Freshwater Fishing News

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar have announced joint scientific research projects that address the effects of climate change on freshwater systems and sensitive aquatic species in the northwestern and southeastern United States.

“Addressing the challenges of climate change will require new tools that enable our leaders to develop successful strategies,” said Vilsack. “This research will provide tools and information to help ensure that aquatic ecosystems in the Northwest and Southeast remain healthy in the face of climate change.”

“Conserving our nation’s fisheries and aquatic ecosystems will be a challenge as climate change continues,” said Salazar. “These collaborative research projects will provide the science and technology needed by the Interior Department and other natural resource managers to plan for coping with these challenges, especially in sensitive aquatic environments.”

Salazar noted that these projects are an early indication of the kind of science and management support that will be generated by the Interior Department’s regional climate science centers, which will be established in the Northwest and Southeast later this year. “Collaborative science targeted at managers needs is our agenda,” Salazar said.

The multi-year $500,000 joint USDA-DOI projects, which will be carried out by U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) scientists, will make use of existing data, field studies and modeling to better understand the effects of climate change on aquatic ecosystems. Information from the project will help guide science-based land-use decisions by federal agencies and others engaged in long-term planning for climate adaptation.

In the Northwest, a region known for its abundant supply of cold and clean fresh water, the project’s goal is to identify how climate change will affect water temperature, quality and quantity, as well as the likely effects of increasing and more fluctuating water temperatures on coldwater-dependent fish such as trout and salmon.

Regional climate change will likely cause altered hydrology and water temperatures, vital components of water quality and healthy life cycles for species such as Pacific salmon, trout and chars, which depend on coldwater habitats. At the same time, little is known about existing and potential impacts of climate change for stream temperature in the Pacific Northwest. With a better understanding these factors – temperature and altered water flows – experts will be able to help guide land-use decisions by federal and state agencies planning for climate adaptation in the area.

In the Southeast, the project’s goal is to develop tools managers can use to minimize the effects of climate change on aquatic ecosystems and the coldwater-dependent species in them, as well as on related ecosystem service such as drinking water quality and wildlife-based recreation. The scientists will refine and combine climate and hydrologic models for the region that will help resource professionals assess how land-use and water-management decisions will affect coldwater fish species such as brook trout, and the transition from coldwater fisheries in the mountains to warm water fisheries in the lower-lying Piedmont area.

source: USDA

The Department of Environmental Management will hold a public meeting on Thursday, July 29 to discuss strategies for restoring water quality in Belleville Ponds and Belleville Upper Pond Inlet. The meeting will take place from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at North Kingstown Free Library located at 100 Boone Street in Wickford.

DEM has drafted a water quality restoration study, known as a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) that addresses long-standing phosphorus-related impairments to the pond. TMDLs are mandated by the federal Clean Water Act and establish the pollutant reduction needed to meet water quality standards.

Belleville Ponds and Bellville Upper Pond Inlet exhibit elevated levels of phosphorus. Elevated levels of phosphorus impair recreational uses in the pond and cause excessive growth of aquatic plants, which in turn can lead to low dissolved oxygen levels in the water column and harmful impacts to aquatic life.

The TMDL utilized water quality monitoring data of Belleville Ponds and Belleville Upper Pond Inlet collected by volunteers as part of URI’s Watershed Watch program, as well as sampling at the headwaters of the Belleville Upper Pond Inlet, conducted by DEM’s Division of Fish & Wildlife. This information was used to characterize water quality conditions and determine necessary pollutant reductions and pollution abatement activities. The study finds that in order to meet water quality standards, a 39 percent reduction in phosphorus loads to the ponds must be accomplished.

The most significant sources of phosphorus to the ponds are the state-run Lafayette Trout Hatchery, which discharges to Belleville Upper Pond Inlet (Hatchery Brook), and stormwater outfalls owned and operated by RIDOT and the Town of North Kingstown.

The TMDL includes a watershed-wide survey of stormwater conducted by DEM staff to identify the most significant sources of stormwater pollution. The TMDL sets forth both voluntary and mandatory pollution abatement activities to abate sources of phosphorus to the ponds, including improvements at the trout hatchery, and implementation of stormwater management improvements for the Town of North Kingstown and RIDOT-owned drainage systems. The TMDL also calls for improvements in stormwater management by two privately run operations, among other recommended actions.

DEM will present the draft TMDL findings and accept public comment on the TMDL at the July 29th meeting. Interested parties will have until August 29 to provide written comments about the restoration study for Belleville Ponds to DEM.

The entire document is available online on DEM’s website at: http://www.dem.ri.gov/programs/benviron/water/quality/rest/reports.htm#draft. For more information about the meeting, draft TMDL study, or water quality issues in Belleville Ponds, contact Scott Ribas in DEM’s Office of Water Resources at 222-4700 ext. 4413 or via email at scott.ribas@dem.ri.gov. In a related matter, DEM’s Office of Water Resources also announces that it has developed a draft revised Rhode Island Pollution Discharge Elimination System (RIPDES) permit for the Lafayette Trout Hatchery, consistent with phosphorus reductions set forth in the Belleville Pond Phosphorus TMDL.

The public comment period for this draft permit will open on July 26 and will close on September 3. Comments on the draft RIPDES permit must be submitted to the DEM during this formal comment period. A RIPDES permit statement of basis describing the type of facility and significant factual, legal and policy questions considered in the permit renewal may be obtained by contacting Samuel Kaplan, P.E. in DEM’s Office of Water Resources at 222 4700 extension 7046 or by e-mail at samuel.kaplan@dem.ri.gov.

Should DEM’s Office of Water Resources receive a request on or before 4:00 p.m. on August 26 from 25 or more individuals, a governmental agency or subdivision, or an association having no less than 25 members, a public hearing on the draft RIPDES permit for Lafayette Trout Hatchery will be held on Thursday, September 2 at 4:00 p.m. in Room 280 at DEM Headquarters located at 235 Promenade Street in Providence. If a public hearing is held, oral testimony may be presented at that time. Any other comments on the draft RIPDES permit for the trout hatchery must be submitted to DEM in writing by 4:00 p.m. on September 3rd

source: RI Department of Environmental Management

Award-winning author, filmmaker and adventurer Jon Waterman chronicles his spectacular 1,450-mile journey down the Colorado River – on foot and in a kayak – from its source to the Pacific Ocean in his new book RUNNING DRY: A JOURNEY FROM SOURCE TO SEA DOWN THE COLORADO RIVER.

While the river was once untamed and free, it is now dammed and tunneled, forced into countless canals, trapped in reservoirs and harnessed for electricity, leaving it parched and so yoked to human purposes that in most years the river trickles away 100 miles from its oceanic destination.

Waterman writes with informal immediacy in this eyewitness account of the many demands on the Colorado, reaching out both to adventure travelers and to scientists, conservationists, environmentalists and anyone interested in the fragile interplay between nature and humans.

Jonathan Waterman is the author of nine books, has made four television films and works as a freelance author and filmmaker. In 2004, his writing about the Arctic won the prestigious National Endowment of the Arts Literary Fellowship.

A draft report of the National Lakes Assessment: A Collaborative Survey of the Nation’s Lakes shows that 56% of the nation’s lakes support healthy biological communities.

It also identifies poor lakeshore habitat and high levels of nutrients as widespread stressors impact lake water quality in the United States.

The National Lakes Assessment (NLA) is the latest in a series of surveys of the nation’s aquatic resources being conducted by EPA and its state and tribal partners.

The NLA provides unbiased estimates of the condition of natural and man-made freshwater lakes, ponds and reservoirs greater than 10 acres and at least one meter deep.

Using a statistical survey design, 1,028 lakes were selected at random to represent the condition of the larger population of lakes across the lower 48 states.

The NLA presents data on the extent of lakes that support healthy biological communities, selected stressors impacting lake quality, and information on recreational indicators of lake condition such as microcystin, an algal toxin which can harm humans, pets, and wildlife.

The NLA also reports on lake trophic status and includes comparisons of current data to 1972 data on wastewater-impacted lakes.

A draft report of the National Lakes Assessment: A Collaborative Survey of the Nation’s Lakes is available for public review at: www.epa.gov/lakessurvey