Otter Creek Stream Restoration?

[HopBack]

Came across this atrocity while fishing Otter creek in York county. It looks like someone spent a lot of time and maybe used some heavy equipment to effectively destroy section of stream. The picnic table in the middle of the stream made me laugh out loud. A real shame though because this stream section was starting to hold a nice population of wild brown trout.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

I agree. I fished that section months ago and the" dams" were there minus the picnic table. Caught some browns and stockers.
Also caught a huge smallie.

People can't respect nature. It's sad.

 

[geebee]

i dont get it ? why ?


if those stones are movable i'd make a hole in each dam.

 

[pro4mance]

Maybe a guide did it for the "Stream Side Lunch" , just kidding trying to bring some levity to Dbags doing that kind of stuff. Did you find any Sheetz wrappers downstream from the gourmet lunch ?

 

[HopBack]

No sheetz wrappers but I did find a bunch of busted beer bottles and aluminum foil upstream around the "swimming hole".

 

[geebee]

HopBack wrote:
No sheetz wrappers but I did find a bunch of busted beer bottles and aluminum foil upstream around the "swimming hole".

funny, i kind of figured that a big bunch of kids could of done that in an hour or so.

is that near the campground ?

maybe it was kid camping.


anyhoo its pretty crappy, if you need a volunteers to help move em back, i'm free next saturday.

 

[HopBack]

It's not near the campground, it's on gumtree road. I can tell you that it definately was not kids as the deflector and dams are well constructed. Some of the rocks have to be over 200lbs. It would probably take a group of grown men an entire weekend to completely strip the stream bed of all of it's rocks.

 

[pro4mance]

If I was closer I would help

 

[salmonoid]

I don't like these dams when I see them, but I guarantee you Mother Nature wins each time. One or two stream blowouts and these will be gone. Hopefully these happen before the spawn, to give the fish freedom to move around at will. It maybe that someone felt they were doing the stream some good, by creating holding water and are just naive.

 

[SteveG]

I'll put my name in the hat to help restore this. If you get a date set that we can meet, please pm me.

 

[Alnitak]

I wonder if this is the same idiot who's done this on several other streams nearby. A few weeks ago I found this done on Trout Run in Lancaster County. Same thing--big, big rocks and the build even looks the same, with the first tier upstream being big flat rocks on end. The coincidences seem too much to be just that.

I was seriously pissed. I had a friend with me and we punched a few holes in the dams, but it was heavy work. As you pointed out, some of the rocks are 200lbs or more, and it took two of us to lift them. I'd love to get some help tearing down the rest of them on Trout Run as well.

Another place I saw the exact same dams? Fishing Creek in southern Lancaster County, in the lower portion on Conservancy land, where the stream is paralleled by the dirt road.

Finally, I also saw one or two like this on Tucquan two weeks ago. In all three cases I also saw little stacked rock "shrines" or rocks purposely stood on end. Its classic weed-smoking, festival-attending modern-day hippie wannabe crap.

Do I sound like a curmudgeon? Its because I'm seriously pissed off by this and to see it happening in other places makes me even more pissed off. I'd like to see the people involved forced to fix it or better yet apply all of that energy to something more useful.

Jeff

 

[geebee]

crazy, who would do this and why ?

who are the local TU's, perhaps they'd know.

 

[salvelinus]

Pisses me off too. I've seen dams like that, although not as extensive, on upper Kettle Creek. One near a cabin and the other at a campsite. I always make an effort to dismantle them when I find one, but that is heavy duty in that pic. I think the local WCO should be notified.

 

[Alnitak]

Based on who I've seen using these spots on a few occasions, I'm guessing its the modern-day hippie granola crowd. You probably have seen the type--they often have dreadlocks, are into products made from hemp (both practical and recreational), attend Phish festivals. They believe themselves to be more "natural" or in tune with nature than the rest of us, although they still use their electronic devices and they also don't seem to think that swimming in and damming streams is actually not very helpful for nature.

Jeff

 

[afishinado]

Alnitak wrote:
Based on who I've seen using these spots on a few occasions, I'm guessing its the modern-day hippie granola crowd. You probably have seen the type--they often have dreadlocks, are into products made from hemp (both practical and recreational), attend Phish festivals. They believe themselves to be more "natural" or in tune with nature than the rest of us, although they still use their electronic devices and they also don't seem to think that swimming in and damming streams is actually not very helpful for nature.

Jeff

G?! :-o

 

[foxtrapper1972]

Hey Alnitak-Let it out buddy!

 

[Maurice]

geebee wrote:
crazy, who would do this and why ?

who are the local TU's, perhaps they'd know.

I suppose we are the closest Chapter of TU. Muddy Creek, Just two hollers over. I think its looks pretty cool what they did. It won't last long. One hurricane rain up the coast this fall and everything will be back to normal. I would recommend taking out the centers to support low flow.

You have to understand that these rural streams are marginal wild trout waters. They often reach and sustain >70 degree temps and its late summer, the party crowd is waning. Many of the largest "bridge pools" become swimming holes in summer.

You know how we always say "oh no don't fish for the trout over 70 degrees, you will stress them". Well when we are not there, guess who is...the bikinis and board short crowd. Its a multi user resource. And I can tell you that the streams are mighty low right now. The shallow pools created with those temporary rock dams could actually help the wild trout providing deeper water habitat when the hippies are not having a picnic in the streambed.

Also remember that it is likely private property and the access could depend on how you handle the deconstruction.

I will add that it is "legal" to construct dams of no more than 50 in length and up to three feet high without a permit. So take the centers out, provide for low flow, it will still keep the pools relatively deep and leave a note thanking them for doing the grunt work.

 

[troutbert]

Edward Ringwood Hewitt was one of the early pioneers in building small dams on trout streams.

I'm not sure if he had dreadlocks or not.

Dave Rosgen is a modern day leader in building rock dams on trout streams. I'm not sure if has dreadlocks or not either. He always wears a cowboy hat, even indoors.

 

[HopBack]

The intentions of this dam are not as extreme as what you might think. If you are familiar with the area you know that it was probably done by some good old boys who just wanted to have a place to drink some beers and cool off in the heat of the summer. This area is definately used for some local recreation and you wont stop that anytime soon. The picnic table left in the water probably took it a little far for me. I always hate seeing trash and debree in any streams.

Maurice is correct that this is private land which is open to the public because of stocking. It is right off the road and not in one of the best stretches of the open fishable area but my main concern was that it would make a big slow pool and heat up the water much like the swimming hole above the bridge. The dams are also a barrier to trout that may be trying to spawn. I'll punch a couple holes in the dams when I get around the area again and mother nature should take care of the rest.

As far as being a marginal wild trout stream....I'll would say it's getting better all the time. I took a temp on a hot day in July and it was 67 degrees at 4 pm. In hotter years in the past it may sustain temps above the 70 mark but it has a lot of cool streams and springs that feed it from the headwaters to the middle section of the creek. If you do a bit of exploring you can find good stretches of water with a fair amount of wild trout in varying sizes. I think the stream has been recently surveyed which confirm these findings.

 

[troutbert]

HopBack wrote:

If you are familiar with the area you know that it was probably done by some good old boys who just wanted to have a place to drink some beers and cool off in the heat of the summer.

Should we be blaming:

Hippies who smoke pot? Or good old boys who drink beer?

We need to get this important question settled. ;-)