Volunteers Make a “BIG” Difference
Adopt-A-Biologist Update
The chapter “Adopt-A-Biologist” program continues to run far beyond our expectations back when we first asked for interested volunteers in February. Beginning with 18 people who attended the organizational meeting on March 26th, we’ve grown to 26 active volunteers as of July 21st.
With
this headcount, we’ve “come through” for the USFWS and NH Fish & Game
each and every time we’ve been asked to help; 100% performance tells quite a
story about the quality of our volunteers and The Merrimack River Valley Chapter
of TU itself.
Our volunteer activities to date
have been varied, interesting, educational and fun. More importantly, each and every effort has been important to
New Hampshire coldwater fisheries programs.
Here is a quick update on our efforts:
April 10th 14 Trout fin clipping (6,000 Trout)
April 14th 10 40,000 LL Salmon clipped (This number is correct!)
April 22nd 85 Atlantic Salmon Fry stocking (101,000 fry, Souhegan River)
April 23rd 78 129,000 fry to South Branch – Piscataquog River)
April 25th 3 New stocking of 31,000 fry to Middle Branch – Piscataquog River)
May 2nd 9 Hand stocking of trout to the Piscataquog Delayed Harvest Zone
May 9th 17 Canoe hand stocking of trout to the Souhegan River
May 22nd 10 Fry stocking of the Pemigewassett River-East Branch (61,000 Fry)
June 8th 20 Shad, Eel, Herring, Atlantic Salmon (ATS) work at Essex Dam
June 18th 20 Shad transfer from Essex Dam to upper Merrimack system
June 20th 14 Assistance to Chapter Black Brook Embrace-A-Stream team
June 20th 14 Shad transfer from Essex Dam to upper Merrimack system
June 22nd 18 Shad, Eel, Herring, ATS work at Essex Dam (13 ATS trapped)
June 29th 18 Last Shad, Eel, Herring, ATS work at Essex Dam for 2003.
July 7th 9 Electro-fish Boat survey of Warren lake (Hundreds of Bass!!)
July 21st 45 Electro-fish survey of Contoocook in preparation for Dam Removal.
August 18th 19 Salmon parr sampling
August 19th 17.5 Salmon parr sampling
August 21st 17.5 Salmon parr sampling
August 25th 19 Salmon parr sampling
11.5 Wild trout sampling
August 26st 19 Salmon parr sampling
12 Wild trout sampling
August 27th 18 Salmon parr sampling
10.5 Wild trout sampling
August 29th 5.5 Wild trout sampling
As you can see, the activities are varied and most have exciting aspects to them. We’ve gone from traditional Salmon Fry stocking to hand stocking of rainbow and brook trout (a number of rainbows exceeded 3 LBs), to the trapping of 12-15 LB returning wild Atlantic Salmon on the Merrimack. We’ve added some warm-water fish surveying via the Fish & Game electro-shocking boat. And, we’re building quite a team capable of electrofishing surveys of rivers/streams. Still on the schedule for 2003 is additional warm-water fish surveying via the NH Fish & Game electro-shocking boat, Atlantic salmon “parr” surveying throughout the Merrimack River system, and finally, but not least, brooktrout and laketrout sampling in several area lakes.
|
Dan Hall stocking the Souhegan River |
USF&G Biologist Ken Sprankle with a shad trapped in Lawrence |
|
Atlantic Salmon and other fish trapped in Lawrence |
Souhegan River TU float stockers Jerry Bernier, Bethany Poulin and Jim Lynch |
A few words from our Volunteers tell quite a story of how well we’ve all done this year to date, especially when added to some comments from our Adopted Biologists, Gabe Gries of NH Fish & Game and Ken Sprankle of US Fish & Wildlife Service:
Beth Poulin on Fin Clipping: “Awesome day it was indeed! In fact, I joined them on Monday at Powder Mill (hatchery) where we clipped another 40,000 landlocked salmon … yes, the right number of zeros.”
Mike Byrne on Shad Transferring: “Great day! Ray Landry and I had a great workout.”
Mike Krumrine on Black Brook Morphology Survey: “The survey went really well, I enjoyed myself and found it very educational.”
Jim
Norton on boat electro-shocking: “Don’t know how many fish we netted,
probably over 100 bass …. It was an enjoyable evening with a few laughs as we
ducked under tree limbs…”
Nancy Hilliard on the Contoocook Fish Survey: “ I thoroughly enjoyed the day and would be very happy to do it again. Let me know when another opportunity comes up.”
Most importantly, here is a sample of comments of thanks from our adopted Biologists:
Gabe Gries, NH Fish & Game Biologist: “Thanks for the very successful morning … it was great to work with you and hopefully you had a good time.”
Ken Sprankle, USFWS Biologist: “We have had great volunteer support from the Manchester Chapter of Trout Unlimited in assisting staff at the Essex Fish Lift and in shad transfers.”
All this dedicated volunteer effort adds up to over 557 hours of assistance to date with 3 months to go in the season. We’re on our way to setting a record that will be difficult to repeat in 2004 --- UNLESS, OF COURSE, EVEN MORE TUers JOIN THE TEAM.
If you want to play a part in all this fun and great volunteer work, just send Don McGinley an Email at: DonMcG44@aol.com or phone him at 603-487-5075. All you need is a love of our lakes, rivers and streams and their native as well as stocked trout and salmon, and a committed desire to help our TU Chapter “Make A Difference”. Tight Lines!!!
