Little Juniata River Association -a 501 c3 non-profit organization
Our mission is to: “Monitor, Preserve and Improve the Little Juniata River and its tributaries as cold water resources”.
Jim Eckenrode from the Blair County Conservation District presented the plans for monitoring important stream parameters such as temperature, turbidity, pH and conductivity along the upper J at the February meeting held Thursday the 11th. The data will be important for monitoring the health of the river and making a case for HQCW designation in the upper J. During the winter months the meetings of the LJRA will be held the second Thursday of the month at 7PM.
Brown Trout Telemetry Study
The Little Juniata River Association and Juniata College have launched a program to determine where the wild trout on our river spend their time. The plan is for LJRA members to capture mature wild brown trout with hook and line. Then we surgically insert a small transmitter that gives off a signal that is detectable for up to 1/2 mile. Thus far 11 transmitters have been activated. A total of 24 transmitters will be followed for approximately 14 months. We will follow the trout as they flee the warm water of mid summer to see where they find refuge. We will also follow these mature trout as they spawn next fall. The knowledge gained will allow the LJRA to direct future fish habitat projects to those areas of the river used most by our brownies.
Meeting of the Little Juniata River Association – October 14, 2014
Our October meeting was held, for the first time, at the Edgewater Inn and Riverside Grill, Alexandria PA. This magnificent facility was purchased recently by Keith Beamer and his wife Sarah. Many of you know Keith as a member of the Habitat management team for the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. He participated in several of our bank stabilization/trout habitat projects in the upper river from 2010 to 2013. Sarah is the former science teacher for Grier School and headed up the Trout In the Classroom program at Grier School last year. LJRA partnered with Sarah on this very successful program. Both Keith and Sarah are LJRA Life Members and they recently signed their new business up as our first corporate member. Sarah and Keith have invited the LJRA to hold all our meetings in their beautiful facility. In addition to fine dining, they offer a full “Bar and Grill” menu! Finally, we have a great place for our “after the meeting drink”
There were approximately 23 officers/directors, members and guests in attendance. President Bill Anderson welcomed us and opened the meeting. Keith formally welcomed us as well.
Summary of LJRA Trout Mortality Presentation
Our guest speakers for October were Mark Nale, Bob Carline, and Mark Jackson. They gave a presentation on the methodology and preliminary results of a study on bait-hooked trout mortality. The study was conducted during the April 2014 Trout Tournament held on Bald Eagle Creek, Centre County.
Participants could use any tackle but had to keep the fish alive and turn them in to tournament officials who interviewed the anglers regarding the circumstances of their catch. All fish caught were held in a hatchery run for nine days monitoring their health each day.
There were 490 trout, all species, caught during the two day event, with 87% of the fish caught using bait. Of these, 26 died. This represented 5.5% of the bait caught trout – a much lower mortality than that reported from most prior studies. Most trout which died did so on the day caught. Less than one percent of the fish which died did so during the nine day holding period.
A discussion followed with questions such as whether or not there have been such studies on mortality of bait caught wild trout, what about mortality with circle hooks, and whether or not (given the study results), it was yet a good idea to limit certain areas of the rivers and streams to fly fishing or lure fishing only. A thought to consider being that opening all waters would create more friends for the waterways-an important consideration given present day challenges.
President Anderson pointed out that historic objections to the use of live bait on the Little Juniata had more to do with the fear of invasive species introduction (from bait buckets) than with trout mortality.
The study will be repeated in 2015.
THE EFFORT TO REMOVE BROWNS FROM BELLS GAP RUN
On November 19th there will be electroshocking done on a 2 mile stretch of Bells Gap Run. An effort will be made to eliminate the burgeoning numbers of brown trout, which threaten the viability of the native brook trout population. The Bells Gap Run Reservoir will be drained and brown trout removed next year.
WHERE DO THE TROUT GO?
LJRA will fund a telemetry study to be conducted by PSU/Juniata College in 2015 to try to determine (among other things) where the Little Juniata River trout go during hot weather/low water periods.
SPRING CLEANUP
We will once again conduct our LJRA spring clean-up. The date chosen is Saturday, March 28th, 2015. This will be the 10th anniversary of this annual event.
Fall Float BOAT CLEANUP
A very successful cleanup by water craft and some bank walkers was held on October 4, 2014. Total weight of trash/junk gathered was .5 tons. The April 5, 2014 water craft cleanup yielded .5 tons and the October 2013 effort yielded 1.5 tons! Nice. Lunch for all participants was provided at Green Hills Camp. John Corr was project leader for this worthy LJRA effort
The upper “j” (Bellwood upstream to Altoona) has a number of locations where the riverbank is badly eroded. This stretch of river is officially considered to be “Impaired” by DEP due to sedimentation and also from phosphorous pollution from two waste treatment facilties. The phosphorous problem is being addressed by AWA and by Antis Township, operator of the “Logan” plant. However, streambank erosion can only be addressed by identifying and repairing eroded banks, starting with the worst cases, one of which is located near Pinecroft, just upstream from the mouth of Sandy Run. Stream bank repair is labor intensive and expensive. On October 30th, 13 volunteers from LJRA and 3 from JKTU, joined forces to repair 100 feet of eroded bank some 7 ft high. They created outstanding trout habitat in the process. This project was funded using private donations from First Energy Foundation, Little Juniata River Association and the Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds. The total cost was $14,500. Pictures taken yesterday (Saturday Oct. 30th) are on the LJRA Gallery under “The River”, “Stream Bank Restoration”. More pictures of the completed project will be abvailable on Manday Nov.1st. We will also post video to the LJRA Facebook page . A list of the 16 volunteers will be posted soon as well. Thanks to all!
Bill Anderson
Two years ago, the LJRA joined with other local groups to challenge the proposal to build a Walmart Super center on a Pinecroft site in the Sandy Run watershed. Our concern was based on the knowledge that Sandy Run eminates from a very large, cold, limestone spring and contributes the largest shot of cold water in the upper “j”. SR is also a class “A’ wild brown trout stream which is used as a significant spawning tributary by browns from the river and is surrounded by a DEP designated “Exceptional Value” wetlands. Our objection was voiced in public hearings and in writing, at that time and contributed to a resulting DEP response which required the Walmart site to comply with the strict rules governing run-off. This meant that the run-off water from several acres of roof and parking lot had to be treated and cooled, before release into the stream and EV wetlands. This added a significant additional cost to the choice of this site. We are not anti-development and we accept the official explanation from Walmart that they cancelled their plans due to the economic conditions, (see attached Altoona Mirror article) however we believe that there are much better sites for development in Blair County than one which would add to stormwater run-off into Sandy Run Wetlands, the only EV wetlands in our watershed.
Bill Anderson
http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/529553.html?nav=725