Lehigh River - Army Corps Meeting

[LehighRegular]

All

For those interested, the Army Corps, PFBC and DCNR will be hosting their annual meeting to gather input for the 2013 Recreational Flow Plan.

See the below link. Hope you can attend and show support for the trout fishery.

http://www.nap.usace.army.mil/Media/NewsReleases/tabid/4659/Article/4382/army-corps-to-hold-public-comment-meeting-for-fe-walter-recreation-plan.aspx

 

[Fishidiot]

Thanks for the heads-up. Please keep us informed of developments.

 

[PhilC]

Will try to attend...

 

[vcregular]

Bump this to the top. This meeting is tomorrow evening. Hope to see some of you there.

 

[PhilC]

Somebody decided to schedule a 5:30-7 meeting tonight at work, so I'm not going to make it...was hoping to get the latest word and chat with you guys a bit

 

[SBecker]

How did this go? I had class and could not participate.

 

[vcregular]

Hey Becker. Well, the meeting went pretty much as others have gone with the usual cast of characters. There was a review of this years, and then there was a discussion on changes we'd like to see for next year. Lets face it, we are dealing with a limited amount of water, so options are limited.

In a nutshell the trout advocates were looking for more angling friendly releases during the prime time of the season as well as a continuation of augmentation during the summer months. That augmentation has proven to be a big success imo. That said, I am curious to see how the agencies seriously look into ways to cap non white water weekends at 400cfs. That one of our biggest suggestions. This way anglers will be able to KNOW when there will be angling friendly releases. Just like right now the rafters KNOW when they have a whitewater release. The rec yakers were still talking up their want of a 4000cfs end of year release, which is a ridiculous to add to the plan. It is a waste of water when it could be divvied out in a more gradual, and resource friendly manner.

So it will be interesting to see how things change for next year, but I still get the impression that the trout guys are the ones being looked at like we have two heads when all we are doing is looking out for the resource and even though the rafters claim to be 'conservationists' I still get the sense that they'd rather see the river run dry during the week in order to satisfy their thrills on the weekend.