rippinlips
10-03-2011, 08:28 PM
A very interesting read.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2011/10/02/in_sudbury_brook_trout_discoveries_excite_conservationists/
One fish, two fish
A census inspired by Sudbury advocates finds brook trout in unlikely places
Richard Hartley looked more like a character out of the movie “Ghostbusters’’ than a biologist as he meandered through a tiny, wooded stream near Old Lancaster Road in Sudbury on a recent morning. A fish specialist with the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, he was wearing a backpack device that blinked and beeped as he swept a pole resembling a metal detector through the cold, muddy water.
The pole, wired to a battery in the backpack, emitted a faint electric current that temporarily and harmlessly stunned fish that might be dwelling in the pools punctuating the shallow stream, an unnamed tributary of Hop Brook. Suddenly, Hartley started. “Whoa, whoa, whoa!’’ he said. “I see brook trout. There’s no doubt. It was a four- or five-inch trout.’’
His two colleagues, MassWildlife biologist Alicia Norris and technician Leanda Fontaine Gagnon, ran to net the fish while it was still sluggish and dazed from the electric jolt. Moments later, they were gingerly placing a green, mottled “brookie’’ into a plastic bucket. “It’s a fat one,’’ said Norris. “She looks pretty healthy.’’
The state biologists were in Sudbury at the behest of the town’s Conservation Commission and resident Bruce Osterling, a board member of the nonprofit Sudbury Valley Trustees. Osterling and commission chairman John Sklenak are seeking to document whether brook trout are breeding in the streams running through Sudbury’s suburban neighborhoods, with the goal of registering them with the state as fisheries that receive extra environmental protections.
“For me, I’ve always been fascinated by very small streams, and if they have trout, then they are more fascinating,’’ said Osterling, a semiretired financial professional who is also a member of Trout Unlimited, a national environmental group dedicated to conserving fisheries. “Some of the streams are six inches across and they have two-, three-inch trout in them. That’s been the real eye-opener for me.’’
Last year, Osterling said, he was joined by Trout Unlimited volunteers and Sklenak in walking along approximately 30 likely streams in Sudbury, searching for the shaded, fast-flowing cold water and gravelly bottoms that are ideal for brook trout. After finding fish on property owned by the Sudbury Valley Trustees a few months ago, he said, they were delighted at the opportunity to preserve an often-overlooked species and, in the process, safeguard local waterways for the future.
“Native brook trout are very much the canary in the coal mine for the health of streams and quality of the water,’’ said Osterling. “Once they are gone, the water quality is seriously degraded.’’
To officially document the presence of the fish in Sudbury, Osterling and Sklenak called on the state agency. Once plentiful in the thousands of tiny streams throughout Massachusetts, brook trout have vanished within the Route 128/Interstate 95 beltway, and occupy only around 10 percent of the streams in area communities, said MassWildlife biologist Todd Richards.
But on recent excursions to 12 streams in Sudbury, state crews equipped with the Backpack Electrofishing Unit expressed surprise after discovering at least three with previously unknown populations of brook trout. Norris said they’ve also discovered trout in a fourth stream, though they are unsure whether it had been stocked with the fish. Before releasing the trout back to the wild, the biologists measured the fish and documented exactly where they were captured.
“It’s as good as it gets,’’ said Hartley, referring to the stream near Old Lancaster Road. “People driving by would say ‘No way there’s trout there.’ But the conditions are right for the most sensitive fish in Massachusetts. That’s a good thing.’’
Averaging only a few inches long here - an 8-inch brook trout in Massachusetts is a “monster,’’ said Osterling, while in northern Maine and Canada they can reach 2 feet in length and weigh 5 pounds - brook trout thrive in waters with temperatures between 50 and 65 degrees, and rarely survive in water much warmer or colder.
The biologists often find slimy sculpins, longnose suckers, and other fish on their excursions. But the fragile trout give them the best picture of how development and other changes have impacted local streams, they say.
Brook trout face threats from dams that impound and heat up water in the sun before releasing it downstream, and hot impervious surfaces like roads and parking lots that warm rainwater before diverting it to fish habitats, said Richards.
Also, all-terrain vehicles regularly tear up streambeds, and culverts often separate one end of a waterway from another, blocking fish migrations, he said.
Brook trout don’t live in Sudbury’s Hop Brook. for instance, because its temperature reaches 72 degrees or more in the summer, in part because dams have created ponds along the waterway’s course, said Osterling.
Dams and asphalt are here to stay, Osterling added. But identifying a stream as a fishery for brook trout triggers state environmental regulations beyond the usual wetlands protections that can help the fish, he said.
State laws require developers and landowners to filter or prevent storm water from draining into brook trout fisheries, said Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Joseph Ferson.
Last month, Sudbury enacted additional conservation rules that bar property owners and others from removing shade foliage or otherwise increasing water temperatures in streams designated as fisheries containing brook trout, said the town’s conservation agent, Debbie Dineen.
Osterling has started approaching officials in other towns to search their streams for brook trout. He’s also working with the Greater Boston chapter of Trout Unlimited to raise funds for restoration work on streams that could be ideal for trout if they were more shaded, or if culverts and other impediments were altered to help, rather than hinder, the fish.
Garry Crago, vice president of Trout Unlimited’s local chapter, said Osterling’s discovery of brookies so close to the city this summer created a buzz throughout the Virginia-based nonprofit group.
“That was a defining moment,’’ said Crago. “As an organization, we were just elated. When you find fish in an area where you might not expect them, it’s just extraordinarily gratifying.’’
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2011/10/02/in_sudbury_brook_trout_discoveries_excite_conservationists/
One fish, two fish
A census inspired by Sudbury advocates finds brook trout in unlikely places
Richard Hartley looked more like a character out of the movie “Ghostbusters’’ than a biologist as he meandered through a tiny, wooded stream near Old Lancaster Road in Sudbury on a recent morning. A fish specialist with the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, he was wearing a backpack device that blinked and beeped as he swept a pole resembling a metal detector through the cold, muddy water.
The pole, wired to a battery in the backpack, emitted a faint electric current that temporarily and harmlessly stunned fish that might be dwelling in the pools punctuating the shallow stream, an unnamed tributary of Hop Brook. Suddenly, Hartley started. “Whoa, whoa, whoa!’’ he said. “I see brook trout. There’s no doubt. It was a four- or five-inch trout.’’
His two colleagues, MassWildlife biologist Alicia Norris and technician Leanda Fontaine Gagnon, ran to net the fish while it was still sluggish and dazed from the electric jolt. Moments later, they were gingerly placing a green, mottled “brookie’’ into a plastic bucket. “It’s a fat one,’’ said Norris. “She looks pretty healthy.’’
The state biologists were in Sudbury at the behest of the town’s Conservation Commission and resident Bruce Osterling, a board member of the nonprofit Sudbury Valley Trustees. Osterling and commission chairman John Sklenak are seeking to document whether brook trout are breeding in the streams running through Sudbury’s suburban neighborhoods, with the goal of registering them with the state as fisheries that receive extra environmental protections.
“For me, I’ve always been fascinated by very small streams, and if they have trout, then they are more fascinating,’’ said Osterling, a semiretired financial professional who is also a member of Trout Unlimited, a national environmental group dedicated to conserving fisheries. “Some of the streams are six inches across and they have two-, three-inch trout in them. That’s been the real eye-opener for me.’’
Last year, Osterling said, he was joined by Trout Unlimited volunteers and Sklenak in walking along approximately 30 likely streams in Sudbury, searching for the shaded, fast-flowing cold water and gravelly bottoms that are ideal for brook trout. After finding fish on property owned by the Sudbury Valley Trustees a few months ago, he said, they were delighted at the opportunity to preserve an often-overlooked species and, in the process, safeguard local waterways for the future.
“Native brook trout are very much the canary in the coal mine for the health of streams and quality of the water,’’ said Osterling. “Once they are gone, the water quality is seriously degraded.’’
To officially document the presence of the fish in Sudbury, Osterling and Sklenak called on the state agency. Once plentiful in the thousands of tiny streams throughout Massachusetts, brook trout have vanished within the Route 128/Interstate 95 beltway, and occupy only around 10 percent of the streams in area communities, said MassWildlife biologist Todd Richards.
But on recent excursions to 12 streams in Sudbury, state crews equipped with the Backpack Electrofishing Unit expressed surprise after discovering at least three with previously unknown populations of brook trout. Norris said they’ve also discovered trout in a fourth stream, though they are unsure whether it had been stocked with the fish. Before releasing the trout back to the wild, the biologists measured the fish and documented exactly where they were captured.
“It’s as good as it gets,’’ said Hartley, referring to the stream near Old Lancaster Road. “People driving by would say ‘No way there’s trout there.’ But the conditions are right for the most sensitive fish in Massachusetts. That’s a good thing.’’
Averaging only a few inches long here - an 8-inch brook trout in Massachusetts is a “monster,’’ said Osterling, while in northern Maine and Canada they can reach 2 feet in length and weigh 5 pounds - brook trout thrive in waters with temperatures between 50 and 65 degrees, and rarely survive in water much warmer or colder.
The biologists often find slimy sculpins, longnose suckers, and other fish on their excursions. But the fragile trout give them the best picture of how development and other changes have impacted local streams, they say.
Brook trout face threats from dams that impound and heat up water in the sun before releasing it downstream, and hot impervious surfaces like roads and parking lots that warm rainwater before diverting it to fish habitats, said Richards.
Also, all-terrain vehicles regularly tear up streambeds, and culverts often separate one end of a waterway from another, blocking fish migrations, he said.
Brook trout don’t live in Sudbury’s Hop Brook. for instance, because its temperature reaches 72 degrees or more in the summer, in part because dams have created ponds along the waterway’s course, said Osterling.
Dams and asphalt are here to stay, Osterling added. But identifying a stream as a fishery for brook trout triggers state environmental regulations beyond the usual wetlands protections that can help the fish, he said.
State laws require developers and landowners to filter or prevent storm water from draining into brook trout fisheries, said Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Joseph Ferson.
Last month, Sudbury enacted additional conservation rules that bar property owners and others from removing shade foliage or otherwise increasing water temperatures in streams designated as fisheries containing brook trout, said the town’s conservation agent, Debbie Dineen.
Osterling has started approaching officials in other towns to search their streams for brook trout. He’s also working with the Greater Boston chapter of Trout Unlimited to raise funds for restoration work on streams that could be ideal for trout if they were more shaded, or if culverts and other impediments were altered to help, rather than hinder, the fish.
Garry Crago, vice president of Trout Unlimited’s local chapter, said Osterling’s discovery of brookies so close to the city this summer created a buzz throughout the Virginia-based nonprofit group.
“That was a defining moment,’’ said Crago. “As an organization, we were just elated. When you find fish in an area where you might not expect them, it’s just extraordinarily gratifying.’’