Updated GLWQA signed in Washington DC, September 7, 2012

By Mary Muter, Chair Sierra Club Canada Great Lakes Section

After 25 years the governments of Canada and the United States have finally come together on the terms of a new revised Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (online here) that better reflects the current conditions of the Great Lakes than the 1987 Agreement. This new Agreement has three new Annexes – Aquatic Invasive Species, Habitat and Species and Climate Change Impacts – that will be able to take advantage of the increased knowledge on these important issues. The question is: will there be funding and resources to address the new challenges facing the Great Lakes when existing Areas Of Concern like Toronto and Detroit continue to show little sign of improvement? Dozens of unique habitat models at fishiding.com

Sierra Club applauds the governments’ commitment to prevent further loss of habitat and species that contribute to the protection of Great Lakes water quality. Those high quality coastal wetlands still intact on the Great Lakes would have to be at the top of the list needing protection. We have already lost 70% of coastal wetlands on Lakes Ontario and Erie due to pollution and/or development. Great Lakes wetlands are needed by about 80% of Great Lakes fish for spawning and or nursery habitat. If Great Lakes fish cannot find suitable spawning habitat they simply do not spawn. The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources has already identified declining Northern Pike and Musky populations due to 13 years of sustained low water levels and loss of wetland habitat on Lakes Huron and Georgian Bay. We will be watching to see if the development and implementation of lakewide habitat and species protection, restoration, and conservation strategies will be met in their two year stated objective. Another critical issue will be whether individual targets or goals can be established for each Great Lake that reflect background conditions.

Will there be enough resources to meet these lofty objectives? It is hard to believe these objectives can be met while the Government of Canada has eliminated hundreds of science positions including closing the Experimental Lakes Project – the research station where Dr. David Schindler’s internationally respected ground-breaking research to identify phosphorus as the leading cause of algal growth. Where would we be today without that critical knowledge?

We need strengthened legislation not the weakened sections of the Fisheries Act by the removal of fish habitat. This one action alone has left thousands of un-assessed coastal wetlands now vulnerable to encroachment or degradation due to development.

Sierra Club hopes the new Agreement will better protect and restore the Great Lakes. To accomplish that our governments in Canada and the United States will need to involve the public at a very high level to ensure accountability and progress. We have a very valuable bi-national resource in the Great Lakes; to protect and restore them we require the best possible public and government actions along with the required resources. Only then will the obligations under this Agreement be fulfilled.

Forte, of Franklin County, designed it himself, and now the invention is part of an assortment of habitat devices that will be used to determine how to entice more fish into coves at the lake.

With the help of Internet research, Forte built a similar pyramid habitat and installed it under his boathouse a few years ago. He said it caused a “dramatic difference” in the number of fish swimming in his cove; today, there are dozens and dozens as opposed to very few.

“I just wanted to see if I could attract some fish,” he said. “And it worked.” See the dozens of unique habitat models at fishiding.com

The power company, which uses Smith Mountain and Leesville lakes to produce electricity through a two-reservoir hydroelectric generation dam, hopes to duplicate that kind of success in drawing fish to shallow water areas, said Liz Parcell, a plant manager.

Last week, workers lowered about a dozen similar fish habitat devices in areas shallower than 20 feet in the cove below the Discovery Center at Smith Mountain Lake State Park in Bedford County.

Some of the habitat designs were natural collections of brush and twigs; others were man-made and included cinder blocks, wood pallets and various pipes.

“It’s kind of like a scientific project,” Parcell said.

Some designs resembled objects that might be seen in art galleries, but that will change over time, she said. (possibly the fishiding structures)“They’ll get covered in algae; they won’t look like this for long,” Parcell said. 

The goal is to study what designs work and then share that information with lake homeowners, who in turn could use it to create fish habitats of their own.

Next year, the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries will send scuba divers near the habitats placed in the water to gauge their effectiveness in drawing more fish, Parcell said.

The work is tied to the 30-year license renewal that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granted APCo in 2010, she said. The license, which the commission renewed after years of planning and debate among lake-area stakeholders, calls for a habitat-management plan and improved habitat along the shoreline.

Lake-area residents and landowners will have to obtain permits from the company before installing the habitats, Parcell said. APCo is working to have that process online, she said, and hopes to have it up and running soon.

“Hopefully, no one gets too excited too quickly,” she said.

By: JUSTIN FAULCONER | The News & Advance
LYNCHBURG, Va. —

National Fish Habitat Action Plan, Second Edition

The revised Action Plan is built on the success and experience of our Partners.

Washington, DC (PRWEB) August 29, 2012

The National Fish Habitat Board today released the second edition of the National Fish Habitat Action Plan (Action Plan), setting forth a mission-critical approach to conserving the nation’s aquatic resources for the future. The original National Fish Habitat Action Plan, created in 2006, carried a great vision forward to protect, restore and enhance aquatic habitats through partnerships. While the original Plan met its objectives set forth in 2010, the mission and goals of the plan remain the same and are the foundation of the second edition of the Plan for 2012 and beyond.

The second edition of the National Fish Habitat Action Plan is built on the foundation of advancing the conservation practices of the individual National Fish Habitat Partnerships, the working units of the National Fish Habitat Partnership. The five new objectives in the Plan include:

• • Achieve measurable habitat conservation results through strategic actions of Fish Habitat Partnerships that improve ecological condition, restore natural processes, or prevent the decline of intact and healthy systems leading to better fish habitat conditions and increased fishing opportunities.

• • Establish a consensus set of national conservation strategies as a framework to guide future actions and investment by the Fish Habitat Partnerships by 2013.

• • Broaden the community of support for fish habitat conservation by increasing fishing opportunities, fostering the participation of local communities – especially young people – in conservation activities, and raising public awareness of the role healthy fish habitats play in the quality of life and economic well-being of local communities.

• • Fill gaps in the National Fish Habitat Assessment and its associated database to empower strategic conservation action supported by broadly available scientific information, and integrate socio-economic data in the analysis to improve people’s lives in a manner consistent with fish habitat conservation goals.

• Communicate the conservation outcomes produced collectively by Fish Habitat Partnerships as well as new opportunities and voluntary approaches for conserving fish habitat to the public and conservation partners.

The second edition of the Action Plan details how the new objectives will be implemented. The Plan also highlights conservation “Partnership in Action” stories from Fish Habitat Partnerships to provide insight into their work on the ground. Other sections explain the functions of the National Fish Habitat Board and Partnerships and the critical role of science and data and effective communications to guide activities. Interesting facts and figures related to the National Fish Habitat Partnership, recreational and commercial fishing fill out the rest of the Plan. See the dozens of unique habitat models at fishiding.com

“The revised Action Plan is built on the success and experiences of our Partners,” said Kelly Hepler, Chairman of the National Fish Habitat Board and Assistant Commissioner, Alaska Department of Fish and Game. “Creating and maintaining these Partnerships is the foundation of the Action Plan and will be the primary focus as we address conservation needs for our nation’s waterways now and into the future.”

The National Fish Habitat Board, Fish Habitat Partnerships, federal and state natural resource agencies, conservation organizations and the National Fish Habitat Partner Coalition participated in the selection process of the revised Plan objectives. The release of the revised Action Plan coincides with the launch of the updated National Fish Habitat Partnership website at http://www.fishhabitat.org.

To view and download a PDF of the revised Action Plan, visit http://www.fishhabitat.org/images/nfhp_ap_final.pdf.

About the National Fish Habitat Partnership
The National Fish Habitat Partnership (http://www.fishhabitat.org) works to conserve fish habitat nationwide—leveraging federal, state and private funding sources to achieve the greatest impact on fish populations through priority conservation projects. The national partnership implements the National Fish Habitat Action Plan and supports 18 regional grassroots partner organizations.

For a long time, this half-mile stretch of river in Keene Valley was growing broader and shallower, filling with sediment and gravel as its banks eroded and fell in, eating the land of Rivermede Farm at a rate of several feet a year and losing habitat for fish, amphibians and reptiles.

Beginning in July, 2012, large trees were dug out of the ground nearby and imbedded in the riverbank, root wads facing into the stream as fish habitat, the trunks buried side by side to stabilize the bank.

Photo/Martha Allen/Lake Placid News

Carl Schwartz, of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, leads a tour of the recently completed Rivermede riverbank stabilization and restoration project on the east branch of the Ausable River in Keene Valley Thursday, Aug. 16.

“Fish, llittle minnows and bigger fish, appeared immediately, as soon as the habitat was restored,” said Corrie Miller, director of the Ausable River Association.

At the toe of the bank, underwater, where they will not decay, logs are buried, covered with a layer of woody debris and fill, live cuttings, and then a sod mat of jute or similar material, for the cuttings to grow through. This constitutes a bench, which deflects water currents, preventing scouring of the bank.

As plant life grows, it will stabilize the bank further. Every boulder, natural as it looks, was scientifically placed to maneuver the current just so, preventing scouring of the bank and moving the water, and sediment, in a way that benefits the river and its environs.

Riverbank stabilization experts used to think it was all about water dynamics.

“Now we know it’s also about sediment being moved and deposited,” Miller said.

Flood plain room is allowed for seasonal overflow of water and sediment; floods cannot be prevented, nor can they be contained or controlled with straight channeling.

“We want to make it look as if we were never here,” Schwartz said.

Miller said that willow shoots were planted to stabilize the bank, and started sprouting leaves right away. Willows root easily and quickly along a riverbank. More plantings will be made next spring, she said.

According to Braico and Schwartz, this design has a better chance of holding than older, less natural methods. Everyone concerned seemed to be crossing fingers that another major weather event will not take place before this restoration settles in and takes hold.

Thursday, Aug. 16, two days after completion, tours were held at the site to explain what had been done to restore natural riparian (riverbank) equilibrium. About 80 people attended the tours.

Rob Hastings, Rivermede farmer, who has contributed time and money to the effort over the years, was present. He expressed his happiness that the project is done and that the river looks so beautiful, as well as his hope that it will hold.

Instruction was given by John Braico of Trout Unlimited and Carl Schwartz of F&W. Corrie Miller, Director of the Ausable River Association, Tonnie Sauca, standing in for David Reckahn of Essex County Soil and Water Conservation District, and Martha Naley, of F&W, were also helpful in explaining the project and the science behind it to participants.

The Keene Town Board, represented by Councilman Paul Martin, presented Braico with a plaque in recognition of his years of service and extensive volunteer work on this project.

Former Keene Supervisor Tom Both, who presided over the early planning days of the “Rivermede Project,” praised Braico at the August town board meeting, stating that Braico has “devoted thousands of hours to this project over 15 years.”

In 1998, Trout Unlimited began initial studies of the problem.

The Army Corps of Engineers became involved with the project in 2005, then finally withdrew in 2012 because the town could not come up with sufficient funding for the Army Corps plan. That same month, Trout Unlimited approached U.s. Fish & Wildlife Service, asking to partner with them to do a different version of the stalled 15-year project within a modest budget.

Between July 14 and August 14, 2012, inside 23 work days, under the direction of US Fish & Wildlife Service and Trout Unlimited, Ward logging LLC, under Michael Ward, harvested and staged whole trees, logs and boulders from the Rivermede area and performed active construction. Seeding and mulching was done by TU, F&W and Essex County Soil and Water Conservation District.

There is no riprap at this site. All materials are from the neighborhood, following a healthy, natural river model. According to Trout Unlimited information, extreme floods are increasing in frequency, and methods including dredging, straightening, laterally confining, vertically entrenching and overwidening stream beds are unstable and can cause destruction to roads, bridges and buildings in major floods.

As an example, containment of the Ausable’s East Branch at its present width of 176′ would entail dredging to 19.4,’ according to TU statistics.

With unpredictable weather patterns that have been bringing frequent “100-year storms,” probably everyone in town is, like Rob Hastings of Rivermede, thankful and at the same time hoping it will work.

Funding for the project was provided primarily by The Adirondack Chapter of trout Unlimited, U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Essex County. Additional financial support was provided by Trout Unlimited of Tri Lakes, Lake Champlain and New York City, as well as Rivermede Farm, the town of Keene and the Ausable River Association.MARTHA ALLEN , Lake Placid News

See the dozens of unique habitat models at fishiding.com