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Intense labor helps keep mountain trout stream alive and well

HILLSBORO, W.Va. — There are times when it takes a crazy idea to accomplish a goal.  Avid trout anglers know the Middle Fork of Williams River was once a tremendous native brook trout stream.   However, over the course of time acid rain along with naturally occurring acid produced by the conifer forest in the high mountain range made waters of the stream to acidic to support trout.

Years of research and development revealed putting limestone fines, a grit almost ground to the consistency of sand, into the water would help neutralize the pH and make the stream suitable for fish once again.   However, there were obstacles.

“It really had no fish in it for the last 50 years,” said Jeff Nelsen with the Ernie Nester Chapter of Trout Unlimited. “If we could get limestone fines into the creek it might help, but it’s the Cranberry Wilderness Area and you can’t use any machinery in the area, no trucks or bulldozers or anything like that.   We started by dumping the material into the ditch along the Scenic Highway and it started to help.”

But then a man had a crazy idea.  So crazy for a while, he did it himself.

“DNR’s Coordinator for this, John Robinski, actually found a trail that got into the headwaters about a quarter mile off the Scenic Highway,” said Nelsen. “He started carrying limestone fines between 2005 and 2008.  He carried multiple tons of limestone himself down this quarter mile trail and dumping it into the stream.”

Around 2008, about 27 volunteers from Trout Unlimited joined Robinski and started to help him carry the fines in buckets.  They formed a “bucket brigade” and delivered the material to the water along the quarter mile trail.   The project recently completed a 9th year of treatment and more than 80 volunteers were on hand, including 41 employees from 9 different Wal-Mart Stores in West Virginia.   The employees were invited and jumped in one weekend to lend their sweat to the cause.   Volunteers from four different chapters of Trout Unlimited also got involved and helped move ten tons of limestone fines from the road to the river one bucket at a time.

It’s a labor intensive project and Nelsen said while it’s only a temporary fix and has to be done every year, it has worked.

“This project started in 2005 and by 2009 they were starting to move back in from the Williams River,” said Nelsen. “Over a period of a few more years, there was reproduction and the stream is just full of brook trout now.”





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