Public Meeting Notice Date: October 30, 2008
Contact: Jim Ryan Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Department of Environmental Conservation
A series of public comment meetings will be held in November to gather comments on the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources’ Draft Lamoille Basin Water Quality Management Plan.
The draft plan has been completed over several years by the Agency and many community partners. The plan lays out the current condition of the surface waters and aquatic habitat, problems occurring with water quality and strategies to be taken by the Agency and partners to improve water quality.
The public is invited to attend the meetings, hear a presentation on the plan and offer their comments and suggestions. Meetings will take place at the following locations and light refreshments will be served:
Monday November 17, 2008 7:00-9:00pm
Red Brick Meeting House
Route 128 Westford Village
Westford, VT
Tuesday November 18, 2008 6:30-8:00pm
Hardwick Elementary School- Room 202
135 South Main Street (just south of the blinking light)
Hardwick, VT
Wednesday November 19, 2008 7:00-8:30pm
Tegu Building- conference room
Route 100 Morrisville Village
Morrisville, VT
Copies of the plan may be obtained on-line at http://www.vtwaterquality.org/planning/htm/pl_lamoille.htm or by requesting a copy from the number below. The public comment period runs until December 5th, 2008. Comments received by this date will be addressed in a responsiveness summary.
For further information or to submit comments please contact:
Jim Ryan-Watershed Coordinator
Vermont Dept. of Environmental Conservation
5 Perry Street Suite 80
Barre, VT 05641
(802) 476-0132
jim.ryan@state.vt.us
State of Vermont [phone] 802-241-3600 Agency of Natural Resources
Office of the Secretary [fax] 802-244-1102
103 South Main Street, Center Building
Waterbury, VT 05671-0301
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 10, 2008
Contact:
Leslie Matthews, Ph.D.
802-241-3798 (office)
802-498-3051 (mobile)
Sabina Haskell
802-241-1562
Didymo found in Mad River
WATERBURY – Water quality scientists at the Agency of Natural Resources have confirmed the presence of “didymo” in the Mad River, the first time the invasive freshwater alga has been found within the Lake Champlain Basin.
Dr. Leslie Matthews said a citizen spotted the didymo and provided a sample for testing. Matthews said her investigation found didymo, or “rock snot” has spread in the Mad River in an area between Riverwatch Lane and just upstream of the bridge leading into Warren Village.
“Didymo is extensively coating the rocks with 75-100 percent coverage and up to 1-2 centimeters’ thickness,” Matthews said. “I have not yet investigated other sections of the river but would expect that additional areas of bloom are likely present in the river.”
Didymosphenia geminata, also known as didymo and rock snot, is a type of freshwater diatom or algae with the potential to form nuisance blooms, or mats, several inches thick that carpet a stream bottom.
Until 2006 it was unheard of in the northeastern U.S. It was discovered during the summers of 2006 and 2007 in the Batten Kill; in 2007 in the Connecticut River, the White River and the Delaware River system; and in 2008 in the Gunpowder River in Maryland.
“The discovery of didymo in the Mad River is great cause for concern. We are working hard to learn all we can about the extent of this, how to address it, and will continue to study this in the future,” said Caitrin Noel, watershed coordinator for Friends of the Mad River. “Our biggest focus right now is spread prevention and outreach. The more we can educate our community about this, the better chance we have in preventing further spread upstream and into the headwaters, or into other water bodies.”
Scientific studies conducted around the globe have yet to show conclusively that didymo has significant impacts to trout fisheries. However, it remains a priority of the Agency of Natural Resources to limit the alga’s spread throughout the region, as a precaution.
Spread prevention is the only effective management tool. There are no known methods of eradicating didymo once established.
Vermonters can do their part to minimize the spread of didymo by following best practices and disinfecting their gear when using Vermont waters. Disinfection and best practices not only help to reduce the spread of didymo, but other invasive species and pathogens such as VHS (viral hemorrhagic septicemia) and whirling disease as well.
More information on didymo and what Vermonters can do to help stop its spread is available online at: http://www.vtwaterquality.org/lakes/htm/ans/lp_didymo.htm
Department of Fish & Wildlife . Department of Forests, Parks & Recreation . Department of Environmental Conservation
Executive Summary
The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department (VFWD), in June 2006, released for public review and comment a draft trout management plan for the Batten Kill. The plan emphasized: (1) continued protection of lower main stem wild trout populations from angler harvest; (2) restoration and protection of in-stream and riparian habitats; and (3) low density stocking of yearling triploid rainbow trout on an interim basis to improve angling quality until such time that wild populations are restored to a level supportive of limited angling harvest. Based on extensive public input, the first two elements of the proposed plan have broad public support. On the other hand, stocking the Batten Kill is opposed at this time by a resounding segment of the angling community. The public also raised several issues or concerns that they urged the VFWD to address: (1) the high incidence of hooking mortality anticipated to result from increased fishing pressure and bait use following stocking; (2) the potential for stocked fish to compete with wild trout for limited cover habitat; and (3) the potential for stocked rainbow trout to aggravate the incidence of whirling disease in the Batten Kill including spreading the pathogen into uninfected waters within and beyond the limits of the watershed. After considering public input, the VFWD has decided not to stock the Batten Kill at this time. The Batten Kill main stem and its tributaries with the exception of the Roaring Branch and Dufresne Pond will continue to be managed exclusively as wild trout fisheries without stocking for the term of this six-year plan. The ”test waters” regulation that has been in place, closing the main stem from the base of Dufresne Pond dam down to the New York state line to the harvest of brown and brook trout since 2000, will be extended through December 31, 2012. The regulation will also be expanded to include the Green River and Roaring Branch/Warm Brook, where trout harvest will be prohibited October 1-31 to protect Batten Kill trout entering these tributaries during the fall spawning season. Other than these exceptions, the remaining main stem and tributaries will continue to be managed under Vermont general fishing regulations for rivers and streams. For the time period of this Management Plan, trout management in the Batten Kill will concentrate on wild trout population and habitat restoration and protection. The VFWD and its other partners will work cooperatively with a wide range of stakeholders to address habitat deficiencies that negatively affect the capacity of the river to support a productive wild trout fishery.
To view the complete management plan, click link above...
The May/June issue of Eastern Fly Fishing will feature an article by Lawton Weber on Vermont's own Lamoille River.
Lawton Weber grew up in South Burlington, Vermont. After college, Lawton spent hundreds of hours every season watching, observing, and catching trout in all corners of the state. He has also traveled all over the world in the pursuit of wild trout fisheries. In 1999, Lawton started Pleasant Valley Fly Fishing Guides, the only statewide guide service in Vermont. His guide service specializes in wild trout dry fly fishing. It is well known for providing the best information on current hatches and trout activity.
Thursday September 4, 2008
John Dillon
(Host) A stream in Northfield will soon run free for the first time in seven decades.
A construction crew this week is removing an old concrete dam from Cox Brook, a tributary of the Dog River.
The project eliminates a safety hazard caused by the aging dam, and it will open up miles of spawning habitat for wild trout.
VPR's John Dillon has the story:
(pneumatic hammers tear apart the old concrete dam...)
(Dillon) Heavy equipment operator Mark Breer uses his giant steel hammer like a delicate paring knife. With a few well aimed blows, he deftly slices the concrete dam away from the bedrock.
Next to his excavator, Cox Brook is already flowing free on its way to the Dog River.
Trout fishermen - and a nearby neighbor - are celebrating.
(Bathory-Kitsz) "We've been living with this dam looming over top of us for decades. And gradually slowly but surely we've been seeing it crack up."
(Dillon) That's Dennis Bathory-Kitsz, who lives directly below the Cox Brook dam. He said the structure was beginning to crumble. And this summer's huge storms made him nervous.
(Bathory-Kitsz) "The possibility of the dam breaching or the possibility of protective rock that we have there as a vertical structure failing has been increasing over the years .... So we didn't want to have a living room full of water or concrete."
(Dillon) The dam was built in 1932 - apparently for a saw mill that was never completed. It doesn't generate power, and the concrete wall blocked trout from the Dog River from reaching several miles of spawning habitat.
As Bathory-Kitsz warily watched the structure fall apart, fisheries biologists and environmentalists saw a stream that could be restored.
(Amadon) "I mean this is really exciting. I can count on maybe one hand the dam removals that are going on in the U-S this year..."
(Dillon) Clark Amadon is president of the Mad-Dog chapter of Trout Unlimited, a group that protects fish habitat. He says the project is unusual because once a dam goes up, they're hard to take down.
(Amadon) "From the time pretty much when this was first settled, dams were put up everywhere with no sense that this was a system that really needed to be a system and not cut up and reconnecting it and restoring these runs and rivers it's really, really crucial work that needs to be done".
(Dillon) The Dog River is one of very few Vermont streams that are not stocked with fish raised in a hatchery. The big brown trout, the colorful brook trout and the rainbows here are all wild and they need clean, running water to spawn.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is paying for much of the work under a program designed to restore stream habitat. Madeline Lyttle is a biologist with the federal agency.
(Lyttle) "Certainly the Dog River has a very unique, very lucrative fishery, so re-connecting it with these tribs is very important. This is a good project, I feel very happy about it."
(Dillon) Lyttle says everyone involved in the project has taken care to protect the stream.
(Lyttle) "These equipment operators have been rescuing fish in their hard hats. It's been great watching them. They'll see a fish in a pond, the fish can't get out of the way, and they'll jump out of their equipment, and they'll scoop them up in their hard hats and gingerly put them down river. Everybody cares about the fish. It's great."
(Dillon) Lyttle says trout are already trying to move upstream. The final pieces of the dam will come out this week.
For VPR News, I'm John Dillon in Northfield Falls.
© Copyright 2008, VPR
This is the online edition of VPR News. Text versions of VPR news stories may be updated
As an authorized booking agent for Frontiers Travel Agency, the Green Mountain Troutfitters will help facilitate travel arrangements for some of the most exotic dream vacations on the planet!!
Whether it's Bonefishing in the Bahamas, Salmon fishing in Alaska, or just a romantic getaway with that special someone, we have a destination that is right for you!
Just for booking your trip through the Green Mountain Troutfitters SAVE 10% ON ALL GEAR needed for the trip!!!!!!!!
Just click on the above link to start planning you dream vacation...