Does the Little Lehigh have any wild browns left?

troutbert said:
Mowing right to the streambanks is very bad. It results in poor physical habitat.

How have the dam removals worked out? Is the fish habitat (pools and cover) better or worse? Have they done habitat work after the dams were removed? Does anyone have before and after photos of the dam removal sites? Does anyone have photos of the riparian lawns in the Parkway being discussed?
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As I have mentioned a few times, the project above Fish Hatchery Rd leaves something to be desired for sure. And I watched them mow riparian buffer in the former Heritage section on Friday last week. To their credit, they left 18 inches of growth, maybe just so they didn't damage equipment on rocks, but I guess a creek is not there if folks can't see it, just ask the landowner who took out 10 trees on the Monoc, so he could see the crick when he starts the dishwasher.... Sorry, just venting at this point....
 
Nymph-wristed said:
As I have mentioned a few times, the project above Fish Hatchery Rd leaves something to be desired for sure. And I watched them mow riparian buffer in the former Heritage section on Friday last week. To their credit, they left 18 inches of growth, maybe just so they didn't damage equipment on rocks, but I guess a creek is not there if folks can't see it, just ask the landowner who took out 10 trees on the Monoc, so he could see the crick when he starts the dishwasher.... Sorry, just venting at this point....
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It's not unique to this area. Back in the 1990s I talked to a guy who convinced a wealthy landowner in NCPA to allow him to plant trees and shrubs along the streambanks. It had been groomed riparian lawns.

The trees and shrubs grew up, as hoped, but the landowner drove by and couldn't see the stream and thought it looked "brushy" so he had his employees cut it all down.

At a local park they got a DCNR grant to "improve" the park, with trails and footbridges, etc. And they began cutting down the trees and shrubs along the stream and converting it to lawn. I called to complain and they said it was for "security" so the cops could drive down the road past the park and see the whole way across to the other side of the creek, in case their might be minors drinking beer or something over there. TU got involved and they agreed to a riparian buffer, which was planted in trees and shrubs. Some of them growing well, but the buffer is much narrower now than it was. The mowers just keep chipping away at it, year after year. This brings up something important, for anyone involved with buffers. The boundaries of the buffer should be MARKED. With posts, big rocks or something. Otherwise they will always edge in. It never gets wider, always narrower.
 
CodorusTUTom said:
I grew up just outside the Parkway and spent countless hours back in the 70's and 80's fishing the creek between the hatchery and 15th street. Back then they mowed right up to the waters edge and everything was fine - the lawns are pretty flat and there was never a ton of damaging runoff from them. Back then, the Macungie area was still mostly farmland so even normal thunderstorms could muddy the entire creek for a few days - that was the real runoff problem. To make matters worse, the sewer system was prone to failure as well, with manhole covers popping in the Parkway and spilling gray, untreated sewage straight into the creek. And even with all that it was far, far better than it is today. There were extensive weed beds, plenty of holdover trout, a fishable sulphur and daily blizzards of tricos from July into early fall.

I believe that the development, especially in the upper watershed, has taken an irreversible toll on that creek. And I think it's because the acres and acres of roof and paved surfaces have bypassed and disrupted the system of natural aquifers and eliminated the filtration that happens when water soaks into the ground. Over time, I believe the declining water quality has chipped away at the the food chain from the bottom up and without that, how can we expect streambred trout to flourish there?

Hearing about how bad things are now really saddens me - that creek was my classroom and I made a lot of fond memories there.
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I'm certain that we probably crossed paths in the 80s. I lived in Center Valley in my early years and fished the LL often. Besides bluegills in farm ponds and Perkiomen Lake...LL is where I learned to FF for trout. Really loved fishing down in the Parkway during Summer with terrestrials among the weedbeds and tight to the bank. Lots of fish were always visible if you were stealthy. Also caught a lot of large stocked trout on streamers following their trout derbies as an added bonus. I haven't been back since ~2004 and after reading all of this here, I doubt that I'll go back. Disgusting
 
This morning in the Morning Call, our local newspaper. There was an interesting article, written by Becky Bradley. She is the Executive Director of the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission. The article was titled “Thirst for “Stuff” is changing the Region”. She points out that everyone’s obsession with shopping online, is basically fueling the surge of warehouses in the Lehigh Valley. She mentions that this obsession will only increase going forward.

Those facts, plus the money that is generated by the taxes/revenue from these warehouses should be alarming to all of us.
The disregard of the consequences is even more troubling to me. The removal of the fields and wood lots, that do indeed effect our landscape/streams etc.

The “Money” involved in all of this is incredible.
Also, in the Mcall this morning in the new deed transactions.
A warehouse in Lower Macungie Township just sold for $52,100,000.
Built in 1997, it has a history of approximately five different owners. It sold for
$16,550,000 in 2013 and just sold to a company from Boston,Ma. for that 52 million.
The taxes on that property are $ 266,125.21 a year.
Eye opening to me!!
Especially, because it isn’t going away anytime soon.

As I said earlier, I unfortunately missed the great opportunities the Little Lehigh provided years ago!
😡
 
Fly5 said:
This morning in the Morning Call, our local newspaper. There was an interesting article, written by Becky Bradley. She is the Executive Director of the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission. The article was titled “Thirst for “Stuff” is changing the Region”. She points out that everyone’s obsession with shopping online, is basically fueling the surge of warehouses in the Lehigh Valley. She mentions that this obsession will only increase going forward.

Those facts, plus the money that is generated by the taxes/revenue from these warehouses should be alarming to all of us.
The disregard of the consequences is even more troubling to me. The removal of the fields and wood lots, that do indeed effect our landscape/streams etc.

The “Money” involved in all of this is incredible.
Also, in the Mcall this morning in the new deed transactions.
A warehouse in Lower Macungie Township just sold for $52,100,000.
Built in 1997, it has a history of approximately five different owners. It sold for
$16,550,000 in 2013 and just sold to a company from Boston,Ma. for that 52 million.
The taxes on that property are $ 266,125.21 a year.
Eye opening to me!!
Especially, because it isn’t going away anytime soon.

As I said earlier, I unfortunately missed the great opportunities the Little Lehigh provided years ago!
😡
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The "thirst for stuff" is causing mega-warehouses to pop up along many of the major highway corridors. Take a trip along 78, 81, 283, 15, etc., and you'll see them popping up all over. Anywhere there is land and quick access to a major route is fair game. It's big money for landowners who are able to sell their land for big dollars and not have to worry about the ecological and environmental fallout from such facilities.
 
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TimMurphy said:
Dear teedee,

I haven't bothered to fish it since 2004. It was already in serious decline then compared to 1987 when I started fishing it.

The Lehigh Valley has experienced explosive growth over the last 30 years. Back when I started fishing the LL a good friend of our family had a bar about a mile or so from I-78 and Rte 100 off Schantz Road. It was surrounded by 100's of acres of farm fields, with the only other commercial structure on the road being a concrete plant.

An aerial view from today shows nothing that is recognizable to me anymore. Everything has been obliterated for warehouses, Wawa's, and sub-divisions. That has happened all over the Little Lehigh drainage too.

Regards,

Tim Murphy
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That explains a lot. No groundwater capture and discharge. All rains run right into the creek, raising temps and causing silt which is bad for trout eggs and fry. Your description is accurate about the explosion of growth. Not very well planned.
 
Look at what the wind farms are doing to wild life...any time humans come up with their hair brain ideas Mother Nature always seems to say "yeah you're really dumb and theres going to be a consequence"
 
Start quantifying the negative externalities and charge the producers the full burden. That should help with the total disregard.
 
CoffeeB4youFIsh said:
any time humans come up with their hair brain ideas Mother Nature always seems to say "yeah you're really dumb and theres going to be a consequence"
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Yes. Agriculture and tool making for example.
 
In this specific context, if MAGA meant returning to rail transport of many of these trucked goods, I’d be all for it.
 
TimMurphy said:
Dear Board,

The larger issue in my opinion isn't solar power itself. The real issue as I see it is our undying refusal to re-use most formerly developed land. Someone posted above that solar farms could probably be built on existing developed land like an old, shuttered mall. That makes sense to me, but instead we ruin good land in 100-acre chunks like the supply of land is unlimited.

Regards,

Tim Murphy
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Why don't we mandate that all those massive warehouses put them on vs. Say using beautiful open fields over at Lehigh University or along the Monocacy?
 
CLSports said:
Is anyone familiar with the project area on the upper LL near Ancient Oaks where the trees were planted and new PFBC signage went up a few years ago about Class A managed area? Might have been a TU project? I have many questions about that area too.
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I just fished it a few weeks ago. It has a very strange bottom. I got one brown and it was very odd looking. Almost no dots and a weird washed out coloration. It could have been wild. However, I didn't see another fish move and fished some very nice looking holes. That area floods so badly. I kind of wonder if you have to go down to where Spring Creek feeds in to get better water.
 
3 years ago in May, I went up to the LL with a friend of mine. We worked up through the Heritage stretch starting from below the Turnpike bridge. We caught a handful of both wild browns and stocked fish including a really nice 14 or so inch wild brown. Around sunset we had made it up to a flat pool and witnessed an incredible sulphur hatch. It was like a giant bright yellow cloud in the sky. As it started to get darker, the bugs started to hit the water and the fish went nuts. I have never seen so many fish feeding on top in a stretch of water (except maybe 1 day of olives on the J). We could not manage a single bite on top , so we decided to just walk the creek and watch as it got dark. For a solid half a mile to a mile of stream we walked back to the car, the stream was covered in fish rising to the falling bugs - all the water we had fished that day producing only a handful of fish (8-10 between the two of us). To say the least, it made us feel quite stupid about our fishing efforts that day. I have not been back since, but that day was spectacular to witness. Not to say all those fish were wild, but I would bet a significant portion of them were. Unless a major fish kill has wiped them out since, I would be shocked if there are that few fish left today. They certainly didn't show themselves for most of the day although they were there.
 
Most likely Sections 04 and 07 will be surveyed at some point within the next few yrs since they are in the new C&R program for Class A (former Class A?) BT in stocked RT water.
 
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