Requesting advice/help from the TU guys on the site

http://fishandboat.com/water/habitat/streams/slide_shows/trout_habitat.pdf

A slide show of the diffrent methods that have been used to increase habitat.
 
When we first started work on the Perkiomen we contacted everyone, from schools to the Scouts to Churches, maybe even Zebras. Leave no stone unturned, but definitely contact the T.U. they are working in the watershed, and they have a lot of info on it.
 
I have just contacted the PFBC about their Cooperative Habitat Improvement Program. I printed all of the information I could find to present at the meeting. The program states that any organization, or private individual can be considered the cooperator.

I am looking forward to receiving correspondence from the PFBC officail in charge of this to get the ball rolling. I am excited and eager to get this off the ground, but know that it will take many years to see the results of this project. I must understand, and relay to my organization that this is not about fishing alone, and that it is more about improving the habitat and ecology of the stream.

I will keep you all posted on how i make out with this indevor.
 
Will do steelhead.
 
The meeting went well. I was appointed chairman of the committee for conservation and stream improvements. I will be focusing on The Little Conemaugh River. I will be submitting the paperwork now. I am also learning more about the trout in the classroom program and want to add some cold-water education to my local high school.

Wish me luck guys. I think my biggest issues, if approved, will be acquiring help.
 
Chaz wrote:
If you are catching "holdovers" and it's not an ATW then why are you saying you are catching holdovers? I mean think about that before you say they are not wild fish.

I believe his club stocks the stream in question, that is why they are holdovers. Best of luck with the project Mike!
 
Thanks brookie. I will be taking a ton of pictures of this adventure of the before, after, and such. I am eager to start the early phases of this and want to be involved in the stream assessments and such as much as I can be. The biggest thing is to ensure that anything that is done, will be done correctly, with much thought put into it. It will take a decent amount of time to get everything in place, with permits and such, and for the improvement areas to sustain more habitat and such.

I will be looking at setting my stream clean up for the weekend after the "Trout Rodeo" on the stream. I never participate in the rodeo, I probably should since i practically have these fish named 😉
 
Does anyone have the PFBC-60 form or know where I can find it. I checked their website and performed a google seach on this as well, and came up empty handed. This form is needed to gain permission from private land owners to make the stream improvements.

I emailed the contact at the PFBC on this, but would like to get the forms ready as soon as I can. If anyone has this form please pm me and email it to me.

Thank you
 
It is a waste of my time to try to help when you ignore the help offered and go off and do your own thing. TU has a coalition that's been working in this watershed for, I'm going to say 20 years, and now you want to duplicate all that work and do your own thing.
I know you don't like TU Mike, but really? IT's a waste of resources to duplicate others work.
 
How is this dublicating others work when this upper section of stream, to the best of my knowlege, has not been touched by TU. They have it listed on the mountain laural branch website. They talk about it but I have yet to see them do anything in the area that fishing is being done right now and trout are plentiful. Or within the area of the stream I am looking to try to improve.

http://www.mltu.org/littlecon.shtml

"Fish and wildlife do occupy pockets of habitat on several Little Conemaugh tributaries. There were beaver and high value wetlands in the headwaters and Kokomo Run. Ben's Creek, Howell's Run, Big Laurel Run, Noel's Run and the North Branch and South Fork of the Little Conemaugh are stocked with trout by the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission."

They are not even mentioning the headwater of the Little Conemaugh that I am talking about. within this.Not seeing any notes of anything being done on this section of stream.

I was planning contacting this chapter, among other sportsmans groups, in the area, and such once the section of stream is added to the program. I was actually hoping to use this to vicariously "bridge the gap" among these groups, and realize that conservation is important, and we can impact the local streams in Cambria County.

I am not against asking TU for help on this, I just want to get my ducks in a row on this first.

So before firing out accuations please know all of the facts.
 
Well if it's already been assessed and surveyed and it'son their list of things to do, then it's duPlicating work already done. That's how! It's not going to hurt to contact them, they know about it, they will be glad someone wants to work on it and put some improvements in place to improve habitat, the one thing they will not do is stock it. If there are fish there they will multiply when conditions improve.

And Oh by the way, most TUers don't want regs on streams, most streams can't handle the extra pressure that regs place on the stream, because of the way regs are used in PA.
 
From the TU website:
but recreational use of the Little Conemaugh is severely limited because of acid-mine discharges that seep, flow and sometimes gush as artesian wells, spouting 10 or 15 feet into the air.
That sounds like you got yer hands full. I have to wonder if it is in fact reclaimable?
The history they give you.... it seems like it used to be like Big Springs brookie wise.
 
Square tail, the upper head waters is 100% fishable. I would say from Lilly to the Hughes borehole is about 3 miles of stream. The section I want to improve the habitat on is in the town of Cassandra. There are plenty of angling opportunities here.

The lower end will take huge efforts and a lot of time to get cleaned up. We are cleaning the upper end of on of the AMD effected tributaries now. With the wetlands installed, and from opinions gave to me by a DEP guy, in about 2 years aquatic life should slowly make its way down stream. There are a few more AMD seeps on trout run that once cleaned up will have about 3-4 miles of stream from martindale to where it meets the little conemaugh on route 53.

I know this effort will take a very long time to clean the whole stretch, but look what happened with Stony Creek and SCRIP. It is my dream to one day fish the stretch of the Little Conemaugh from Lilly all the way to South Fork. It is a dream right now. But I will do my best to improve the areas that are sustaing aquatic life and fishing opportunities.
 
be nice if the evil bastards that caused all the damage could be held responsible.
those coal executives should be strung up they their balls, and if they are long dead, then their bodies should be used to plug the problem.
 
biker 'ol buddy you should try and not hold back so much in your criticism , just go ahead an let it out man , it's ok......jk........MIKE , what i was trying to tell you in the last post was that at one time not so long ago the Stonycreek waas just5 as bad , if not worse than the Conemaugh , Mountain Laurel T.U. along with members Len Lichvar (Now ON the PFBC) Lester McNutt and others are mainly responsible for what you see when you stand at the "Point" and compare the two. The point i was trying to make is that if you start by trying to contact those folks you might expedite things and like CHAZ says , you won't be going back over things that would waste valuable time. I'm bettin that form you are finding it difficult to obtain , were you to contact Len Lichvar through Mountain Laurel T.U. , i'll bet you have it in hand much more quickly than the way you are trying to pursue it. Mountain Laurel T.U. holds their meetings at Gander Mountain , they are open to the public , Len attends many of the meetings at least he used to , probably not as many now but if you want help , take it when offered.
 
Ha ha Osprey! I'll try to express my feelings better!
BTW, problems such as this is EXACTLY why I worry about the gas industry, it all sounds good till something bad happens and, oh look, they claimed bankruptcy and the public is stuck with the problem.
 
Your right Biker. Long dead and their profits spent. So shall we repeat the mess of the past? Stream improvement equals trees to start. GG
 
I have heard talks of Amfire Coal being pushed to take responsibilty for the Hughes Borehole. I heard talks of a 5 million dollar project going to be started.

I can only hope these talks are worthwhile, but then again I heard talks of wild Mountain Lions in PA as well.
 
+1 biker!
 
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