring into the creek.

If all goes as planned, Trout Creek will flow clean and clear, full of trout, with banks that are lush with native plants and trees that support a wide variety of animal life from insects to mammals.

That will also mean good things for the Lehigh River because Trout Creek is one of its many tributaries.

“The Lehigh River is 103 miles long, but there are about 2,000 miles of tributary streams feeding it,” Pattishall said. “If we want a healthier river, we need to protect and restore its tributaries.”

The city’s stream team — a group of parks workers dedicated to removing invasive species from the banks of city waterways — has already been at work this summer, clearing out acres of Japanese knotweed on the banks of the stream. The hardy weed must be twice cut and then sprayed with herbicide. The city began work on that more than a year ago. Even so, there are no guarantees it will be eradicated.

Heavier construction work, including the addition of a variety of new man-made but nature-inspired habitat structures will begin in August. The work will place logs in the stream to create deeper channels and stream bank nooks that provide fish with places to hide from predators.

Two footbridges that are eroding will be removed. One will be replaced.

In the fall, the Wildlands Conservancy will oversee plantings of native trees and shrubs along the stream banks to replace the invasive plants. The challenge for the city, whose workers must hustle just to keep up with litter in the heavily used park, will be to maintain the improvements.

Despite Trout Creek’s deteriorated condition, it remains a high quality “class A” brown trout fishery, said Tyler Neimond, a habitat manager with the Fish and Boat Commission. Recent visits have shown trout of various sizes, an indication that the fish are breeding in the creek.

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.

“Our main concern is to provide the best fish habitat that we can,” Neimond said. “Right now, there are a few areas the majority of the fish are holding in because there is suitable habitat … we can potentially expand the habitat through the whole reach of the stream.”

That creates a better supply of trout, some of which might even migrate into the Little Lehigh Creek and Lehigh River, he said.

scott.kraus@mcall.com