Restoration Results: A Lime-ophilic Brookie
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Acid is real. pH is foul language in the east and it is no different in West By God. Of course, it comes in several forms…mine and precip. The WVDNR, despite a skeleton staff and a pence of the resources surrounding states enjoy, has been the leader in developing limestone sand techniques for “bandage” restoration. Bandage or no, it works. They lime dozens of watersheds, and by watershed, I mean they lime innumerable tributaries within a basin. The formerly lifeless waters now ripe with primary productivity and sassy speckled trout, which have either been reintroduced from somewhere within the watershed or were in previous existance in some cliffhanging state.
Anyway, I was doing my thing last week. My thing is canvasing brookie (and other wild salmonid) streams to gauge productivity. When I do it, I like to hit as many as 2-3 native brook trout streams per hour and rack up numbers more in terms of streams fished, than in fish caught. Once I cover 100 yards or so I often have a fair assessment of population, particularly in relation to other streams that I’ve covered in that same day under the same conditions. So this past weeks brookie marathon included a surprise meeting with DNR biologists in the act of dumping limestone fines on a stream I was headed to. So I was able to gather all kinds of video footage and a few snapshots as well.
These were all taken with a pointenshewt digital. While using video equipment I don’t carry an SLR with me.
Troutsand
No, the lime they use is special ordered. A couple of the biologists that I know there have spent the past 10 years perfecting the mixture to the most efficient sized particles so that it dissolves well and remains in the watershed for at least a year. It’s actually a pretty scientific process up to the point where they just dump the stuff on the bank. They like to do like the picture and dump it partly in the stream or right beside the stream, but in federal wilderness areas, it is illegal to restore a stream this way (the major negative side to wilderness designation). So for instance in the Cranberry Wilderness Area they found some roadside ditches on the ridgetop of Black Mountain where they’ve been dumping the stuff. This is way up above the stream as far as you can get…but the lime is making it into the water, and quicker than they’d thought! It’s actually pretty scary to make that connection concerning runoff of other stuff that goes in our ditches. Anyway, I don’t know the effect that ag store lime would have. The percentage of Calcium Carbonate in lime varies. Be careful of great deals, as some ag stores and other outlets will purchase limestone sand from processing plants that use it to filter junk through. This stuff can sometimes have some nasties in it and may not be all that effective. If you have any questions about limestone (or fertilizer) that you’re about to buy, especially in bulk, contact your state department of agriculture. I know that in WV they will come and test it free of charge for you.
Here is a video clip that I made as a bonus to go with the DVD Vandalia Angler that I recently produced. Enjoy.
http://www.hook.tv/MediaPlayer.aspx?contentItemId=340938
If that doesn’t work, try this:
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