Troutlines. A Successful Venture: Basil Woods Chapter Staffs a Booth at the Hopkinton State Fair. Seafood with a Conscience

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Basil W. Woods, Jr. Chapter Trout Unlimited Troutlines www.concordtu.org Chapter Meeting Basil W. Woods Jr.

Kingston A Successful Venture: Basil Woods Chapter Staffs a Booth at the Hopkinton State Fair.

1 Basil W. Woods, Jr. Chapter Trout Unlimited Troutlines Chapter Meeting Basil W. Woods Jr. Next Chapter Meeting Is October 20, 2016 Seafood with a Conscience Don t Miss it Page 3 for more :Officers President: Alex Hicks Vice President March McCubrey Secretary: Nancy May Treasurer: Richard Kingston A Successful Venture: Basil Woods Chapter Staffs a Booth at the Hopkinton State Fair. October 2016 For the first time, the Basil Woods chapter was present at the Hopkinton Fair on Labor Day weekend. Ben Nugent, Matt Carpenter and John Magee of NH F&G and chapter volunteers worked shifts to staff a display booth in the NH Fish & Game fairgrounds building from nine to five (and sometimes a lot later) for the four days of the fair. Our purpose was to promote the Warner River Watershed Conservation Project and the result was a resounding success. Well over a thousand people stopped by our display and learned about the work we are doing. Fifteen people were interested enough to sign up for our project volunteer list. Thanks to Chris Connors of our chapter, we had a project brochure to hand out and a project website to refer people to for more information. The Hopkinton State Fair is the largest fair in New Hampshire and this was the first time that NH F&G invited an outside group to set up a display in their fairgrounds building. The kids especially loved our display of macro-invertebrates, and some Directors Bill Hall Sally Turcotte Mike Petrun Tim Pease Bob Ives Steven Lowe Ken Welch Charlie Stumb George Embley Peter Denoncourt Inside this issue: Presidential Commentary 2 Tom Ives Letter 2 Warner River 3 TU Funding 4 Chapter members Andrew Divers and Chris Connors host visitors at our display (Continued on page 4)

PAGE 2 TROUTLINES OCTOBER 2016 Presidential Commentary - Alex Hicks Hi Folks, This weekend it was cold, wet, and generally dreary some would call it a welcome change.

Yep, that s right Sunday at noon and I only saw one other boat on my six-mile trip to the ramp. They were fishing. I wish I was fishing, too.

2 PAGE 2 TROUTLINES OCTOBER 2016 Presidential Commentary - Alex Hicks Hi Folks, This weekend it was cold, wet, and generally dreary some would call it a welcome change. I needed to drive the boat from the camp to the ramp and haul it out for the winter. To my surprise, I found that I seemed to have the entire lake to myself. Yep, that s right Sunday at noon and I only saw one other boat on my six-mile trip to the ramp. They were fishing. I wish I was fishing, too. I m pretty sure I could have gone from one end of the lake to the other and not seen anyone else. I ve had similar experiences hiking, biking, sailing, skiing, kayaking, and just sitting around under the night sky but this was a very big chunk of space for around here, and I was happy to slow down and enjoy it for a bit. I thought of all of the great recreation opportunities that we have in New Hampshire and those that work hard and have worked hard to ensure access to great spaces (wet and dry) and that those areas are protected, conserved, or improved. I was also thankful that there was enough water to make my way to the ramp some folks have not been as lucky. While the lake may not be a great analogy for the great forests and public lands in the north country, or out west, it did get me thinking about recent discussions about Public Lands and access to them. There s quite a bit of discussion happening about public lands. You may have noticed that the vast majority of TU s recent Facebook posts have been devoted to it, a recent TROUT Magazine issue was packed full of stories about Public Lands, and if you were at our last meeting there were stories and discussion there too. In a nutshell, our mission is to protect and restore cold water fisheries and their watersheds. We do this, in part, so that our children (and presumably, their children) can enjoy healthy fisheries in their home waters. To do that well, we frequently work to protect, improve, or increase access to these watershed areas. The concerns related to continued access to Public Lands are real and deserve our attention. There are reasons, of course, when public lands should be turned over to state or even private ownership. (Continued on page 3) A Letter from Tom Ives Dear Members of the Basil Woods Jr. Chapter of TU. This is an open letter to all members of TU state wide. There is a project concerning the health and environment of the Androscoggin River. TU s interest in this project stems from the impact it will have on the environment and the aquatic inhabits that live in it. We have chapters not far from the Androscoggin River where this controversy is making news.. The Balsam Project: The drawing of water out of Indian Bay on the Androscoggin River is projected to be 22 million gallons of water a day in the winter months. The effect on taking that much water out of the river and the effect on the wildlife has not been evaluated fully. Even more problematic is the run off in the spring. That water is going to feed back into the river through only one main stream and the effects will certainly change its ecological environment. The changes this project will have on the Androscoggin and the surrounding streams has been debated by numerus concerned citizens, with most of it being negative. There is much more than the taking of water involved in the devolvement of the Balsam. The creation of good full time jobs has been a challenge since the closing of the paper mills. Adding infrastructure to the area will help support further tourists industry which is very much needed in this area. All of this takes time so it may be years before we see any boots on the ground or work being done. However we will have to keep an eye on this and be ready to act. I haven t delved into the finance side of all of this because frankly I don t understand most of it. I do know that the developer is having trouble getting the finances on top of all the other issues he faces. As TU members one of our main goals is to preserve and protect our environment. The reason for my writing this is to bring you into that fight. Tom Ives TU State Council Chair

3 PAGE 3 TROUTLINES OCTOBER 2016 SEAFOOD WITH A CONSCIENCE Mr. Colles Stowell of One Fish Foundation in Falmouth ME will introduce us to this non Profit organization whose expertise lies in the foodweb that is the sea. Many interesting topics here Pressure on fish stocks.- Which are improving or diminishing Aqua culture what is working what is not Regulations are they working These talks always created interesting discussions so bring your questions and join us at the Basil Woods Jr. Chapter Meeting on October 20, 2016 at 7PM At the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, 54 Portsmouth Street, Concord Join us at 6 PM for informal conservation and fishing discussions and enjoy a slice of Pizza or some coffee and cookie to boot Chris Wood, President of Trout Unlimited, sums this up the situation nicely and with stronger language than I have in the Summer 2016 edition of TROUT magazine. If you have not yet begun to watch this discussion, I would encourage you to do so. I know I still have plenty to learn about the matter. Please head to TU.org and check out their content on the Public Land discussion. That being said, we also need to be looking close to home and to see how this year s dry and drought conditions have affected the watersheds, their brooks, streams, and water bodies. Thankfully, we have good data in many areas to look back to. This year s weather may have created quite a bit of work for us. We also have some major projects to keep an eye on, such as the Balsam Project. Tom Ives speaks to the concern in his message. It will be a busy year, but we ll keep you posted! Tight Lines, Alex Warner River Watershed Conservation Project in its Fifth Year The Warner River Watershed Project is a partnership between the Basil Woods chapter, NH Fish & Game Department, and local communities. Our objective is to ensure sustainability of wild trout by promoting sound stewardship of the aquatic habitat within the community. After five years and over 1500 hours of volunteer effort, we have completed our baseline assessment of aquatic habitat and wild brook populations in the Warner River Watershed. We now have a database that describes resident fish populations at 75 stream sites (two-thirds of which had wild brook trout present) along with results of macro-invertebrate surveys. A second database provides information about the effect of stream-road crossings on stream habitat and fish passage based on our surveys of well over 200 culverts and bridges. This year s Stream Crossing Assessment and Outreach Campaign had two primary goals. The first was to come as close as possible to finishing the baseline assessment of the watershed. The second was to begin an outreach campaign which will help us to more effectively engage with local communities and landowners in order to promote good stewardship and identify different opportunities to protect, restore, and enhance aquatic habitat. We not only met these goals we surpassed them. (Continued on page 5)

PAGE 4 T R O UT LIN E S O C T O BE R 2 01 6 (Continued from page 1) parents had difficulty getting them to leave.

caddis larvae and some very large hellgrammites. Surprisingly, we were able to keep most of the bugs alive throughout the weekend.

4 PAGE 4 T R O UT LIN E S O C T O BE R (Continued from page 1) parents had difficulty getting them to leave. Most of the macro-invertebrates were dredged up from Children's Brook in Warner and the Blackwater River where we were able find a good variety of mayfly, stonefly, and damselfly nymphs, as well as caddis larvae and some very large hellgrammites. Surprisingly, we were able to keep most of the bugs alive throughout the weekend. We also got some dragonfly nymphs from a stream a hundred feet or so from the building. It was fun to point out that we had helped NH F&G electro-fish this stream and found wild brook trout. Many thanks go to chapter members Bob Ball, Chris Connors, Andrew Divers, Walt Ryan, George Embley, and Jim Timmins for their hard work that made this event such a success. Small visitors at the Fair learn about stream macro-invertebrates. This stream is between the fairgrounds and the parking lot. Even with this year s drought it has enough water to sustain its wild trout.

5 PAGE 5 TROUTLINES OCTOBER 2016 TD Bank Affinity Program Helps TU with Big Donation The NH State Trout Unlimited Council recently received a donation of $2, from TD Bank through the bank s Affinity Membership Program. Over the past five years TD Bank donations have totaled almost $6,000. These generous donations have been essential to the ability of the Council to conduct statewide cold water conservation efforts, youth education programs such as Trout in the Classroom, and other outreach programs. For example, the Council recently committed $10,000 to the Beebe River Project in Campton and Sandwich. This project will restore aquatic habitat connectivity on five tributary streams by replacing five undersized and perched crossings with prefabricated bridges (each of which costs $50,000). These tributaries remain cool and can offer trout suitable habitat during times of extreme temperatures in the main stem. For a participating non-profit organization to receive a contribution from TD Bank the total number of member checking accounts or the total balance of member savings accounts linked to the Affinity Program must increase each year. So it is imperative that we add new members (or accounts) to the Affinity Program each year. Clearly, more participation increases the size of the donation, but we also need to offset inevitable attrition of participants so that we exceed the baseline numbers that we begin with in a given year. This year, the number of our members linked checking accounts increased from 100 to 102, which resulted in a donation of $ The balance of the $2001 donation was due to a sizable increase in the total balance of all linked savings accounts. If you are a TD Bank customer, please help. There is NO COST or RISK TO YOU! Five minutes of your time could make a difference in our cold-water conservation efforts. Just visit your local TD Bank (or call the Contoocook office at ) and ask to be added to the Affinity Program through Trout Unlimited, and they ll take care of the rest. You don t have to be a TU member to join this program, so if a friend or relative is a customer of TD Bank, ask them to help. You can find more information about this program at the website. (Continued from page 3) Thanks to an Embrace-A-Stream (EAS) grant from Trout Unlimited, we hired a seasonal intern, Tyson Morrill, who was dedicated to this project. With Tyson s leadership, we were able to complete crossing surveys in the remaining two sub-watersheds (Upper Warner River and Andrew Brook watersheds). Tyson also sent out informational mailings to 170 Warner landowners with brook trout streams on their property and helped to arrange for site visits with twelve landowners. Later in the year, each of these landowners will receive a detailed report describing what was found and recommending actions to protect and conserve the resource Without exception, the landowners we visited were enthusiastic. Many, along with their children and neighbors, helped with the electro-fishing and macro-invertebrate surveys that we conducted. Based on their response, we think they have a better understanding of the value of these streams and hope they will be receptive to future opportunities to preserve this watershed. One landowner has already expressed interest in adding structure to foster deeper pools. Also, earlier this year, we held a public information meeting for landowners in Warner and, since then, one of the attendees is actively pursuing an easement with the intent of protecting brook trout habitat from development. Besides working with individual landowners, we put a lot effort into community outreach programs this year. Starting with a free fly-tying session at the Main Street Bookends in April, we sponsored educational programs and staffed displays at four different Warner community events, presented results of our work to community members in Sutton, and staffed a booth for four days at the Hopkinton State Fair. We also plan to be at the Warner Fall Foliage Festival this month. At each of these events, we had signups for our volunteer list now containing over 100 names.. Later this year, fisheries biologist Ben Nugent will complete his evaluation of the data that we h have gathered for this watershed and will issue a report with his findings. That report will help us plan out our work for next year. We will include some hands-on projects, and already have a few in mind. For more information, please visit our new project website (over 260 visitors so far) at (Continued on page 6)

PAGE 6 TROUTLINES OCTOBER 2016 (Continued from page 5) All of the volunteers listed below participated in at least one of our field trips or outreach events Bob Ball Martin Bean Chris Connors Ethan

Sandy Sonnichsen Charlie Stumb Jim Timmins Bob Ives Sally Turcotte Ben McManus This bucket contains about half of the 100 trout found in a 300 foot stretch of the stream pictured to the right

6 PAGE 6 TROUTLINES OCTOBER 2016 (Continued from page 5) All of the volunteers listed below participated in at least one of our field trips or outreach events Bob Ball Martin Bean Chris Connors Ethan Cote Andrew Divers Paul Doscher George Embley Sarah Fauver Bill Hall Rick Hedrick Betsy Janeway True Kelley Matt Lee Nancy Martin March McCubrey Rob O Neil Tim Pease Susan Roman Walt Ryan Jon Shuttle Sandy Sonnichsen Charlie Stumb Jim Timmins Bob Ives Sally Turcotte Ben McManus This bucket contains about half of the 100 trout found in a 300 foot stretch of the stream pictured to the right Landowners help a NH F&G fisheries biologist electro-fish a backyard site. Newsletter Information Troutlines is published September through May. Chapter members who have given TU national their address will receive an notice from us through the TU national server that the latest newsletter is online at our chapter website. Paper copies are sent to members who don t have an address listed with TU national. We periodically get returned s announcing the newsletter is available on line. Almost always this happens because your address has changed. Please log onto the TU national website and update your address so we can stay in touch. Only you can do it. If you would prefer to receive paper copies of Troutlines rather than electronic copies, drop us a line to either our or mailing address. If you now receive a paper copy and would prefer to read it online, drop us a note and update your membership information with TU national. Basil Woods Jr. Chapter TU PO Box 3302 Concord NH concordtu@yahoo.com October 20, 2016 Calendar Chapter Meeting All chapter meetings start at 6:00 PM, Social and Fly-tying 7 PM Program At the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, 54 Portsmouth Street, Concord unless posted otherwise

Troutlines. TU Kids Trout Camp and the Genetic Structure of Brook Trout Highlight the November Meeting

Troutlines. TU Kids Trout Camp and the Genetic Structure of Brook Trout Highlight the November Meeting Basil W. Woods, Jr. Chapter Trout Unlimited Troutlines www.concordtu.org Special Points of Interest Brook Trout Genetics From the Archives TU Video Available 25th Annual Banquet Chapter Meetings and Events