good idea?

[salvelinusfontinalis]

i sent some pm's around about a paflyfish stream clean up day. i dont know if any of you guys have noticed but after all the rain and floods. some streams have a lot of trash that has washed down onto thier banks. i thought maybe we could pick a few a streams from each region to clean up. this would help our local tu's and our enviroment. i have cleaned up one stream myself but its alot of work for one person. i need help! what do you guys think?
at the least its a good excuse to hang out and maybe eat some lunch! :-D and yes......go fishing!

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

so after talking to maurice he thought it best to start here.
have any of you guys seen a stream in your area that needs a clean up? if so list it here that way we can get an idea of what streams need help since the flood. then we can get with tu and other organizations and take it from there. thanks in advance! :-D

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

wow no replies. im meeting with my local tu on wednesday to discuss some stream clean up projects. i was hopeing to make this a regional thing but i doesnt seem like anyone wants to put forth some time and effort. you know i see alot of post about special regs and trout populations. is C&R good? are general regs good? an awful lot of talk........but nothing boosts a trouts population like getting off your rump and doing something about it! :-x

 

[troutbert]

Our TU chapter has been doing cleanups for a long time, and I've participated for the last 18 years, along with loads of other volunteers. We do it every year in April. And lots of other TU and watershed groups in this region do their cleanups around that time. In our county and neighboring counties I'll bet the number of participants runs into the hundreds.

So there are a LOT of people participating in stream cleanups. Which makes me very happy, since it means that we now clean up many miles of water. (I guess it could affect the sense of one's own exceptionalism, however, if you're not careful.... But I digress.)

Check with local TU chapters and watershed groups about their Spring cleanups. I'll bet they have them around April. Then just pitch in. I'll bet you have many participants. It's a group effort.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

sigh i give up troutbert. obviously u never read my posts fully. i know of spring clean ups. iam a tu member.tell me why when some of the streams are trashed....we wait to clean them? why did i have to post a nasty post to get you to reply? DOESNT MAKE SENSE TO ME. but hey, the local tu here loves the idea.....i was just trying to get some of you guys involved. obviously you dont want to be.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

yeah i guess ill just start with the local tu here and clean up a few streams here. and do the ones up north myself one stream at a time until spring. then the spring clean up will come and people will finally be interested in making a difference.

 

[spectorfly]

This is a great idea. We all know that 60% of the people who say they do things don't do them at all. I'll throw one out there - Swarr Run!!

Now this thing about TU Chapters doing stream cleanups in April is interesting and funny at the same time. Truth is, sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. The last 2 years I fished Swarr Run just upstream of the restoration area that Donegal TU did where it is stocked during the first 2 months of trout season and caught more chicken crates, iced tea containers, milk jugs, candy wrappers and plastic bags than I did trout. NO LIE. That stream is a billowing crap hole. There has been NO clean up on that stream ever.
Just like Donegal itself, once the restoration projects were done, it was left to it's own devices to rot. Bottom line.

 

[Stone_Fly]

I've been involved with TU for a long time and I always hate it when someone suggests doing a stream clean-up. I take the position let the landowner come to us, why you ask? Stream clean-ups are not what TU is about first of all, second it isn't our trash. Maybe on stocked streams it is angler trash, but look at what you pull out of the streams. We removed 9 truck loads of old tires one year, DEP and DCNR should be enforcing the laws so dumping doesn't happen at all, that's where a lot of the crap comes from. That and trash day, or drunks throwing there MC D's bags out the window of their car. No resources are stretched for most conservation groups already; you get much more bang for the buck by doing tree plantings and fencing out livestock and you are more likely to make an impact too. We do clean-ups as part of an overall project, we don’t go out of our way to walk a stream and find trash.
The other problem is what is 1 mans trash is another man's habitat, think large woody debris here. No I don't like the idea, it's not conservation.

 

[spectorfly]

That's a hell of a way to look at it. It's not our trash so we shouldn't clean it up. What would or roads look like if all the road clean-up crews took that attitude. How about your trash man. "It's not my trash so I'm not taking his". It's not about who's trash it is. It's about ensuring clean water, not only for fishing but for drinking, ect.
Fence out livestock. Sure that works. If the stream is surrounded by livestock fields. Not all are.
Never mind, I'll do it myself this weekend. I'm not afraid to get up off my *** from watching the game and eating a bag of chips like some to make a difference. :-x It'll only enhance my fishing experience to feel good next time I go there and not see all that crap.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

thanks for the reply stonefly. i fail to see though where removing trash isnt conservation. have you ever seen a conservancy in the middle of a dump? thats what we have going on here. this wasent meant to bring tu members down to stream to help out. simply put the streams iam talking about are stream restoration projects that are tu's baby. i thought it might be wise to inform and involve tu. i have been doing it myself the past few weeks. your wrong when yoiu say it isnt our trash. it is our own society who made the Mc D bags and beer cans that now pollute our great resources.if "we" were not here nor would the trash be here.

 

[troutbert]

1) Streamside tree plantings are good.
2) Fencing out livestock from streams is good.
3) Stream cleanups are good.

It’s ALL good. Many thanks to everyone who has participated in these activities. I'm proud to say that our TU chapter has done all three.

It is true that large woody debris should be left in the stream. But luckily this hasn't been an issue in our cleanups. It is something that everyone involved in stream cleanups should know though. Let the downed trees and logjams alone, they are a natural and important part of the stream. Just take the trash.