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Lopatcong Creek Restoration ongoing


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1 hour ago, Jcol6268 said:

Brian I was excited to see you announce this project. It’s only a small drive from my house. I explored it this past winter and thought how much potential there was. In the one deep pool I saw a trout sitting and was wondering if it was a holdover.

Electro fishing it two summers ago turned up both native brook trout and wild browns that reproduce in the stream plus several stocked rainbows. It just needs some love. My Ridge & Valley TU chapter plans to perform visual assessments next year on stretches we know have cold water year round to prioritize and work on the next restoration project down the road. 

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The adjacent warehouse brings an interesting twist at this site in that people are calling HazMat and DEP as well as Fish & Wildlife thinking the warehouse construction crews are doing something wrong in the stream. We had visits from two agencies today. We all had a laugh once they realized we’re legit and have all our permits in hand. 😁

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2 hours ago, DBuck said:

I wish they would fix the flooded part in Washington, below tractor supply. I don't know what happened there, but it went from a stream to a pond.

There’s an obsolete dam there that needs to be removed. I believe the town is working on a plan to address it, but I’m not directly in the loop on it. 

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13 hours ago, DBuck said:

I wish they would fix the flooded part in Washington, below tractor supply. I don't know what happened there, but it went from a stream to a pond.

Isn't that the Pohatcong? The Lopatcong starts on Fiddlers Elbow well Southwest of Tractor Supply.

Edited by _X7
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I know there are sections of this Creek that are considered high quality trout areas. The section you are working on, how would you rate that section ? Were there any holdover trout in that section?

Great work as usual! :up:

Irish Potato Famine - White Privilege 

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54 minutes ago, madeinuk said:

Juniper Leifer (sp?) has put a lot of blood sweat and tears into this stream over the years.  I do not agree with her politically at all but she does deserve kudos over the stream.

She left the Lopatcong Creek Initiative and is or has moved to the Flemington area.  I met her replacement in this project. This is primarily funded by the William Penn Foundation. 

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5 hours ago, Mink said:

I know there are sections of this Creek that are considered high quality trout areas. The section you are working on, how would you rate that section ? Were there any holdover trout in that section?

Great work as usual! :up:

Being a limestone spring with surface water runoff, it has sections heavily influenced by ground water and other areas not so much. The coldest water is downstream of where we are now and well upstream nearer the headwaters that literally flows out of hole in a limestone boulder.  When we come back on July 20th to do the half mile at Lock Street, we will be in a heavily influenced ground water section. 
We know from constant temperature monitoring with dozens of HOBO data logger units in the river where the warm and cold water is in summer. So we will be focusing spawning habitat in those cold water areas knowing that native brook trout seek those out to spawn in. But we have mostly wild brook and brown trout where we are working plus recent stockies and holdover stockies (all bows). 

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Here is one of our spawning sites. I actually spent time removing cobbles too large for brook trout spawning needs. They prefer smaller pebbles like 3/8” to 1/2” stones to cut their redds in.  And they like pool tail outs as well as riffles to spawn in. 

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I don't trout fish - but it always amazes me that fish live and spawn in such shallow water. How deep is that water? Do people trout fish in streams that are that shallow? It looks like there is barely 12 inches of water in spots.

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4 minutes ago, mazzgolf said:

I don't trout fish - but it always amazes me that fish live and spawn in such shallow water. How deep is that water? Do people trout fish in streams that are that shallow? It looks like there is barely 12 inches of water in spots.

Trout require deep and shallow water habitats. Shallow riffles are where aquatic insects proliferate and where trout often feed on those insects. They also spawn there because that’s where the smaller cobbles deposit out (there and in the tailout of pools). These areas have constant flows of well oxygenated water to grow the eggs into hatched fry. Deep water offers escape from predation and often colder water as well as slower water. Trout being cold blooded, they seek deeper, slower water when they don’t eat much to preserve energy. And that happens in both summer and winter when temps are too warm or cold to feed much in. 

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