Stream Management

Proper maintenance and management of our waters is sadly lacking in America. This is due to a number reasons. However, the most striking problem is the lack of understanding of the stream and river ecology by state and federal agencies.  Politics usually rears its ugly head when it comes to protecting, surveying, and maintaining these waters.

This was true on the fame Big Spring Creek (shown above) near Newville, Pennsylvania.  This stream was destroyed by the state's own fish hatchery. It took a massive pro bono study and many citizens' s groups to force the closure and restoration of the stream.  State agencies often fail to understand the long term economic value in protecting their resources. This is further complicated by DEPs and other so called agencies which cater to industry and farming and issue NPDES permits without a true understanding of long term synergistic and cumulative effects.

I have learned a lot over 40 plus years of fishing, studying, and managing waters. I have proven that most of the stuff being done today is wrong! The first thing to do is to adequately benchmark and establish baseslines for the stream chemically and biologically.  I am amazed at the lack of good data of most state agencies.  It's almost impossible to make proper scientific decisions without the proper data.  In many cases I have found that the lack of good data was intentional so no one gets the blame for programs that don't work.

There is a lot of important analysis that has been learned on private waters that can be adapted to public streams.  Unfortunately, most state agencies just wish to raise trout, stock them and that's the end of it!  Many times stocking over wild populations damage them. Each trout stream is a valuable resource and should not be painted with a wide brush of ecological insanity that pervades the mentality of those in charge.

I can easily adapt many of my programs to public waters if people are interested in. There are many things that can be done to make streams more productive and economically more valuable for everyone.  Please contact me.