I think though that the magor man made effects on our stream populations are not the ones we all want to readily blame, those big smoke spewing factories and (Ive been told they exist) armies of big business / oil company hacks who pour 50 gallon cans of green soup in every trout stream they find. Acid rain and mine drainage do some damage for sure but by far the biggest contributor is you and me. We like to eat and wear clean clothes on our pretty green lawns. All of these seemingly innocuous activities produce huge amounts of fertilizer / phosphate runoff which enters all of our waters. What this causes is algae blooms no matter how high the water quality or how pristine the temperature will completely deplete the dissolved oxygen in the water. The insects feel it first and there are "indicator" species such as stoneflies that will quickly tell you that oxygen is an issue, kinda like the old canary in the coal mine. Agricultural runoff and farm animal waste are a major concern as we practice ever more intense agriculture. Recently a single dairy in upstate New York had a manure settling pond rupture during a flood and dump its contents into the Black River. The ensuing fish kill was disastrous on this fine trout stream. This was not a corporate megafarm either, just a good sized family dairy. (I think they milk about 1000 head). Pig manure is being blamed for the disastrous fish kills now occurring almost every summer in Pamlico sound.
This may sound funny but I believe it is true, the big chemical and oil companies are for the most part trying to "do the right thing" not out of the goodness of their hearts but because it is either good business or it has been regulated onto them. They also are the only segment that has the financial resources to attain it. The small farmer and even family gardener is a far worse polluter than we want to admit, they can only be regulated to a small degree and even when regulated usually do not have the financial means to correct their problems. Mike M -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of David Murphy Sent: Tuesday, December 06, 2005 9:32 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [VFB] Flytying, genetics, Myth?... Garry, Okay, environment has an affect. But how much can the system handle when man is able to do more than a hurricane? Agnes took out a lot at my cabin's creek (Mapquest Waldheim, PA), including huge carp, spawning suckers and changed the whole system there (not THAT far from where you live). Point? Man has done over a short time what used to take a millenium by nature. Murf [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Member: www.virtualflybox.com From: "Garry V. Wiles" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [VFB] Flytying, genetics, Myth?... Date: Tue, 06 Dec 2005 18:09:53 -0500 Muf, You bring up two interesting points. The first - where are the bugs going, followed by why aren't we using patterns to match the bugs that are there? I've thought about your post and would like to remind the list two things: 1)I used to be smart and 2)I'm an Idiot (I'm reminded daily by the woman I live with). I believe all things move in one cycle or another. Bugs that we imitate aren't much different. The life cycle is the most well known. As fisher-folk, we have books and charts and time tables and web sites all mapping out hatch and spinner falls. The bonus features of some places would tell you what are the best water temps and clarities and every other nuance of water quality needed as well. We know or have come to expect certain bugs at certain times of the year. What the books of 20 years ago don't account for are disasters of natural or man-made proportions. Hurricanes like Katrina of this year, or Ivan of 2004 change the number of nymphs in the water. They also move or kill or at least change the number of preditors at that time as well as food for the smaller creatures too. Hurricanes and Floods are an easy thing to recognize as far as forces that move both fish and bug. Large amounts of water rushing downstream spread downstream fish and their food, creating various imbalances throughout the stream or river. Not every thing moves downstream and not everything moves the same distance. This also allows for the cross breading of sub-sub-sub species of a particular fly. Ever notice that slight variations of the same pattern produce differently on different stretches of the same watershed? Or as you mentioned Muf, the March Brown w/Orange Herl for Year X where orange wasn't part of the equation for year X-1? What caused the change in the bug? The fish are keying in on part of the bug or something new to the bug that year, something caused it. Other things that may cause bug kills or movement can be droughts that cause the water level to fall below sustainable levels for the biomass of the stream level to sustain. Less food for the bugs means fewer bugs. Fewer bugs lead to fewer fish, either through fish movement or death. Eventually the balance returns and there's more food for the bugs, and the cycle goes the other direction. Wild animals and 'tame' animals can destroy bug habitat in the stream with out expressly meaning to as well. The swans in your story did that very such thing by eating the water crowfoot, thereby destroying bug habitat. Don't forget natural preditation - both in the water and on land/air. If a large number of fish end up in an area with a small hatch or bug population, they can easily destroy their food sources. Birds and bats and other insect feeders can just as equally destroy small populations while the mayfly is in it's dun/spinner life cycle. Of course NONE of the above addresses the numerous man-made possibilities than can exist. In Western Pennsylvania, acid rain and acid mine drainage are both damaging to water quality leading to poor stream biomass (bugs AND fish). Threats by former mine owners to shut down the pumping water out of various mines, leading to stream flooding with excess acidity blowing down a stream and wiping it all out. That's just ONE sample of man-made disasters, we've read about others that I'm not going to discuss. Part II to come. -->Garry Make FREE PC-to-PC calls with MSN Messenger. Get it now!
