February 19, 2012

The Tusket River Chapter of Trout Unlimited Canada will undertake a significant and ambitious project in Yarmouth County beginning this Spring on a tributary of the Tusket River. The Chapter’s members have been monitoring informally the trout population of Big Meadow Brook, near Kemptville and the old Tin Mine, for the last four years. With the help of the Nova Scotia Department of Inland Fisheries, the Chapter will begin a formal monitoring of the system in April, with the goal  in the near future of having a section of the stream become a Special Trout Management area. The Chapter is going to do creel monitoring and fish health inventories (asking anglers details about the trout they catch, and measuring and doing scale samples of the trout Chapter members catch).

The Tusket River Chapter of Trout Unlimited Canada will be training participants through its River Watch program, which the Chapter runs for the Province, and in this instance will pay special attention to showing people how to do a creel census and weigh and measure trout effectively. The River Watch monitors in this area will then record the catches of people who fish the area of the stream being studied. The stream being looked at is the section of Big Meadow Brook, above (south of) the highway bridge on the 203 (near – N 44° 06.125 W 065° 43.838). The idea is that this very productive stream, which has a good population of trout already, might become even more productive with special protection, such as a gear restriction of single hook, barbless artificial lures and flies, and a minimum size limit. For the next two seasons (2012 and 2013) the Chapter will simply study the current catches, and then it is hoped that by having the new rules in place in the future, the stream might begin to produce more and larger fish.

The Chapter has the backing of people who attended a Regional Fisheries Advisory Committee meeting, and of several local landowners and businesses, as well as the Province and Trout Unlimited Canada, both of which are helping financially and with scientific assistance. The Chapter will be holding a meeting to train River Watch participants and explain the details of the project along with its annual general meeting on March 30, 2012 in Port Maitland at 5pm.

Anyone interested in attending the meeting should contact Chapter president Bill Curry before March 10th at:

flyfish@tightlines.ca

or call

902-649-2428

The Tusket River Chapter of Trout Unlimited Canada is sad to announce the following obituary:
ADAMS, George Stevens “Steve” – 63, of Port Maitland, Yarmouth Co., passed away on December 14, 2011 at Yarmouth Regional Hospital. He leaves behind his wife, Brenda (Ellis) Adams who he married forty four years ago. His two girls, Laurie Anne Houston, husband Donald, their children Emily, Madison, and Sarah. Second daughter Jeanne Adams, her children Steven, Hallie, and Isaac and a step grandson, Colton Houston. One brother, Charles who currently works as a teacher and lives in Khartoum, Africa. He was the son of Phyllis (Tobey) and Riley Adams, born and grew up in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and moved to Port Maitland at the age of sixteen, to his Nova Scotia roots and has lived and worked here ever since. He was named after Dr. George Stevens, a family physician in Gloucester. Steve was first and foremost a family man. He couldn’t get enough of spending time with his children and grandchildren and loved to sing and teach his childhood silly songs to them. When he didn’t know the words, he made them up, at least he made them rhyme. He owned and operated Steve’s Service Centre in Hebron for nearly twenty years, a forestry company, and recently joined the Tri County Regional School Board first as a bus driver, a dispatcher, and finally as Manager of Transportation. He loved his work and enjoyed spending time with “his” many bus drivers, mechanics, and fellow board staff. He made every attempt to stay in touch with them, through his sick days at home. He was an avid Boston Bruins and Red Sox fan and often “took one for the team”, wearing opposing team jackets and sweaters offered to him when his team lost. His sense of humour kept him young and energetic. His recent hobbies included geocaching, fly fishing and bird hunting in the fall with his faithful dog, Betsy. He spent endless hours in his boat or wading, in the elusive quest for the big salmon, but would settle for anything that gave him a fight on the flies, many of which, he designed and tied. He was most times a catch and release fisherman. Steve made sure the kids knew that if you threw them back, you had a good chance to catch them again. Steve was the vice-President and a founding member of the Tusket River Chapter of Trout Unlimited Canada. He enjoyed building his own strip canoes. He never gave up on his love for hockey and played with the old timers up until December of 2010, when he was diagnosed with cancer and forbidden to skate any more. He made many friends at the Yarmouth rink and served there as a head usher for a few years.

Steve’s first love was to his Lord, whom he loved and served for forty seven years. He served as a Church Board Chairman, treasurer, a Sunday School Superintendent and was a wonderful teacher of adult-age classes for many years. His A-Team classes were the joy of his weekends and although he had no formal training in teaching, his brilliant mind affected many who sat under his teaching. He loved the Old Testament Bible stories and made then pertinent to our lifestyle today. He was a man of prayer.

When asked how he was, his reply was always “excellent” which was the truth as he saw things. He always hung up his phone by telling the caller to have a great day, and he meant every word. He died how he lived, full of life, and positive to the end.

Cremation has taken place under the direction of Sweeny’s Funeral Home & Crematorium, Yarmouth. There will be no visitation by family request. A memorial service took place on Monday, January 2, 2012 at 2 p.m. from the Salvation Army Church on 102 Brunswick Street, Yarmouth. Interment will take place at a later date. Donations in his memory can be made to Camp Peniel “Send a Kid to Camp” at RR#1, 415 Cedar Lake Road, South Ohio, N.S. B0W 3E0 or to the Canadian Cancer Society. On-line condolences may be sent to: sweenysfh@eastlink.ca or you may sign the guestbook on-line at: www.sweenysfuneralhome.net

March 7, 2011

Nova Scotia’s two Trout Unlimited Canada (TUC) chapters (the Tusket River chapter and the Cumberland County River Enhancement Association chapter) announced today a Nova Scotia Provincial draft policy they will present to the Government for consideration when dealing with invasive, non-native fish species. TUC is against the expansion of stocking of non-native fish in any Nova Scotia waters where native fish are or have been historically present.  Backed by the National Conservation Agenda of Trout Unlimited Canada and based on findings supported by TUC’s National Biologist, this policy, it is hoped, will be a starting point for discussing how the Province should think about the issue of invasive, non-native fish species and their relationship with our native coldwater species.

Policy Statement: Protect and Restore Native Coldwater Fish Species and their Communities

Principles Applied:

Trout and salmon and their habitat are the major interest of Trout Unlimited Canada in Nova Scotia. TUC develops specific policy and programs using the following principles:

• Acknowledge limits to the Resource.
• Priority is native, naturally reproducing species within their natural habitats and range.
• Secondarily, management of introduced species where they currently exist.
• TUC supports the development of new fisheries using naturalized stocks, where there is evidence that no social and/or ecological conflicts exists between the proposed fishery and existing native or naturalized stocks.
• Restoring or protecting habitat so that fish can reproduce successfully on their own is the most cost effective and ecologically sound approach to fish community management.
• The protection of existing trout and salmon habitat should include all possible efforts to stop the spread of non-native fish.  The existence of non-native fish in a watercourse which holds trout or salmon should not in and of itself be a reason to cease trout and salmon management in such watersheds, and in fact should be an impetus to accelerate scientific efforts to control the non-native species in such watersheds.

Policy Rationale and Considerations:

Nova Scotia has a rich heritage of trout and salmon species.  Each region of the Province has a unique mix of species and stocks that since European settlement have been altered, lost or modified.  Protecting what is remaining and restoring what has been lost is a major focus for TUC in Nova Scotia.  Part of this management should include consideration for the protection and management of other coldwater species that comprise the native coldwater community that are found associated with native trout and salmon.

Objectives of Policy Statement

Protection and wise management of existing native coldwater fish species is paramount, followed by restoration of native coldwater species and communities where they have been lost.   Secondary focus is both on non-native coldwater fish species where they have become well established and also concern for the expansion of non-native fish species that may affect native coldwater fish species and their communities.

Delivery

At the Provincial level, TUC and its provincial chapters in Nova Scotia must implement programs to protect and restore native coldwater species and their communities through constructive advocacy, encouragement of proper harvest and angling regulations, research and monitoring.  Non-native, but naturalized coldwater species will also be a management focus for TUC, as long as these species do not compromise the health and integrity of native fish species, or where they are replacing a native salmonid species that can no longer survive in a particular waterbody. The management of non-native fish species is of interest to TUC only where they pose a potential threat through introduction, competition or disease to native coldwater communities and where they may out-compete and reduce the ability of native coldwater fish to thrive in their historical native habitats.
Also at a Provincial level, TUC encourages the development of a Provincial Strategic Fisheries Management Plan to clearly articulate the Provinces role in inland fisheries, its key goals and objectives including its strategic direction for the management of native versus naturalized species.

Local TUC chapters may work to restore native and naturalized coldwater species through a range of activities including:  exotic species management; harvest management; population assessment; restoring connectivity; native species restoration; compliance support; and enhancement.

For more information contact:

Bill Curry -  Tusket River Chapter TUC

Danny Ripley – CCREA Chapter TUC

flyfish @ tightlines.ca

http://www.riverwatchns.ca