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Tag: fish habitat
Fishiding underwater photos by Engbretson Underwater photography
http://underwaterfishphotos.blogspot.com/2012/06/artificial-fish-habitat.html
See the dozens of unique artificial fish habitat models, fish attractors and fish cover used at fishiding.com, the leader in proven science based, fish protection.
Students protest to protect fish habitat
About 150 Grade 8 students at Samuel Robertson Technical School checked out their usual stomping grounds Thursday, and made a point at the same time.
Protect fish habitat. See the dozens of unique artificial fish habitat models, fish attractors and fish cover used at fishiding.com, the leader in proven science based, fish protection.
The five classes were on an awareness walk in response to changes to the federal Fisheries Act, but also checked out an ongoing stream project.
A control gate on Maggie Creek which flows into Kanaka Creek at 240th Street, helps maintain water levels in the wetlands area upstream, and creates more sheltered habitat away from the main stream.
The project was part of the habitat improvement required when the 240th Street bridge was built a few years ago.
That’s since improved Maggie Creek, confirmed by the presence of a few coho, stickleback and snapper found in the trap during the tour.
Only a few students however commented on Ottawa’s changes to the Fisheries Act now underway which will remove protection of habitat from all streams and just focus on streams of commercial, recreational or aboriginal value.
The phrase ‘harmful alteration, disruption destruction” of fish habitat in general is gone, while the new legislation says no one can cause “serious harm” to native, recreational or commercial fisheries.
Leigh Vivier was one of the few students carrying a Walk for Habitat sign and said he wants to make a difference.
“I want to help save Kanaka Creek – fish, animals and wildlife is at stake.”
He said the trap set in the creek showed that salmon are using Maggie Creek for habitat to stay safe from predators.
“And the number one predator is humans.”
Jade Plul and Alivia Stockall were also aware of the issue.
“We don’t want the fish to go extinct,” said Plul. “We want to save the fish,” added Stockall.
Senior biology teacher at Samuel Robertson Steve Halfnights said the exercise was an “awareness walk” and that many students probably have other concerns.
“For us, we just have to plant the seed and let the students make their choices down the road.”
Ross Davies, with the Kanaka Education and Environmental Partnership Society organized the walk. He helps teach Grade 8 science courses at Samuel Robertson.
He said the changes to the Fisheries Act could threaten the small tributary streams which could be considered neither recreational, commercial or aboriginal fishery.
“In our opinion, it (defining a stream that can be protected) becomes much more subjective.” Under the existing Fisheries Act, protection is automatic, he explained.
The new legislation removes the requirement to get authorization for disruption of any kind of fish habitat. That’s only required for waters that connected to recreational, commercial or aboriginal fisheries.
According to the government, authorization will not be required for projects occurring in waters that do not support the recreational, commercial or Aboriginal fisheries. New tools will be available to manage smaller impacts to recreational, commercial and Aboriginal fisheries.By Phil Melnychuk – Maple Ridge News
Restoration work to improve fish habitat on upper Arkansas River
LEADVILLE — Fish habitat enhancement work is set to begin later this year on public parts of the upper Arkansas River below the Highway 24 bridge as biologists and engineers with Colorado Parks and Wildlife prepare to restore a section of river that was once mostly lifeless because of decades of mining activity.
The river restoration work is a key part of the federal and state effort to restore the California Gulch Superfund Site, an 18-square-mile area where historic mining activities occurred. Mines in the area created the discharge of heavy metals and acid into California Gulch at the headwaters of the Arkansas River, making the river in that area unable to sustain healthy fish populations. The river currently supports a trout population because of earlier mine cleanup efforts.
Improvements will be centered on an 11-mile stretch of the river from California Gulch downstream to Twobit Gulch. See the dozens of unique artificial fish habitat models, fish attractors and fish cover used at fishiding.com, the leader in proven science based, fish protection.
DNR Aquatic Habitat Program provides cost share for habitat restoration
See the dozens of unique artificial fish habitat models, fish attractors and fish cover used at fishiding.com, the leader in proven science based, fish protection.
Conservation groups, lake associations and local governments can help improve fish habitat and water quality through a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) grants program. Read more…………fish
Students work for fish habitat
By The Columbian
Pleasant Valley — Students at Pleasant Valley Middle School have become experts at river ecology. First, educators from the Estuary Partnership visited classrooms to teach lessons on river ecology. Then students applied the lessons by donning gloves and boots and planting 1,100 native plants in Pleasant Valley Community Park next to their school on March 12 and 28. These students join a larger partnership of Estuary Partnership and Northwest Wild Fish Rescue working to restore fish habitat in the park. Additional funding for stream restoration was provided by Clark County. See the dozens of unique artificial fish habitat models, fish attractors and fish cover used at fishiding.com, the leader in proven science based, fish protection.
Law challenges woody debris
| Vince Lovato Editor WASHINGTON, DC – Federal legislation now requires the Army Corps of Engineers to address the safety risks of placing dead trees in Lake Chelan to offset the environment damage allegedly caused by building a dock. The House Appropriations Committee passed a bill April 25 that requires the Corps to address the safety risks to recreational users of woody debris placed in Lake Chelan, according to U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wenatchee). “Individuals wishing to construct a residential dock must pass through an exhaustive and very expensive permit process,” wrote boating safety instructor Russ Jones in a guest column to The Mirror. “Yet any agency wishing to deposit non-native species into the lake appear to be able to do so without the simplest of review processes. This was also the case with the use of submerged fruit trees. No prior study was conducted nor has there been any follow up study.” With the dramatic rise and fall of the water level through the different seasons, local residents have raised concerns about the possible movement of this woody debris and the safety hazards that it poses to boaters and other recreational users of the lake, Hastings said. “Washington residents have enjoyed waterskiing, swimming, boating and fishing in Lake Chelan for generations, and it is critical that it remain a safe environment for recreation,” said Hastings, who contributed language in the bill, “I am pleased that the Appropriations Committee acknowledges the need for the Corps to address the safety hazards of woody debris in Lake Chelan and reevaluate its use in the future so Lake Chelan can remain a safe place for Washington families to enjoy recreational activities. Additionally, I question the science and lack of monitoring of large woody debris as a mitigation requirement.” In January 2011, Chelan City Council members unanimously adopted a complicated resolution restricting the use of large woody debris as an environmental offset to construction projects such as boat docks over the lake. “In layman’s language, it would allow large woody debris but only low enough where it won’t interfere with boaters,” said council member Wendy Isenhart at that time. “It’s our responsibility to make policy here and we need an expression of our policy.” Chelan County Commissioners followed shortly thereafter with a similar resolution. Hastings’ language, which was included in the report accompanying the Fiscal Year 2013 Energy and Water Appropriations bill, requires the Army Corps of Engineers to report back to Congress on their efforts to address the safety hazards posed by woody debris in Lake Chelan, the liability of the Corps and private dock owners should a person or property be injured or destroyed by the woody debris, and whether woody debris should continue to be an acceptable option offered for mitigation within Lake Chelan. In March, Hastings, who has long questioned the need to mitigate the impact of docks on fish, submitted a request to Administrator Lubchenco of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the science used to determine the impact of docks on fish species. Lubchenco has yet to respond to this request. One prescribed method is to anchor apple trees, referred to as large woody debris, near the shoreline to create artificial fish habitats. The Army Corps of Engineers and the State Department of Ecology created a prospectus that includes research allegedly proving this method would work in Lake Chelan. The agencies call the trees “large woody debris” and fear that every time a portion of the lake is covered by such things as docks, it has a negative impact on the ecology of the lake. Making up for that negative impact, by tethering dead trees near the lake shoreline to create habitat for fish, is called “mitigation.” |
Arizona B.A.S.S. Federation Nation adds more Fish Habitat
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| ‘Don McDowell and Chris Cantrell share a check for $12,600 for working on the state’s habitat project. A mold for a Reef Ball is in the foreground.’ Don McDowell |
Reefballs are making a significant impact – Efforts to enhance Arizona’s bass fisheries with man-made habitats received a big boost, when the Arizona B.A.S.S. Federation Nation (ABFN) was awarded a $12,600 grant. That money from Arizona Sportsmen for Wildlife Conservation (ASWC) will be used to assist Arizona Game and Fish (AGF) in making concrete Reef Balls.
See the dozens of unique artificial fish habitat models, fish attractors and fish cover used at fishiding.com, the leader in proven science based, fish protection.
Reef Balls are the Arizona chapter’s answer to the state’s lack of habitat in its fisheries. Made of 3/4 yard of concrete, a Reef Ball looks like a half-sphere of Swiss cheese, according to Chris Cantrell, AGF fishery manager. He added that ecosystems form in and around the balls, which were popularized for marine fisheries. ‘It’s really good habitat that’s there for a long time,’ said Cantrell. ‘A Reef Ball is thought to take more than 500 years of saltwater.’
Compare that to five to 20 years for most artificial habitat.
‘Money will be spent to create additional molds to allow bulk concrete purchases to mass produce Reef Balls in one fell swoop instead of hand-mixing the concrete,’ said Don McDowell, ABFN conservation director.
‘This will allow us to build 12 additional three-piece molds,’ he continued, adding that this is the first time that the organization has provided a grant for fish habitat.
‘Looks like our fish are getting much needed new furniture much sooner than we had hoped for,’ he continued. ‘Our deepest gratitude to the ASWC.’
Sometime this fall, Saguaro Lake probably will be the next fishery to receive Reef Balls, which ABFN volunteers will help build, load, offload and place. The first was Tempe Town Lake.
Other funding so far has included a $910 donation from Midweek Bass Anglers from the club’s Holiday Open.
‘Once we’re to the production phase, we can go anywhere,’ Cantrell continued. ‘The concrete, renting the forklifts, moving the habitat, getting volunteers — all of that will be the easy part. The hard part is getting the molds created.’
Lack of habitat in Arizona waters is the No. 1 limiting factor for anglers.
‘It’s like a bathtub out there,’ Cantrell said of Arizona’s impoundments.
‘We don’t have a renewable resource,’ McDowell added. ‘We have to babysit the fish. And we have to take care of the habitat before we can have the fish.’
Bass Master website
AZ Sportsman for Wildlife Conservation website
Arizona Game and Fish website
by Robert Montgomery
Lake Norman Fish Habitat Projects succeed with TBFN
New habitats for fish and osprey at Lake Norman
By Joe Marusak
See the dozens of unique artificial fish habitat models, fish attractors and fish cover used at fishiding.com, the leader in proven science based, fish protection.Jose Mundo, an employee of Lancaster Custom Dock & Lift Systems Inc., places sticks while “seeding” a new osprey nest about 25 feet above the water of Lake Norman on Thursday.
MORE INFORMATION
- New habitat for Lake Norman creatures
- Spotted bass, hybrids thrive in Lake Norman water
WANT TO HELP?
To volunteer with Saturday’s Lake Norman buttonbush planting and other N.C. Wildlife Federation projects, visit www.ncwf.org or call Chris North, federation conservation director, at 704-332-5696. GPS coordinates for the rock reef sites are on the federation’s web site.
LAKE NORMAN Fishermen watched from boats as a trackhoe on a barge dumped 270 tons of boulders into Lake Norman Thursday, and a worker placed a manmade osprey nest 25 feet above the water on a sturdy wood pole.
The nonprofit N.C. Wildlife Federation led the initiatives in an ongoing effort to build habitat for wildlife, both fish and birds of prey.
“The more rock piles, the more habitat you put in the lake, the more (fishing) tournaments you have and the more money you generate for the local economy,” longtime Lake Norman fishing guide Gus Gustafson said. “There’s not enough rock piles to go around.”
Gustfason and other fishermen pulled nearby as trackhoe operator Ignacio Martinez of Lancaster Custom Docks and Lift Systems dumped rocks into 25 to 30 feet of water off the southern end of Brawley School Road peninsula in southern Iredell County. Other boulders were dropped farther north, near Lake Norman State Park in Troutman. The rocks came from a quarry in Denver, N.C.
The boulders are intended to create habitat for catfish, spotted and largemouth bass and other prized catches at the bottom of North Carolina’s largest lake.
By Friday morning, the fishermen knew, shad, herring and other bait fish would cluster at the rocks for protection from the larger fish, which in turn become unsuspecting catches for rods and reels.
“It’s the same as how people congregate at the opening of a new mall,” Gustfason said.
The federation led the rock dumping for the second year in a row. In 2011, Lancaster trackhoes plopped 270 tons of boulders at two other locations on the lake, creating fish habitat on the lake’s otherwise sandy bottom.
Fishermen previously established habitat by tossing Christmas trees into the lake, but the trees rot in a year, they said.
In 2009, federation volunteers also placed 200 porcupine-like “fish attractors” in the waters north of the N.C. 150 bridge and 100 attractors in Mountain Island Lake. They’re still there, attracting fish and anglers, said Tim Gestwicki, federation executive director.
On Thursday, volunteers from the federation and its Lake Norman Wildlife Conservationists chapter also peered skyward as a harnessed-in Jose Mundo placed sticks on a platform made of chain-link fencing and galvanized steel tubing to form an osprey nest.
“The birds will drop their own sticks onto the platform and then weave them all together,” said Stephen Turley, a federation board member who built the nesting platform at his Lake Norman home and six other platforms to be placed on the lake this year.
The federation has placed nearly 50 osprey platforms over the years at lakes along the Catawba River chain, from Lake James to Lake Wylie, Gestwicki said. He said a 2011 survey revealed 50 pairs of osprey nesting on Lake Norman alone.
The federation also plans to add two great blue heron rookeries on Lake Norman this year. On Saturday, its volunteers will plant 1,000 buttonbush plants at seven locations on Lake Norman islands, wetland areas and shoreline to slow erosion. The plant’s white flowers benefit hummingbirds, butterflies and honey bees, and its seeds provide food for wood ducks, mallards and migratory teal.
In 2011, the federation provided $100,000 for Mecklenburg County to preserve land at Mountain Island Lake.
Duke Energy’s Habitat Enhancement Program fund paid for the federation’s initiatives. Proceeds from dock and other fees help pay for the program, which has awarded $433,000 to projects in the Carolinas since it began in 2007.
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/04/19/3185556/new-habitats-for-fish-and-osprey.html#storylink=cpy
Farmers protect fish habitat in their fields
Valley farmers protest heavy-handed measures to protect fish
More than 25 farmers from the Fraser Valley demonstrated outside the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) headquarters in downtown Vancouver Tuesday, saying their ability to farm is being hurt because endangered fish species have colonized ditches.
See the dozens of unique artificial fish habitat models, fish attractors and fish cover used at fishiding.com, the leader in proven science based, fish protection.
Farmers from Agassiz, Chillliwack and other parts of the Valley said fisheries officers are unreasonably restricting them from clearing or dredging ditches because they’ve been deemed fish habitat.
Ditches that aren’t kept clear can flood farmland, raise the water table and degrade the ability to grow crops or graze cattle, farmers said.
“I’m concerned for my farmland,” said Agassiz dairy farmer Gary Wikkerink, adding the allotted time each fall to conduct work in fish streams is too short.
Protesters brought two calves to the protest Tuesday to emphasize their point.
“It’s caused a lot of concern in the Agassiz area,” said Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation B.C. director Jordan Bateman, who organized the protest on behalf of farmers.
He said they want consistent enforcement of Fisheries Act rules that require setbacks and protection of fish-bearing streams.
“Fisheries officers seem to have a lot of discretion in how they interpret it,” he said. “That really bothers them.”
Bateman said farmers want to influence the outcome of Ottawa’s expected rewrite of the Fisheries Act, which environmental groups fear will seriously weaken fish habitat safeguards.
“It’s coming down to the usual battle between big business and environmental values,” he said. “Nobody is looking at how it affects small farm property owners.”
The Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation has launched a petition calling for Fisheries Act reform to support farmers.
Farmers aren’t the only ones affected.
One Agassiz home owner said a new 30-metre construction setback from a creek that runs through his land means he would not have space to rebuild if his house ever burns down.
“If they get the setback they want, it makes the my value of my place disappear,” Alan Callander said. “It makes it worthless.”
Wilderness Committee policy director Gwen Barlee said farmers may have some legitimate concerns over fishery issues.
“But we don’t want to be rolling back environmental standards,” she said. “If we can’t protect fish habitat, there’s no way to protect fish.”
Ecojustice staff scientist Susan Pinkus said recovery strategies launched by the federal fisheries department to protect two endangered species found in small Valley streams – the Salish sucker and the Nooksack dace – may have angered farmers, because the department mishandled communications with those affected.
She said only one per cent of the critical habitat of the Salish sucker is in ditches, although some streams also run through farms, triggering large setbacks.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada officials could not be reached for comment.
– files from Jeff Nagel