Adding Insult to Injury

[riverwhy]

I just checked out the pond situation Fish Sticks mentioned. I posted on here a while back about the pond on that big estate on the south side of 322 and mentioned how bad the runoff and sediment is. I have seen it first-hand as I drive by twice a day going to work. The stream coming off that property does not flow all the time. I bet it did before the pond, landscaping, and broad lawns were put in there. This "stream" runs in front of the landscaped entrance to the property then crosses 322 and feeds the branch of Walnut that runs closest to the highway. That is the smaller branch.

The main branch originates somewhere near Walnut Springs Road. I wonder if there is an actual spring there. There does not appear to be a pond on the main branch. There is one on the property with house that sits on the north side of 322. It sits well to the back of the property. I don't remember it from scouring the maps in the past. It shows on the satellite image but not the map layer on google maps. think it is too high up to be any kind of a dam on the headwaters, but I could be wrong. It appears there is also a small wetland with maybe a bit of flowing water that you can see from the highway also on this property, but it appears that flows toward the Camp Shand and the head of a branch of Shearer's Creek.

There also appears to be a large pond with much cleared timber on the Pine Acres Campground. I checked a review of the campground and there was a mention of abundant fish and frogs by people that stayed there. Apparently, it is a church camp of some kind. This pond/lake definitely has a stream feeding it or leaving it. This one also appears new to me as I have studied these maps in the past and don't recall it. It also can only be seen on the satellite map and not the regular map. I suspect it feeds the branch of Shearers that runs through Camp Shand farther down and may accept the inflow of the wetland I mentioned in the previous paragraph as that would run south underneath 322. There is discrepancy between what I see as obvious stream valley on the edge of this pond/lake and where they situate the branch of Shearers above Camp Shand Lake.



It would be interesting to know when these various "improvements" occurred relative to the decline of Walnut and what mitigations could be put in place with the willingness of property owners.


Fish Sticks 2 Questions:
1. Are we talking about the same pond on the South side of 322 with the landscaping business that has contributed the sunfish?
2. Wasn't that timber sale on state game lands right along the highway? There is also a lane and parking lot for hunters there as well. Or are you talking about a different sale?

 

[JeffP]

What sportsman club stocks the Hammer at the park? Do they also stock upstream?

 

[JeffP]

That was my experience also. 3 tiny ones way up. No real pools anywhere. Just a few pockets deep enough for the fingerlings.

The hole the fish were in during fall was right below where the guard rail ends on the downstream side. It doesn't look as nice today.

 

[Fish Sticks]

I just checked out the pond situation Fish Sticks mentioned. I posted on here a while back about the pond on that big estate on the south side of 322 and mentioned how bad the runoff and sediment is. I have seen it first-hand as I drive by twice a day going to work. The stream coming off that property does not flow all the time. I bet it did before the pond, landscaping, and broad lawns were put in there. This "stream" runs in front of the landscaped entrance to the property then crosses 322 and feeds the branch of Walnut that runs closest to the highway. That is the smaller branch.

The main branch originates somewhere near Walnut Springs Road. I wonder if there is an actual spring there. There does not appear to be a pond on the main branch. There is one on the property with house that sits on the north side of 322. It sits well to the back of the property. I don't remember it from scouring the maps in the past. It shows on the satellite image but not the map layer on google maps. think it is too high up to be any kind of a dam on the headwaters, but I could be wrong. It appears there is also a small wetland with maybe a bit of flowing water that you can see from the highway also on this property, but it appears that flows toward the Camp Shand and the head of a branch of Shearer's Creek.

There also appears to be a large pond with much cleared timber on the Pine Acres Campground. I checked a review of the campground and there was a mention of abundant fish and frogs by people that stayed there. Apparently, it is a church camp of some kind. This pond/lake definitely has a stream feeding it or leaving it. This one also appears new to me as I have studied these maps in the past and don't recall it. It also can only be seen on the satellite map and not the regular map. I suspect it feeds the branch of Shearers that runs through Camp Shand farther down and may accept the inflow of the wetland I mentioned in the previous paragraph as that would run south underneath 322. There is discrepancy between what I see as obvious stream valley on the edge of this pond/lake and where they situate the branch of Shearers above Camp Shand Lake.



It would be interesting to know when these various "improvements" occurred relative to the decline of Walnut and what mitigations could be put in place with the willingness of property owners.


Fish Sticks 2 Questions:
1. Are we talking about the same pond on the South side of 322 with the landscaping business that has contributed the sunfish?
2. Wasn't that timber sale on state game lands right along the highway? There is also a lane and parking lot for hunters there as well. Or are you talking about a different sale?

The one that I am talking about is private, i drove up there with a friend working on the hammer effort and there is a pond thats kind of damed by the road one one aide with a little waterfall type culvert thats got lilly pads and algae mats. I’ve caught sun fish in walnut like half a mile up and thats prob where they are coming from. Stream extends alot farther up jn person than on google maps. Landowners were talked too and some mitigation was proposed. I think the cree that did it might have been just some guys I don’t know if they applied for permit or not but i think there were some areas around stream crossings impacted. I have heard all this I still havent aeen the sight but a friend who has and was working with the landowner knows so have to touch base with them.

 

[riverwhy]

The one that I am talking about is private, i drove up there with a friend working on the hammer effort and there is a pond thats kind of damed by the road one one aide with a little waterfall type culvert thats got lilly pads and algae mats. I’ve caught sun fish in walnut like half a mile up and thats prob where they are coming from. Stream extends alot farther up jn person than on google maps. Landowners were talked too and some mitigation was proposed. I think the cree that did it might have been just some guys I don’t know if they applied for permit or not but i think there were some areas around stream crossings impacted. I have heard all this I still havent aeen the sight but a friend who has and was working with the landowner knows so have to touch base with them.

So I guess that road with the culvert was Walnut Springs Road?

 

[Fish Sticks]

So I guess that road with the culvert was Walnut Springs Road?

Thats the road we took up there, there were some dirt pull off roads not shown on google maps. But i feel like we stayed on the main road so I’m pretty sure it was.

 

[Oregon_OwlII]

There was/is some atrocity like this on the upper Saucon creek in Hellertown. Water was diverted through an ancient mill and 2 enormous warming pools filled with geese feces. Above this, there's a huge spring that turns a small and warm Saucon back into a trout stream. A few hundred yards downstream is the pipe that blasts this Satanic offal back in, tainting it until the big springs around the Silver bridge rejuevenates it again.

I once wrote an article for the PA Trout newsletter titled "Are Ponds Killing Our Trout Streams." The answer then was mostly yes, especially if they used more than 10% of the stream's flow, and the answer today isn't any different. A succession of ponds or one large one with excessive stream intake is usually the culprit. The Poconos are littered with "recreational lakes' from developers that have ruined most of the brook trout fishing in that region.

 

[Fish Sticks]

I once wrote an article for the PA Trout newsletter titled "Are Ponds Killing Our Trout Streams." The answer then was mostly yes, especially if they used more than 10% of the stream's flow, and the answer today isn't any different. A succession of ponds or one large one with excessive stream intake is usually the culprit. The Poconos are littered with "recreational lakes' from developers that have ruined most of the brook trout fishing in that region.

Yea i always get excited when I see spring ponds because the only successful true brook trout reintroduction in PA was just in damming a pond and it turned a WW ecosystem into a CW ecosystem immediately. If you look at big streams that are excellent forage/ habitat for brookies, when you zoom out on google maps there Re all these blue dots that represent ponds that are just dammed up springs. There could be alot more focal areas of cold water refuge in PA if we didn’t have, I dunno, thousands of these things.