Delaware B.A.S.S. Federation Nation: Conservation

The Eastern Shore Bassmasters of Delaware, in conjunction with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) have completed a habitat restoration project at Griffith’s Lake in Milford. The club is an affiliated member of the National Bass Anglers Sportsmen Society or B.A.S.S. as it is more commonly known, and the Delaware B.A.S.S. Federation Nation, a state wide federation made up of other clubs within the state to help promote, educate, and conserve the basic principles of freshwater sport fishing in Delaware.

The club participated in the DNREC’s Division of Fish and Wildlife GO FISH program which stands for Fill In Structural Habitat. The GO FISH program consists of clubs applying to the DNREC program requesting to plant artificial or natural fish attractors in area ponds and lakes to enhance the habitat for all species of fish. Members of Eastern Shore Bassmasters collected discarded Christmas trees after the holidays and constructed bundles of trees that were weighted with concrete blocks and placed in the ponds in areas that are productive places for fish to seek shelter and food.

The tree bundles also serve as fish attracting features along the shoreline to provide more opportunities for shoreline anglers, or bank fishermen. Multiple shoreline fish attractors were placed in the pond along the fishing access areas including areas along Griffith’s Lake Drive. Two (2) of tree bundles will be made visible to bank fishermen through the Division of Fish and Wildlife identifying the two locations as fish attractors on the pond’s map, and placement of signs at the park indicating such. The other thirteen (13) tree bundles were placed in areas to provide cover and safe habitat for fish throughout the pond.

The tree bundles were constructed by taking two (2) trees joined side by side and tied at the trunks and tips. The concrete blocks were then fastened one to each end of the bundle to help sink the trees and hold them in place in the water. The trees were placed by members of the club, with the assistance from the DNREC Fish and Wildlife workboat and crew on hand to assist, in various locations on the pond in no less than five (5) feet of water, as not to impede boat navigation.

The club considered the idea to enhance habitat in area ponds due to the large numbers of ponds with featureless lake cover and structure such as stumps, weed beds, submerged timber, rock piles, and dock pilings. The consideration was given to bank fishermen as well to attract more numbers of fish closer to shore. The fish attractors will provide opportunities for more anglers as more fish become accustomed to using the tree bundles for cover, food, and staging areas.

Griffith’s Lake was selected as this year’s location as somewhat of a resource management option. The lake back in 2006 suffered an unexpected partial drawdown that occurred when a leak developed under the dam and put it at risk for losing quality fish and habitat. It is the club’s goal to help restore some of the habitat and provide for a better angling experience for more fishermen, as well as provide the necessary habitat and cover with the tree bundles for promoting healthy populations of all fish species.

Club President Dave Perrego and Conservation Director Bob Wallace have been in contact with DNREC’s Cathy Martin, a fisheries biologist for the Division of Fish and Wildlife and GO FISH program administrator since early this year. This is the 2nd habitat planting project in Kent County in two years. The last took place at Killen’s Pond in Felton back in April of 2008.

For more information on how your Delaware club or organization can participate in the GO FISH program you may contact Ms. Cathy Martin at (302) 653-2887, or email her at catherine.martin@state.de.us.

To contact the club to inquire about future conservation projects and general membership, please call Dave Perrego at (302)339-2133, or email the club at easternshorebassmasters@yahoo.com.

The club’s website can also be found at www.eteamz.com/easternshorebassmasters.

The Eastern Shore Bassmasters, a local bass fishing club located in the central Delaware area, in conjunction with the Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife have implemented a monofilament recycling program at a number of Delaware ponds, lakes, and rivers. Club President David Perrego and Conservation Director Avery Dalton pitched the idea to the Division of Fish and Wildlife Fisheries Biologist Cathy Martin, based on similar recycling programs currently in place throughout the country.

The program is patterned after the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission’s monofilament fishing line recycling program. The club has constructed a number of recycling bins made out of PVC that will provide anglers at local recreational areas a means to discard their old fishing line. “The recycling bins will help eliminate the accumulation of old fishing line discarded along the banks of ponds and rivers in which birds, turtles, and other wildlife can become entangled and struggle to free themselves, or die” says Perrego. 

The club constructed eight (8) recycling bins that will be placed in obvious places in these recreational areas so that anglers may take full advantage of the disposal option, and help the club and division create awareness towards conservation of Delaware’s wildlife and natural resources. The bins will be marked and highly visible at such locations including Killen’s Pond State Park in Felton, Moore’s Lake in Dover, Garrison’s Lake in Smyrna, McGinness Pond in Milford, and one each on the Nanticoke River at Phillips Landing and the Seaford Public Ramp.

Eastern Shore is currently working with the Berkley manufacturing company, the makers of Stren and Trilene fishing line, to provide an end use for the collected fishing line. The Berkley Conservation Institute has parented a recycling program that recycles the collected fishing line along with the spent plastic spools the fishing line comes on, to create artificial fish structures. 

Members of Eastern Shore Bassmasters helped construct and place the recycling bins in an effort to reduce the potential of fishing line being left behind anglers while fishing. “Without the help of the Division of Fish and Wildlife, we wouldn’t be able to expand the program as we currently have,” adds Perrego. Cathy Martin and her colleagues at DFW should be credited for donating the materials to construct the bins.  

Success of the program will be indicated by the amount of fishing line removed on a regular basis from the recycling bins and/or just disposed of in the regular trash. The goal here is to get it out of the ecosystem.

For further information on the Eastern Shore Bassmasters Conservation projects and recycling programs, please visit www/eteamz.com/easternshorebassmasters, or call (302)339-2133.

More than thirty-five environmental enthusiasts committed to stewardship of the Nanticoke watershed attended the Creekwatchers citizen monitoring kick-off event on March 28 in Vienna, Maryland. The event, organized by the Nanticoke Watershed Alliance, was held to train citizens in water quality monitoring activities of the Nanticoke River and its tributaries in Delaware and Maryland.“We were thrilled to have so many people attend this year’s kick-off event,” said Megan Ward, Creekwatchers program coordinator with the Nanticoke Watershed Alliance. “Our citizen volunteers are very passionate about protecting the health and beauty of the Nanticoke watershed and are willing to devote their time and skills to help make a difference.”The Nanticoke Watershed Alliance’s Creekwatchers Citizen Monitoring Program began in July 2007 as a multi-year project to monitor the health of the Nanticoke River and its tributaries. During the first year, more than thirty volunteers monitored twenty-five sites testing several important water quality variables. Funding for the project is made possible by grants from the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control’s Division of Water Resources and the Chesapeake Bay Trust.Several community organizations including, Dorchester Citizens for Planned Growth, Galestown Mill Pond Association and Nanticoke Watershed Preservation Group, have joined this year’s monitoring effort.

The Creekwatchers program has expanded to 40 sites, including many new locations in headwater areas or previously underrepresented regions within the watershed. Volunteers’ efforts will supply nine months of water quality data for 2008, helping the Nanticoke Watershed Alliance and state agencies to gauge the changing health of the Nanticoke River. “With this citizen monitoring program, we are able to do more than what other water monitoring programs are typically able to do by sampling more locations on a more frequent basis,” said Jennifer Volk, environmental scientist with DNREC’s Watershed Assessment Section. “With the training provided, volunteers are transformed into a team of citizen scientists who are able to measure onsite - water clarity, dissolved oxygen, salinity, pH and temperature - using field instruments. They also collect water samples for laboratory analysis of nutrients, chlorophyll and bacteria.” 

“One of the biggest environmental problems facing the Nanticoke River and many other streams, lakes, rivers and estuaries throughout the United States is that the activities of modern society have increased loads of nutrients and organic material into these waters that are far beyond natural levels,” said Robin Tyler, aquatic ecologist with the Division of Water Resources. “These increased loads lead to undesirable environmental conditions such as low dissolved oxygen, reduced clarity of the water and excessive growth of aquatic plants. Each of these undesirable conditions can act alone or together to damage habitat used by animals such as crabs, fish, and waterfowl. The citizen monitoring data will help Delaware and Maryland better understand the extent of these conditions in the Nanticoke Watershed.”        

Creekwatcher data will be submitted to state agencies, the EPA and other groups working to clean up the Chesapeake Bay, its rivers and tributaries. The results of the program will be included in the annual “State of the Nanticoke Watershed” report. The report, which includes the 2007 water quality data, is expected to be released in May 2008, available to the public and posted on the Nanticoke Watershed Alliance’s website, www.nanticokeriver.org  The Nanticoke Creekwatchers Water Monitoring Program includes a number of partners – Envirocorp Labs in Harrington, Del. donates all testing services and John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. provides data management and analytical services. Technical training and support is provided by the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the National Park Service, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Salisbury University and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Horn Point.The Nanticoke Watershed Alliance is a consortium of almost forty organizations that include government agencies, environmental groups, land trusts, academia, restoration groups, industry, small business, realtors, forest and fishing industries, and citizen groups

To learn more about the alliance and programs underway to conserve the natural, cultural, and recreational resources of the Nanticoke River watershed, visit www.nanticokeriver.org or contact Megan Ward at 410-873-3045 or meganward@nanticokeriver.org

DNREC’s Division of Water Resources Watershed Section develops water quality monitoring strategies, conducts watershed evaluations, performs soil evaluations, provides technical support to the department, and integrates wetland and watershed management. For more information contact Jennifer Volk at 302-739-9939, Jennifer.Volk@state.de.us or visit www.dnrec.delaware.gov and click on “Division of Water Resources.”

Click here for Maryland DNR information on the Northern Snakehead.

Click here for Maryland DNR information on the Chinese Mitten Crab.

Click here for Maryland DNR information on other invasive species of concern.

Click here for Delaware DNREC information on the Chinese Mitten Crab and other non-native inavsive species, including the Northern Snakehead.