Runoff Catch Basins + Plantings = Filtered Waters

Seemingly, they could have built a damn or bridge for the time it took to build 16 catch basins (Watersheds and Stormwater Basins/Planters) on my neighborhood street. But, I gave the City of Portland the benefit of the doubt re the projects. This past early Spring the construction was finished with signage that promised plantings (Columbia River Habitat: Portland Green Streets Project). This morning, I noticed the plantings were staged for planting.

Catch Basin full after heavy rains with plantings standing on edge ready for plantings.

Upper, smaller basin full and ready to spill over into larger basin with plantings.

Here, a few miles away are catch basins that are still awaiting their plantings. These catch basins drain off a much steeper gradient. These basins seem to draw much more water at a faster rate and drain sooner into the nearby sloughs.

Wild Fish v. Hatchery Fish: When Is Enough Data Captured to Convince

“Since the mid-1970s, large increases in hatchery programs in the U.S., Canada, Russia and Japan have released billions of fish into the water. And the increasing global demand for salmon has resulted in calls to further expand hatchery production, especially in Russia and Alaska. In a 2010 open letter to Alaska hatcheries, seafood processors proposed increasing pink salmon hatchery returns by 25%-115% over the next five years. Similarly, Russian hatchery managers stated in 2010 that Russia is planning to build 23 new hatcheries that would increase the country’s hatchery production by 66% or 680 million fish.

“The scale and magnitude of our current hatchery production system is enormous,” says Rand. “Five billion juvenile salmon are released each year worldwide, and the prospect of additional increases in hatchery production is worrisome for the long-term survival of wild salmon.” (more at Science Blog)

HATCHERY FISH ‘DOMESTICATION’

JAY NICHOLAS HAS SOME GREAT INFO 

This a very complex issue for this C Average Student. Dams, Irrigation, Logging, Hatcheries, Commercial Fishing, Pollution, oh and Sea Lions, on and on contributing factors go. And, the propensity is to substitute one man made management style over the top of the previous one. We mucked it up and the mean time, the Put ‘n Take Crowd wants their damn fish! I am glad others are taking on this puzzle and that they put it in terms I can understand…Cliff Notes so to speak.

All the good intentions aside, it does come down to prior investments, jobs, business versus a probable crisis in maintaining/restoring the original wild strains. As much as everyone readily paints business interests as inherently bad and the problem, I at first will always point to government management or mismanagement as a greater culprit in messing things up…then poor stewardship by businesses…and the oblivious ‘I want mine’ by the ‘put in take’ crowd helps perpetuate the whole mess. 

While it feels good to quote some Native American slogan about preserving some resource, I wonder how Oregon and Washington…two states that have had overwhelming Democrat power bases for decades….two very liberal/progressive states…two very eco conscious states have made such a mess of the fisheries. All those Democrat Governors have been silent and void of leadership on these issues. Of course, I’m only a C Student…so what do I know?

Every Day in May Writing Challenge: Conservation & Pigs

EVERY DAY IN MAY CHALLENGE: SEE ALL THE TOPICS AT HOW SMALL A TROUT

Conservation? Well, I live in Oregon..duh. It’s a given. Or is it? It seems it should be given the perception in much of the I-5 corridor of being at one with Nature. But, it seems to me that there needs to be, even here, a re-acquaintance with the basics of picking up after one’s self. I rarely see a public service announcement about the basics of littering in Oregon. I can’t speak to elsewhere. I don’t want to. There is, for me, to much of that. Take care of your own back yard first before our minds traipse off on every global BS initiative.

Of course, that said, look at this Indonesian gem of perversion, poverty and stench:

Citarum River in Indonesia (The River Seers)

And, of course, less than a month ago I highlighted the Salton Sea’s alleged demise, via the New River, after visiting it’s shore. But, I still believe that many of us need to focus on our home waters to generate awareness about stream habitat projects, volunteer projects, creating public service projects about littering along streams and rivers (most campaigns seem focused on littering from cars on the move). The dumping of truck loads of garbage in vacant lots is egregious. The dumping of garbage by bank fishermen is equally obnoxious, if seemingly less harmful than the Citarum River’s garbage problem above.

Oregon Bank Fishermen on rivers and lakes: That styrofoam cup or plastic lid that held eggs or worms; that old glass jar that held those Pautzke Eggs or Power Bait, the carton that held sand shrimp, the empty spool of Berkley or Maxima fishing line, the wadded up tangle of twelve pound fishing line, cigarette butts, beer cans, sandwich bags, bottles, toilet paper. I don’t have to connect the dots here. Certain types near put and take fisheries join together to create a mess and there seems zero effort to prevent littering, over harvesting, snagging, or awareness. While I can decry the poverty and filth in Jakarta, I feel more compelled to create awareness here on my home waters.

 I have done my part on numerous occasions to help in cleanup projects along river’s edges (Sandy River, Salmon River, Crooked River, Mollala River, Wilson River, Necanicum River) but, each time I am cleaning up the discarded crap of pigs, I am left wondering why we don’t do more. Illegal dumping signs quoting penalties and statute numbers are required, but public pressure and awareness ad campaigns are in order. If Smoky Bear was here today…………. 

Tomorrow’s Every Day in May Outdoor Blogger’s Writing Challenge: Waders

Why Do Fish Jump?

Why in the heck do fish jump clean out of the water? I mean when they don’t have that hook in their jaw….

I imagine you have heard about that female fish loosening that skein of eggs or the odd fsh trying to shed bothersome lice or some critter. Perhaps, as I have seen on B.C.’s Tunkwa L., they are chasing a rocketing emerging Caddis beyond the surface many feet into the air. I have seen giant Sturgeon rocket up above the surface of the Snake River. Perhaps males are battling below and goose another to break the surface while escaping? Well, one guy thinks he has come up with another reason…..

“I am convinced that Mother Nature sees to it that every organism above a certain point in the food chain is blessed with enough sense of self to enjoy being what they are. One universal expression of this joy is the exuberance of physical activity. The whole-body rush as adrenaline and endorphins flood the system. The invigorating flush of heat and motion. The stretch and play of supple muscles, the dynamic tension between skin and ligament, bone and tendon as we each discover our physical limits. The range of emotions your face undergoes as you fight a fish leads us to the same conclusion. First surprise, followed in short order by confusion, concentration, determination and finally pride and joy as you bring the fish to net, all point to the same reason.

Fish jump because they can. Because it feels good. It’s that simple.”

Dennis Dobson

So, look at this pic of Denny Rickards with a mega trout. Look at that fish’s face and you tell me that fish isn’t chuckling:

“Hatcheries Suck” by Steven Hawley

H/t to Horatio Nailknot/FB in pointing me to this pointed piece about man’s meddlesome ways with Wild Fish via hatcheries and cherry-picked science:

“For reasons that have little to do with biological health, or even sanity, the Obama Administration and key members of Congress think this is a swell idea. Hatcheries suck because they’ve masked a staggering loss of biological diversity and abundance. With a century of hatchery experimentation in the rearview mirror, nearly everything has been lost for Pacific salmon in the Lower 48, including a grip on reality. Most weeks of salmon season here in the Columbia Basin, it’s possible to track down a forecast from some misguided guide, federal mouthpiece, blogger or outdoor pundit chortling about the “near record returns of kings over Bonneville Dam.” This is so patently false it shouldn’t even qualify as a delusion.” DrakeMag

NATIVE FISH SOCIETY

Columbia River Dams, BPA & Balancing the Forces

This is a lengthy, but very informative piece in Forbes about the Columbia River’s power/enviro management by BPA (and others) of 31 dams. A lot of good information in here. I queried this given the heavy dump of wet snow here last night, up the Gorge and wondering about runoff/flooding the next few days. I learned a lot more on the behind the scenes management of water running downhill to the ocean.

Grand Coulee Dam, the Columbia River's largest dam.

Happy New Year 2012

Brook Trout @ Baslee Troutman

BASELEE TROUTMAN ART

Fly Fishing: Pesky Whitefish (‘Rubber Lips’)

There was a time one could walk a stream’s edge in Oregon and find Whitefish laying atop rocks, dead and wasting. They were and are still viewed by many as a member of the sucker family and that is enough to sentence them to a high and dry status.

Layne Kennedy Photo @ http://arrowheadjourney.wordpress.com/

The incidental catch of Mountain Whitefish (Prosopium williamsoni) has never bothered me. I love catching all fish, be they Trout, Whitefish, Carp or the lowly Chum Salmon, to name but a few. The Whitefish is often described as a fish of 8-12″ on average, but they can get considerably bigger in Western Waters (I have caught them in excess of 24″ on the Metolius River). The Whitefish has a range from the NW Territories down into the Western U.S. The fish readily take a small nymph and on occasion a small dry fly can bring them up out of the riffles and quieter water adjacent to riffles. Some say they hold in different water than a Trout.

Western U.S. Mountain Whitefish (Prosopium williamsoni) Range

The one place I do see this is in fairly fast riffles of say a foot deep with no structure to provide relief from the current. The Whitefish will be in that water and you don’t see a Trout attempting to hold in that sort of water very often (unless Summer time low water and depleted oxygen levels force them into that water for brief stints of oxygenation).

The Hook & Hackle Company

If along the way, you have to pass the time catching some Whitefish on an otherwise Trout barren day, they are worth the time of feeling the tug. Small flies, nymphs, are in order and never allow any one to toss them up on to the rocks. I believe most fly fishers are intelligent enough today to know that Mountain Whitefish are not a threat to their cousins, the Trout and are a sign of a healthy watershed in many instances.

Small Nymphs for Whitefish (SwittersB)

Rivers, Dams & Who Owns the Bottom

RIVER BEDS,  DAMS & OWNERSHIP AT STAKE 

 

Great Falls Dam (Montana)

Watersheds and Stormwater Basins/Planters

Neighborhood under storm water planter box construction. Columbia Slough and Columbia R. benefit.

A typical urban enviro project for Portland. Supposed habitat enhancement, storm water runoff screening/filtering and reduced parking in front of homes. Trade offs/potentially significant for the watersheds. Where I have seen these types, jutting into the street, there are several gouge marks on the front end of the planter boxes from cars failing to see the reflectors and hazard yellow paint and becoming a temporary planter box ornament. A reasonable expectation, I mean people drive into power poles too.

Here the entire corner will be occupied by a storm water catch basin with foot paths cut through for pedestrian passage.

All this construction is on the downhill side of roads that run perpendicular to the Columbia Slough. In addition to the runoff, several springs run down off the hillside and enter the slough. I have such a spring running behind my property. I have left my property unaltered along the spring’s edges…neighbors along the way have not and I have seen the silt build up over the years, despite inspections, surveys and reviews. Anyway, below is how the storm drain basins are suppose to look upon completion…

We shall see how they function with run off; or, when under a foot of drifting snow and folks inadvertently drive into them. A reasonable attempt to I spose to control runoff of the waters moving South to North into the Columbia River Slough and Columbia River.

The Columbia River Watershed, where the I-205/I-84 meet and East, the terrain slopes toward the slough and the Columbia River.