Here is a list of formerly unassessed streams ( 72 ) that have been assessed. Dr. Jon Niles and one of his teams assessed these tribs. They will be changed from red to blue on the map pages soon.
You would be surprized how many of these little tribs have trout , like 75% of the Pleasant Stream tribs. And we got a 13 1/2″ wild brookie in a trib to the ‘Sock.
We would like to thank Steve Szoke for providing this information
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Biologists have, as a result of routine monitoring, detected the presence of the invasive diatom Didymosphenia geminata, also known as Didymo, in the Pine Creek watershed, Lycoming County PA. Representative specimens were sent to The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University where Dr. Marina Potapova confirmed DEP’s identification.
Living Didymo diatoms were obtained on June 18, 2013 from Pine Creek at a location upstream of Waterville in the vicinity of the Hamilton Bottom Canoe Access Area; Lycoming County. This represents the first evidence of this invasive diatom in this watershed. In fact, prior to this discovery no Didymosphenia geminata diatoms were known by DEP to exist in Pennsylvania waters except at verified infestations sites in the Youghiogheny River and the West Brach/mainstem of the Delaware Rivers.
All Water Quality professionals should take precautions against spreading Didymo by properly cleaning and disinfecting aquatic gear prior to working in other waters. For more information, please visit PA Fish & Boat Commission website for a fact sheet and further guidance at: http://www.fishandboat.com/water/habitat/ans/didymo/faq_didymo.htm
State Agencies Issue Alert to Contain Invasive Species in Lycoming County
HARRISBURG, Pa. (July 11) – After confirming the presence of the invasive aquatic algae known as didymo, or “rock snot,” in Pine Creek, Lycoming County, anglers and boaters are reminded that cleaning their gear is the easiest, most effective means of preventing its spread to other waters.
“Our biologists have not seen any evidence of a full bloom of didymo in the creek or nearby waterways,” Department of Environmental Protection Acting Secretary Chris Abruzzo said. “This algae does not present a public health risk, but there is an ecological concern in terms of its future potential impact on the health of the waterway.”
In late June, DEP biologists were conducting routine stream monitoring in Pine Creek upstream of Waterville in the vicinity of the Hamilton Bottom Canoe Access Area, a popular recreational destination. Laboratory analysis of a sample collected using an algal net detected the presence of didymo in the form of microscopic diatoms, a finding confirmed by the National Academy of Sciences.
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) continued to urge anglers and boaters to take steps to prevent the spread of the algae.
“We may not be able to eliminate didymo from an infected waterway, but there are easy steps we can take to slow its spread and to prevent it from spreading to other waters,” said PFBC Executive Director John Arway.
“Didymo cells can easily be carried downstream and can be picked up by any items which come in contact with the infected water, including fishing tackle, waders, and boats and trailers. We urge anglers and boaters to ‘Clean Your Gear!’ before leaving a water body and entering another one.”
The discovery of the algae in a popular recreational area potentially increases the risk of its movement to other waters in Pennsylvania.
“Flowing through the heart of Tiadaghton State Forest, Pine Creek and its parallel trail are increasingly popular with anglers, boaters, hikers and other Pennsylvania residents and visitors,” said Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Acting Secretary Ellen Ferretti.
“The discovery of didymo has no immediate impact to the visitor experience on or along Pine Creek, but we ask all to remain vigilant in an effort to protect this invaluable waterway and other streams and rivers,” Ferretti said.
Prior to detecting didymo in Pine Creek, the alga was found in the Youghiogheny River watershed in Fayette County, in the West Branch and main stem of the Delaware River, and in Dyberry Creek in Wayne County.
The PFBC recommends that anglers allow exposed equipment to completely dry before entering new waters. After equipment is dry to the touch, allow it to dry another 48 hours, the commission suggests. Thick and dense material, such as life jackets and felt-soled wading gear, will hold moisture longer, take longer to dry, and can be more difficult to clean.
Soaking equipment in hot water containing dishwashing detergent (two cups of detergent for every two and a half gallons of water) for 20 minutes or more also will kill didymo and some other aquatic invasive species.
Cleaning boats and equipment with hot water (maintained at 140 degrees Fahrenheit) by pressure washing or soaking is another effective method. If hot water is not available, a commercial hot water car wash also makes a good location to wash boats, motors and trailers. At the other end of the temperature range, freezing items solid for at least 24 hours is effective. If cleaning, drying or freezing is not practical, please restrict the equipment’s use to a single waterway.
Didymo is not a public health hazard, but it can cause ecological damage by smothering other organisms which also live on the riverbed and support the food web for the resident fish community.
The algae, whose scientific name is “Didymosphenia geminata,” has colloquially been called “rock snot” because of its appearance. When squeezed nearly dry, the algae, generally tan to beige in color, actually has the feel of moist cotton or wool.
For more details on how to stop the spread of didymo, visit http://www.fishandboat.com/water/habitat/ans/didymo/faq_didymo.htm.
For more information on how to clean your gear, visit http://fishandboat.com/cleanyourgear.htm.
Above information obtained from the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission
We have just received information about a presentation that will be held on July 10, 2013 at 7 pm at the Pennsdale Civic Center. The topic of the presentation will be Shale Gas Leasing on
Pennsylvania’s Game Lands. Please click the link to see the advertisement for this program. SAMC July Mini-Summit
Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary Richard Allan today announced that the department will hold a public meeting on Marcellus Shale issues in the Loyalsock State Forest, Lycoming County, from 4 to 6 p.m. on Monday, June 3 at Lycoming College in Williamsport.
“DCNR is responding to requests that the public be given the chance to provide the department with information and comments on possible gas development in the Loyalsock, in an area where we do not own the subsurface rights,” Allan said. “This meeting is the completion of a series of interactions with the public regarding this complicated and long-standing issue, including a local stakeholder meeting and a public web-based information session.”
As a result of a 1989 Commonwealth Court decision, about 25,000 acres of the Loyalsock State Forest are in a unique and complex situation in terms of surface ownership and rights.
“DCNR is committed to stewardship of state forests and to working proactively with all stakeholders – including the public and mineral right owners – to ensure the protection of these vital public lands,” Allan said.
The meeting will be held in Wendle Hall, Academic Center, off of Mulberry Street. All are welcome to participate in the public meeting. Registration is not required.
The meeting will begin with a short power-point presentation about the Loyalsock situation by Marcellus Program Manager Arianne Proctor. Following the presentation, questions will be answered by Secretary Allan, Proctor and State Forester Dan Devlin.
Following the question and answer session, participants will be offered the opportunity to make comments with a five-minute time limit.
If unable to attend the meeting, members of the public can submit written comments by email to loyalsock@pa.gov.
DCNR held a local stakeholder meeting on this issue on April 4, and participated in a Penn State web-based information session on April 25.
The webinar is archived and available on the Penn State Extension natural-gas website. To access the webinar, go to http://extension.psu.edu/naturalgas and choose “Recorded Webinars” under “Quick Links.”
Submitted by Joe Radley
The Chapter meeting on April 10 had Bob Weber, Fisheries Biologist with the PF&BC, detailing the process for doing the surveys for the Unassessed Waters Initiative in our area. The Susquehanna chapter of TU has been invited to be one of two TU Chapters (the other is Allegheny in Western PA) in the state to initiate the survey.
Bob is asking you to fish these unassessed waters this spring and summer and complete a one page report on your findings. He brought lists and maps of the unassessed waters for Lycoming, Sullivan, and northern Union counties. Within this area, there are over 2100 unassessed streams! The PF&BC is focusing on streams likely to be impacted by gas wells or other development.
Any stream you find to have a trout population will be given a priority for in depth assessment by the PF&BC or one of the colleges working with them. Prior assessments have found a good number of Class A trout streams. These are eligible for classification as HQ or EV, giving them high levels of protection.
So, how do you go about surveying streams? First, always make sure if you have legal access. If a stream is not public land, always seek out the owner and ask permission. Give an explanation of your purpose and let the owner, if allowed on, know of your results. Bob said, in prior years, they almost always were given permission to come on the property. If you have a computer, go to http://www.coldwaterheritage.org. Click on “Unassessed Waters Initiative” on the left side of the screen. You can view maps and lists of the streams. Unassessed streams are in red and assessed ones are in blue. Do not submit any surveys on the blue streams. Print out the survey form and select the streams you plan to fish. Go fishing! Please complete the form as soon as possible after fishing, making sure you give clear identifiers of the stream. The follow-up assessments need specific location to complete their survey. Many streams are listed as unnamed tribs to another stream so a GPS would be useful as lists include coordinates for the stream mouth.
If you don’t have access to a computer, call Joe Radley, 326-1851, to set up a time to see the maps and lists plus get copies of the survey form. Be mindful that Joe will likely be fishing when you call so make sure you leave a number for call back.
When you have completed the form, please send it in so it can be forwarded to the PF&BC. DO NOT SUBMIT THE FORMS DIRECTLY TO THE PF&BC. You can mail the forms to: Susquehanna Chapter of TU, PO Box 1132, Williamsport, PA 17703-1132 or email to centz@lyco.org.
If you want, survey a stream twice, say May and August, to see if it keeps trout continuously. Please submit forms as soon as you have them done. We will put surveyed streams on the chapter website so we can avoid duplication. We will stop surveying on 9/30, for this year. All reports have to be in to the PF&BC by 10/31.
Thanks for your participation and helping wild trout. The maps, streams lists, and survey forms are available on our website under the documents section.
The Susquehanna Chapter of Trout Unlimited is looking for your participation in launching a PA Fish & Boat Commission (PFBC) pilot program to prioritize which streams will be studied this summer as part of the Unassessed Waters Initiative. PFBC staff will be at the monthly meeting of Susquehanna TU at 7:30 p.m. on April 10th to display maps and list which streams in Lycoming and Sullivan Counties need to be sampled. Under this program, anglers will pick a stream to go out and fish and then report back on what they caught or observed using a form supplied by the PFBC. This information will then be used by the PFBC to prioritize sampling efforts for this summer’s work by PF&BC staff and partnering colleges. We would like to invite all local trout fisherman, watershed groups, and others who would like to assist in this program to attend the meeting and consider helping out with this monumental effort to get wild trout streams protected.
The meeting will be held at the First Presbyterian Church (East 3rd Street and Mulberry Street, Williamsport) and parking and entrance is in the rear. We look forward to seeing you there and helping with the project.
We had a great time at the Pennsylvania Outdoor Life Expo at the Lycoming Mall this past weekend. We want to thank everyone who came out to support us during this event and helped make it a success. We used this as our Chapter fundraiser and sold fishing equipment and accessories that were donated to the Chapter. We had individuals bringing items to our booth during the event, while others purchased items as unbeatable prices, and others just gave monetary donations.
A tremendous amount of work was done within a short period of time (only two weeks) to get ready for this event and it would not have been possible without the generosity of everyone who donated items, helped sort out and price items, and those who manned the booth. We will continue to solicit fishing equipment and accessories so that we can continue to use them not only for fundraising purposes but also to donate items that we can to other organizations / individuals who are in need and to use them in our own programs.
Again, Thank you to everyone who helped make this fundraising effort a success!!!!!
Tonight on Pennsylvania Outdoor Life (6:30 pm on WNEP) there will be a segment on our Chapter getting ready for the Outdoor Life Expo at the Lycoming Mall. We met with Don Jacobs a week or so ago and episode was filmed as we were sorting the materials that we will be selling during the show.
Be sure to watch and we continue to look for items to sell.
If you have any fishing equipment or accessories that you would like to donate, please contact Dave Craig (davsalc@comcast.net) or Bob Baker (rlbaker@ earthlink.net) to arrange pickup or drop off.
We also need people to help man the table all day Thursday – Sunday. Any time you can give to help will be appreciated.
Susquehanna Chapter will have a 10′ x 20′ booth at the Lycoming Mall Sports Show, courtesy of Don Jacobs of WNEP Channel 16. The show will give us the opportunity to sell the huge collection of fishing equipment donated by long time member Don Neyhart along with other used and surplus items donated by chapter members and others. We met with Don Jacobs on March 22, when he interviewed us and made a video of the equipment which we were sorting. There will be a segment about the Chapter on the Pennsylvania Outdoor Life Show on March 31, 2013 at 6:30 pm. He will be soliciting more donations on our behalf and the theme will be“Recycle your old fishing equipment”
This is a great opportunity for our chapter to establish a new way to raise funds. Six of us, Bob Baker, Bill O’Connor, Kevin McJunkin, Joe Radley, Scott Rupert and Dave Craig have already spent over 45 man-hours sorting and pricing the items we already have. We need more to sell. Please look through your equipment, and donate your surplus to the chapter. Don told me that they had traffic of over 100,000 people at the show last year, so we need lots of product. Email or call Bob Baker (rlbaker@earthlink.net)or Dave Craig (davsalc@comcast.net) to arrange to deliver whatever you have. Only saleable items, please. Sort it out, since we do not have time to do more of that work. We have lots of good stuff, including five good Sage rods, fly tying tools & equipment, books, lures, and much, much more, etc.
WE NEED LOTS OF HELP!!
We must man the booth from 10 A.M. To 9 P..M. On April 4,5,& 6, and from 11 A.M. To 5 P.M on the 7th of April. We should have at least four people on site at all times in order to handle the traffic and to provide security for the equipment. Please consider, and advise Bob Baker or Dave Craig when you can help. Email is greatly preferred for communicating this information. We must set up the booth on April 3, starting at 9 P.M., and will need help
Come See Us at the Pennsylvania Outdoor Life Expo
April 4 – 7, 2013 at the Lycoming Mall
This event will be the Chapters main fundraiser for this year as we will be selling fishing accessories that have been donated to the Chapter. Please spread the word and come out and support us during this event. Our booth will be located in the hallway between Center Court and the Bon Ton. We are in need of people to help man the booth and we are hoping for at least 3 people to be there at all times. Our list of things that we will have for sale include:
Fishing Rods of all kinds
Fly Tying Supplies and tools
Rod Cases
Lure Making Equipment
Fishing Reels
Rod building materials and equipment
Lures
Books
And Much More!!!!
The event is free of charge and show hours are Thursday – Saturday 10am to 9pm and Sunday 11am to 5pm. We are still looking for items to sell so please consider donating to the Chapter. Stock up on those fishing accessories at great prices. Please call Dave Craig (davsalc@comcast.net, Home: 570-326-1002, Cell: 570-971-4744) with any questions or if you can help out! Any amount of time you can give will be appreciated.
Susquehanna Chapter of Trout Unlimited 