afishinado
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Posted on May 27, 2017 at 11:16 AM
BY STAR-LEDGER GUEST COLUMNIST Chris Wood
Chris Wood is the president and CEO of Trout Unlimited.
The rhythm of fly-fishing tends to cause your mind to wander. What's for dinner? Will my son pitch in Saturday's game? Not so on the Upper Delaware River in the Catskills. The Big D is a western river, and yet it is somehow only a couple of hours away from the bustle of Essex County where I grew up.
This river demands focus like maybe no other. Cast, mend your line, watch. Lift. Cast, mend, watch. Watch, carefully. These are no ordinary trout. Here there be monsters. These are street-smart, burly fish in fast-moving water. Suddenly the fly disappears, and when you lift your rod, there at the end of your line, tenuously, is a very big trout.
There are other eastern rivers that offer large, wild fish. None of them offer the same combination of eye-popping beauty, big water, and nearly 80 miles of river where you can land (or miss) the trout of a lifetime.
But this month, an arcane dispute over New York City and New Jersey water supplies threatens the delicate ecosystem that makes the Big D's wild trout so special. It's not just a bunch of trout at stake. This is a fishery that injects millions of dollars into the economies of New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania every year. One study pegged its value to the regional economy at $414 million.
Without an agreement before midnight on May 31, these valuable trout will face the lethal combination of low flows and high temperatures.
The Delaware River - recreation and reservoirs - is in imminent danger.
A May 31 deadline looms for the management of the river's water reservoirs. New Jersey and three surrounding states can't agree so old pre-conservation rules will kick in.
At issue are releases from the Upper Delaware reservoirs, which provide a major share of New York City's water, and at the same time supply cold, clean flows that make the river's thriving wild brown and rainbow trout fishery possible in the first place.
In 1954, a Supreme Court decree that settled a dispute over how many hundreds of millions of gallons could be diverted from the basin daily for New Jersey and New York City public water supply needs. Since then, the city and the four states in the basin have worked together to set intricate rules dictating how much water is released into the river every day.
In recent years, the parties have reached interim agreements to take important--though incremental--steps to protect the trout fishery and address drought and flooding concerns.
Even so, the needs of the fish are often an afterthought. Exhibit A are the dreaded "yo-yo" flows. One day you'll find the water extending from bank to bank, with rising fish sucking down hatching mayflies. The next, with releases severely reduced, you'll find the fish trapped in shallow reaches and the bugs stranded, high and dry, on exposed river beds. In hot summer months, stream temperatures become deadly to trout if the flow is not supplemented with cold reservoir releases.
Now, things are about to get even worse.
When the temporary agreement expires next week, the river will be managed under rules that date to the 1980s. There will be no answer for "yo-yo" releases, and the Big D's wild trout will have to survive the summer with just a fraction of the cold water they normally get.
It does not have to be this way: Experts say there is more than enough water to go around.
Out west, they say, "Whiskey is for drinking, and water is for fighting." That sentiment should not apply here. This is not an and/or situation. It is possible to meet the water needs of New York City and New Jersey at the same time we provide for a fishery on the verge of becoming something truly great and an economic driver for the whole region.
The only question is whether our elected leaders will continue to represent their narrow, parochial interests, or come to the table in good faith and negotiate with the best interests of the region in mind.
Link to source: http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2017/05/say_goodbye_to_trout_fishing_on_the_delaware_if_t.html#incart_river_home
BY STAR-LEDGER GUEST COLUMNIST Chris Wood
Chris Wood is the president and CEO of Trout Unlimited.
The rhythm of fly-fishing tends to cause your mind to wander. What's for dinner? Will my son pitch in Saturday's game? Not so on the Upper Delaware River in the Catskills. The Big D is a western river, and yet it is somehow only a couple of hours away from the bustle of Essex County where I grew up.
This river demands focus like maybe no other. Cast, mend your line, watch. Lift. Cast, mend, watch. Watch, carefully. These are no ordinary trout. Here there be monsters. These are street-smart, burly fish in fast-moving water. Suddenly the fly disappears, and when you lift your rod, there at the end of your line, tenuously, is a very big trout.
There are other eastern rivers that offer large, wild fish. None of them offer the same combination of eye-popping beauty, big water, and nearly 80 miles of river where you can land (or miss) the trout of a lifetime.
But this month, an arcane dispute over New York City and New Jersey water supplies threatens the delicate ecosystem that makes the Big D's wild trout so special. It's not just a bunch of trout at stake. This is a fishery that injects millions of dollars into the economies of New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania every year. One study pegged its value to the regional economy at $414 million.
Without an agreement before midnight on May 31, these valuable trout will face the lethal combination of low flows and high temperatures.
The Delaware River - recreation and reservoirs - is in imminent danger.
A May 31 deadline looms for the management of the river's water reservoirs. New Jersey and three surrounding states can't agree so old pre-conservation rules will kick in.
At issue are releases from the Upper Delaware reservoirs, which provide a major share of New York City's water, and at the same time supply cold, clean flows that make the river's thriving wild brown and rainbow trout fishery possible in the first place.
In 1954, a Supreme Court decree that settled a dispute over how many hundreds of millions of gallons could be diverted from the basin daily for New Jersey and New York City public water supply needs. Since then, the city and the four states in the basin have worked together to set intricate rules dictating how much water is released into the river every day.
In recent years, the parties have reached interim agreements to take important--though incremental--steps to protect the trout fishery and address drought and flooding concerns.
Even so, the needs of the fish are often an afterthought. Exhibit A are the dreaded "yo-yo" flows. One day you'll find the water extending from bank to bank, with rising fish sucking down hatching mayflies. The next, with releases severely reduced, you'll find the fish trapped in shallow reaches and the bugs stranded, high and dry, on exposed river beds. In hot summer months, stream temperatures become deadly to trout if the flow is not supplemented with cold reservoir releases.
Now, things are about to get even worse.
When the temporary agreement expires next week, the river will be managed under rules that date to the 1980s. There will be no answer for "yo-yo" releases, and the Big D's wild trout will have to survive the summer with just a fraction of the cold water they normally get.
It does not have to be this way: Experts say there is more than enough water to go around.
Out west, they say, "Whiskey is for drinking, and water is for fighting." That sentiment should not apply here. This is not an and/or situation. It is possible to meet the water needs of New York City and New Jersey at the same time we provide for a fishery on the verge of becoming something truly great and an economic driver for the whole region.
The only question is whether our elected leaders will continue to represent their narrow, parochial interests, or come to the table in good faith and negotiate with the best interests of the region in mind.
Link to source: http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2017/05/say_goodbye_to_trout_fishing_on_the_delaware_if_t.html#incart_river_home
