RVTU Conservation Update 2-8-18

The Ridge & Valley chapter is one of 7 NJTU chapters helping to fund the restoration of the Wild & Scenic Musconetcong River on state owned land between Asbury and Bloomsbury at a site known locally as “the A-Frame property.  The property is so named due to the state owned home there currently resided in by one of the Conservation Officers (CO).  This public water is above the Musky Trout Hatchery, the hatchery being on Warren Rod & Gun Club property.  It is roughly one third of a mile in the limestone influenced area of the river, but it lacks deep pool habitat and has several failing hand-built stone dams that are widening the river in this reach.  Restoration of the channel includes the narrowing back down of the channel and the creation of three deep pools to better hold trout.  Riffles will be enhanced to increase insect production which as we all know is trout food and food to fuel the riverine ecosystem.  

This project has been fully funded with help from 7 TU chapters in NJ, the Theodore Gordon Flyfishers, and an Embrace-A-Stream grant received by the Central Jersey chapter who is leading the project financially.  TU staffer Cole Baldino is project manager and has brought in considerable funding to the project in addition to overseeing it for Trout Unlimited.  The permit is in hand, but closures for wood turtle hibernation followed by trout stocking will mean a late June 2018 construction date.  Trout Scapes River Restoration LLC out of Bozeman, MT is the contractor for this in-stream work, with TU volunteers planting native trees and shrubs following the completion of in-stream work.  

BELOW: one of the old stone dams built to provide a pool upstream for fishing

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Submitted by Brian Cowden - RVTU Chapter President