WildTroutStreams.com: The Next Generation

Penns Creek from Spring Mills to Coburn is Class A, or at least a portion of it is, and was one the streams the PFBC is going to continue stocking over a Class A Wild Trout stream to make sure they appease the masses.
 
Again, maybe another example of non-updated info. I'm batting 1000 today, huh?

The class A list says from the confluence of Elk downstream to the confluence with Cherry Run. Still has wild trout outside that, but not class A.
 
Chaz wrote:

TB says that Swift Run is not Class A until it gets lower in the watershed because of high acidity, intact there are no trout above that trib.
Click to expand...

That's a different Swift Run, the one in Snyder County.

The Swift Run being discussed here is the trib to Penns Creek, a little ways below Poe Paddy.
 
Oops, I thought that was the one. There are several Swift Runs.
 
pcray1231 wrote:
I've fished Swift once or twice, and caught fish, but it wasn't real good. That said, that was a long time ago. Not only didn't I fish the whole thing, but also things change, and as you said, fishing may not be the best sampling method.

So good to know it's going class A somewhere, and I wasn't doubting the info.

So that's an example where the new map had info that was more up to date than the info I have.

But the other examples still fit. I don't think ALL of those areas turned class A, lost class A status, became private, etc.

The point was that the map still has a lot of errors.

Again, I'm pointing it out to help, not criticize, because it has the makings of an excellent resource. If we can point out exactly where there are issues, perhaps it will lead to an understanding of how the issues came to be, and thus a solution.
Click to expand...
They are only errors if the information they entered is wrong. The have been a few errors pointed out, but we all must keep in mind that the populations fluctuate wildly related to weather events and what we experience in the real world can be different.
A good example of this happened during the 2005 to 2008 period in the NE region. Many streams up there got pounded by floods and populations dropped of the table. Streams the previous year had loads of trout, by 2008 the populations were sparse, but since then they've come back.
Events related to weather happen even more locally, especially during the summer, when scattered T-storms hit, floods happen on one side of a mountain and it doesn't even rain on the other side of the mountain.
After 2 very cold winters in a row I expect trout populations to be down from a couple of years ago.
 
Hey guys, thanks for the input. I will double check the join. PAFBC publishes two layers. One is the trout natural reproduction layer which has every stream that holds wild trout, and no class info. The other is a Class A Layer, which is a subset of the Trout Nat layer, which adds info.

Every reach of both layers has a unique, common reach code. So joining them is supposed to be truly simple, unambiguous operation in my GIS system. I did a visual inspection of the results, and it looked fine, but frankly I didn't spend a lot of time on it because it is a standard, simple operation. It's possible 1) that I screwed up, or 2) the datasets are messed up, or 3) there's a bug in my GIS system (I use QGIS which is an open source system). I'll take a careful look at it and let you know, though it may take me a few days to track this all down.
 
OK, so I've checked, and as many of you suspected, this turned out to be "my bad". What I thought was a reach code wasn't a reach code: it was a stream code. So the join turned the entire stream into whatever class was joined last...

Because of the way that you have to build these web maps, fixing this is somewhat tricky. But I'm working on what I trust will be an acceptable solution.

Thanks for your help.
 
WTS,

Great job! The data that you are making easily available is remarkable and I appreciate the effort you have put forth and have freely shared with all.

Even more so, I appreciate your ability to take constructive feedback constructively and improve. For some reason, this aspect of good character is becoming more rare.

Thanks again for this public service.

Sincerely,
Luke
 
OK folks, the map is fixed! (I'm pretty sure, this time) But please do your worst to find errors. That's part of why I'm posting this prototype.

When you go back to the site, you'll probably have to reload the map (which will be cached in your browser) by manually hitting the reload button. You'll know you have the updated page if you see the following instructions above the map: "Click on Layers icon and select "PA Wild Trout Streams" to show all streams. Select individual stream overlays to get additional info."

Now the Wild Trout Streams layer is color-coded for class (correctly, I believe), but the interactive data is very limited (water name and bounds of the trout-nat-repro section). You can load the Class A, Class B, and Wilderness layers separately, and these will give you more data. You may want to uncheck the original Trout Nat Layer to improve performance and simplify interaction.

I'm working on some improved tools including the ability to print the maps (currently you'll probably have to print a screen shot), some drawing tools so you can drop your own markers and lines. And the ability to load a map into AvenzaPDF.
 
Thanks. I liked it before and this is even better. Site has a lot of info and nice base maps. Great for PA, with many small streams...

Good to have state lists (is a stream on natural repro?) and the TU habitat layer. The unassessed stream projects show that there streams with trout that aren't on the state lists. The habitat score (along with for example geology info from DCNR online map) is a good additional bit of info, had not used it before.
 
Hey, K-Bob, I could put up the 93 CWF layer as another overlay. This shows the limit of where PA EPA believes there are cold water fisheries, and is a superset of the Trout Nat Repro layer. I left it off because I'm not sure many people use it....
 
wts. I think cwf would be interesting to see mapped, but don't know if many other people would use it. ? thanks for the great mapping site...
 
K-bob

I'm a sucker for people for people who ask nicely... (or even who don't exactly ask, but say nice things about my site). You'll now find a CH93 Designated Use Layer which you can check. There's no data interaction (it would be massive), but it's nicely color-coded for the different designated uses:
EV - exceptional value
HQ-CWF High Quality Cold Water Fish
CWF Cold Water Fish
HQ-TSF High Quality Trout Stocking Fish (cool water)
TSF - Trout Stocking
HQ-WWF High Quality Warm Water Fish
WWF Warm Water Fish

Was a particularly interesting exercise because TileMill (the app that does the rendering) couldn't handle a 300MB+ shape file (including the dbf) which this data comes from. Fortunately, it worked when I converted it to a SpatialLite DB.

People should understand that this app is right at the "bleeding edge" of web mapping technology, especially since I can't afford any fancy hosting. This is running on a dedicated VPS hosting account, but it's costing me all of $15/month. If I had tried to do this a year ago, the only way to do it would have been to spend $100's per month on hosting. It's very cool.

Everyone, please keep the feedback coming. And please do "Like" the WTS Facebook page.
 
Thanks, I like the Designated Use (CWF, EV, Stocked, etc) layer.

Water temp info is always good for trout fishing, and interesting to see nearby streams with different water temp-ratings. And I don't really fish for stockies, but sometimes stocking info is access info!

thanks again....
 
I really like the site, but it is starting to get annoying when I zoom in to anything to try and get a closer look at roads or the general area of the streams, the screen just goes white. I can't zoom in very far like I can on google maps or something.
 
Looking good! Thank you!

There are a couple of minor errors I still see, but it's pretty obvious where they come from, and they may be difficult to fix, and I don't really expect them to be.

For instance, in one case I see the upstream boundary of a class A section listed as a spring by the PFBC, rather than a road or a bridge. The map doesn't see that and goes the whole way up, so it shows class A hdwtrs to mouth, even though if you click on it the description carries the correct info. The spring isn't on the base map so I suspect that's just difficult for the software to understand.

Anyway, great job, and this has now supplanted the PFBC system to be the #1 wild trout mapping out there.

Now, can I get this for Android? ;)
 
k-bob wrote:
Thanks, I like the Designated Use (CWF, EV, Stocked, etc) layer.

Water temp info is always good for trout fishing, and interesting to see nearby streams with different water temp-ratings. And I don't really fish for stockies, but sometimes stocking info is access info!

thanks again....
Click to expand...

Having the water designation is definitely a useful layer. I did a similar exercise a few years ago using GRASS - metaquery is that I basically did a "SELECT * FROM table where use = EV or HQCWF". Most natural reproduction streams will show up in the results, but streams that have potential to hold trout but haven't yet been surveyed can now be targeted for exploration. And sometimes, you find trout in streams that aren't classified as EV or HQCWF or even just plain old CWF..
 
Hey Pocket Water... I was checking out the site just now to see what was troubling you. It seems to me that the default basemap server (the National Map/USGS server) is having problems today: it was freezing at about zoom level 10 or 11. Try switching to the 15 min series basemap, which is provided by National Geographic. It seemed to be working better this evening, and was responding well to about zoom level 15 or 16. The default map should respond to the same level, but isn't for some reason.

On a typical 96dpi screen, zoom level 15 is 1:17,000, and zoom level 16 is 1:8,500. There is an alternate server for the National Map for resolutions greater than 1:8,500. I can look at adding it. But you'd need to manually switch to the high-rez baselayer, and really zoom level 15 is good enough for most things. In order to save memory and bandwidth on my hosting account, I stop my overlays at zoom level 14. But you should be able to zoom in the basemap one or two layers lower.
 
Thanks wtsobsessed. Will give it a look see in a bit.
 
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