Category: News

The Little Juniata River Association will be presenting at the Keystone Cold Water Conference on February 25-26th.” There will be a number of interesting presentations, including several regarding managing our streams for wild trout. We encourage everyone to attend. Visit the website link shown below for more info. Note: If you are a Little Juniata River Association life member, your registration for the 2 day conference ($100) will be paid for by the LJRA. 

 

Link to the KCWC website::   https://www.coldwaterconference.org/

 

Bill and a couple of LJRA members, Jill and Jason Sutt, met a Penn dot crew cleaned up a load of trash left by squatters” near the banks of the river along rt 453 just east of Tyrone. They brought an awesome big front loader and 4 strong guys with shovels. Now the area is spotless!. Kudos to Penndot Maintenance and Jacob Decker for responding to our need!

 

All LJRA members are entitled to a personal 1/2 day river tour with LJRA President, Bill Anderson. The tour includes a visit to LJRA project sites, access points (boating and fishing), cold water sources and headwaters. You will also have an opportunity to discuss threats and opportunities regarding the Little j and its watershed.  Contact Bill  [email protected] to set a date.

The LJRA has always spoken for our river. Most recently the LJRA responded to the potential for a large truck stop/convenience store to be constructed in the Sandy Run watershed. Sandy Run is the largest source of cold water in the upper river. It is listed as a Class A Wild Brown Trout Stream by PFBC. It has a Designated use of High Quality Cold Water by PADEP. Based on a LJRA review and letters of concern from other stakeholder groups, the storm water management plan for this project has been challenged by PADEP. They have now been given until October 12th to resubmit their plans, which must now consider that the drainage will be into the Exceptional Value Wetlands surrounding Sandy Run.

Monthly LJRA meetings will resume in June. The sale of the Edgewater Inn necessitated a change in the day and venue.  The meeting will be held Monday June 17th at 7PM at Marzoni’s near Greenwood (1830 E Pleasant Valley Blvd, Altoona, PA 16602).  Hope to see you there.

The LJRA will hold its 16th Annual Riverbank clean-up on Saturday April 10th 2021 at 9:00AM-12:00PM. Please meet at the Spruce Creek United Methodist Church parking lot prior to 8:45AM. Groups (church, office, clubs, etc.) are welcome. Bags, gloves, safety vests will be provided. The event will be held rain, snow or shine. A few people with waders are needed. Conditions permitting, wading may be done near the town of Spruce Creek.

Social distancing will be observed. Bring masks.

For more information email: [email protected]

A sharable, printable flyer can be downloaded here

One sweepstake is for a Hardy rod/reel outfit donated by Flyfisher’s Paradise. And the second is for a handmade bamboo rod to raise money for the Sparrow Run Project.

The chapter is also holding an online auction. If you are interested in Guided fishing trips, fishing on Spruce Creek, bird hunting, home energy savings, exercising more, trout flies, spring birds, and much more, we have something for you. Please check it out and try the online bidding platform. It’s easy to use and all proceeds support Chapter activities.

Visit the chapter’s website for more information

https://springcreektu.org/

The LJRA was prevented from performing our annual 20 mile streambank clean-up in spring of 2020. Instead we have done several mini-clean-ups including a recent event conducted by employees of Veeder Root of Duncansville along River Road near the New Pig Corporation. This stretch is privately owned but is kept open for public fishing by the landowners, Andrew and Jessica Walker. The group picked up more than 600 lbs of trash including a number of tires.

Photos show the trout habitat structures installed in August 2020. Over 300 tons of stone and 25 hemlock logs were placed strategically to improve this shallow, unproductive stretch upstream from Tyrone. You can see work completed by PFBC workers and LJRA volunteers and partially funded by your donations.  The structures handled a couple of high water events and the positioned boulders are starting to carve out good trout holding water. 

This was a very wide and shallow stretch that provided no significant trout habitat. During hot sunny weather it became a large solar collector that warmed the water as it slowly passed. Our effort was to narrow and deepen this stretch  In all 7 large side log/stone structures were installed and more than 25 large boulders were placed in a flat, shallow unproductive 500 foot stretch of the Little Juniata River. The before (top) and after (bottom) are shown. In all more than 270 tons of stone and 24 10″ dia. logs, 25 ft long were used. With the help of Juniata College Environmental Department, we will continue to monitor this area to gather data on the expected positive impacts regarding water temperature and wild trout usage. 

Thanks goes out to PFBC for a professional job, the PA DEP for permits and cooperation and George Bonsell for access to the site. We could not work alongside the state workers (Governor’s orders), but a number of volunteers observed and finished the project by planting seed and spreading straw, including Scott Kavanagh, Bill King, Carl Reed, Bill Anderson, Joe Reese, Mike Moschgat, Jim Rhodes and Jerry Green (JKTU).

More Pictures can be found here https://www.littlejuniata.net/photos-from-the-project/