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January meeting reminder

Monthly Membership meeting reminder. Join us this coming Tuesday, for our monthly membership meeting. This months meeting will feature Chapter VP Mike Recine discussing his experience fishing in Alaska. Meetings are held at the DAR Log Cabin on 8th Ave in Bethlehem.  Meetings start at 7pm.

Fly Fishing Film Tour 2017!!

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Fly fishing aficionados, gear up for trout season and transport yourself to some of the most exotic angling destinations on Earth as the preeminent exhibition of fly fishing cinema, the acclaimed Fly Fishing Film Tour (F3T), returns to the ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks!.

A sell-out in each of its first two years, the Fly Fishing Film Tour at SteelStacks has expanded in 2017 from one night to two due to popular demand. During each evening, guests will enjoy a variety of breathtakingly beautiful short films focused on amazing angling destinations around the globe. Highlights include films focused on chasing monster rainbows and Pacific salmon on the Kamchatka Peninsula of Eastern Russia; battling giant tarpon off the coast of Florida; conservation efforts to protect trout and their habitat in Idaho and Montana; and even the pursuit of the Russian Nelma, a giant predatory fish that’s never been caught on the fly. The Fly Fishing Film Tour showings at the ArtsQuest Center are the only screenings of the film tour in region; the complete list of films and trailers is available at www.flyfilmtour.com.

Guests are invited to arrive starting at 6 p.m. each evening to see fly tying demonstrations by Trout Unlimited members, talk with fellow anglers and enjoy food and beverages from the ArtsQuest Center’s Mike & Ike Bistro (not included with ticket price).

Proceeds from the Fly Fishing Film Tour benefit the Monocacy Chapter of Trout Unlimited’s habitat improvement work and coldwater conservation efforts on streams throughout the Lehigh Valley, as well as the ArtsQuest Arts Education Programming Fund, which helps to support ArtsQuest’s free music, arts and education programming for the community.

Photo Credit: Matt McCormick

SCHEDULE

• Tuesday, March 28, 2017 @ 7:30 PM 
• Wednesday, March 29, 2017 @ 7:30 PM 

VENUE INFORMATION

Banko Alehouse Cinemas
ArtsQuest Center
101 Founders Way
Bethlehem, PA 18015
610-297-7100
map & directions

Winter/ Spring Newsletter

Caddis

TU team wraps up unassessed waters survey work in PA

By Kathleen Lavelle

As fall turns to winter, Trout Unlimited staffers take stock of the previous season’s fieldwork while starting to plan ahead for the coming year.


For the TU team working on the Unassessed Waters Initiative headed by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, 2016 was another great year.


I lead a team that spends several months every year in search of naturally reproducing trout in streams that have never been formally surveyed. The work helps to ensure higher protection standards through the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).


Each spring the Fish and Boat Commission sends us -- and other partners working on the initiative -- a list of streams to survey. We then go afield for survey trips, using electroshock gear that temporarily stuns fish so we can scoop them up in nets and identify them.


In 2016, TU field staff surveyed 76 streams in the West Branch of the Susquehanna River basin and 41 streams in the Delaware River basin.


Of those, a total of 35 streams -- nearly one-third -- were found to have naturally reproducing trout and are eligible to be added to the Fish and Boat Commission’s formal Wild Trout list.

Since 2011, TU has surveyed 555 streams for this initiative, and dozens already have been added to the wild trout list.
Listing of a stream section as wild trout water does not determine how the water is managed. However, the biological designation is among the factors the agency considers in its management approach to specific waters. Listed wild trout streams and their adjacent wetlands qualify for more stringent environmental protection.
Pennsylvania contains nearly 62,000 streams, but the Fish and Boat Commission staff has been able to conduct surveys on fewer than 6,000 of those waters, totalling 24,511 miles. That’s only 9 percent of the stream numbers and less than 30 percent of the stream miles that the agency is able to actively manage.
Trout Unlimited and other partners in the effort, such as universities, are providing crucial assistance in this important effort.
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation provides funding for the Unassessed Waters Initiative. TU's work for this initiative in the Delaware River Basin is also funded by the William Penn Foundation and the Kittatinny Ridge Coalition.
In September, the Fish and Boat Commission voted to add 99 streams to the listing. Of those, 13 had been identified by TU’s Unassessed Waters Initiative team.
The Fish and Boat Commission will vote on another list of 99 proposed wild trout waters in January, 25 of which TU has identified.
Even as we wrap up 2016 we are starting planning for 2017, with plans to survey many more streams, including more than 100 in the Delaware River basin alone.






Kathleen Lavelle is the field coordinator for Trout Unlimited's Pennsylvania Coldwater Habitat Restoration Program, based in Lock Haven, Pa.

See what's in store for Monocacy Creek in Bethlehem

LINK to Lehigh Valley Live.com article : http://s.lehighvalleylive.com/

By Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com 
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on October 23, 2016 at 7:45 AM, updated October 23, 2016 at 9:35 AM

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The Monocacy Creek in Bethlehem is a spring-fed, limestone-bed, Class A Wild Trout stream, a natural wonder in an urban area.

But within the city's Monocacy Park north of Illick's Mill Road, rock check dams and railroad-tie banks give it an unnatural look while harming the ecology of the stream.

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Next summer, Wildlands Conservancy is undertaking an estimated $300,000 restoration of the stream from Illick's Mill Road north to just downstream from the park's pedestrian bridge over the Monocacy. The Works Progress Administration-era dam is outside the scope of the project.

"There's so much opportunities for improvement here," said Kristie Fach, Wildlands' director of ecological restoration, during a tour of the project area Thursday.

About 25 people took part in the tour, including members of the Trout Unlimited Monocacy Chapter who are excited about the effects the plan will have on improving fish habitat. The stream now is largely unshaded, and long flat stretches heat up the water during the summertime. 

The stream boasts a strong wild brown trout population, and is also wildly popular with anglers after it's stocked by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, the Trout Unlimited members said.

Plans call for removing the creosote-soaked railroad ties and Gabion baskets that line the Monocacy's banks, Fach said. Infill will reduce its width by more than a foot on each side. 

The rock check dams spanning the width will be replaced by V-shaped cross vane rock weirs that funnel the flow and create riffles, which are beneficial to fish and anglers alike. 

It will be up to the public and city to prevent visitors from just stacking up more rocks to turn the weirs back into the rock check dams, said Fach. 

Minsi Lake pegged for $3M dam rehabilitation

The Lehigh Valley lake is on a Pennsylvania priority list. Work is expected to get under way next year.

Wildlands, based in Upper Milford Township outside Emmaus, worked with Bethlehem's urban forester on selecting about 10 trees for removal due to poor health, dangerous root structures along the stream or because they may be in danger of falling in coming years. 

Some are non-native London planetrees that resemble sycamores, and plans call for native varieties to be planted starting out at about 8 feet tall.

"So our plans do involve removing some trees but we're going to have much more vegetation here than there currently is," Fach said.

Swaths of wildflowers and shrubs are planned along the bank, alternating with grassy areas designed for access to the stream.

Volunteers will be needed for the plantings, which will follow the roughly month-long steam construction scheduled in summer 2017, during what is traditionally a low-flow time for the stream. 

The city supports the project and will look at improving parts of the asphalt path along the stream, said Jane Persa, acting director of parks and public property, and a participant in Thursday's tour.

Funding for the project is coming from conservation and flood-remediation grants, including from Northampton County Open Space, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and state Department of Community and Economic Development.

Designed by Langan Engineering, the restoration still requires reviews by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, in addition to permits from the Northampton County Conservation District and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.

Welcome to 2017

Best wishes for a happy and healthy 2017.