Corps Finalizes Plans to Close Access to Cumberland Fisheries

If you fish the Cumberland River and/or its tributaries, you should know that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has finalized plans to close access around 10 dam facilities.

Keep America Fishing says this:

“These closures would affect tailwaters, both upstream and downstream of all ACOE owned facilities along the Cumberland River and its tributaries. Included would be Cheatham Dam, Old Hickory, Percy Priest and Center Hill fishing areas, which are popular with Tennessee’s almost one million anglers.

“Enforcement of these plans and closures are set to take effect in April of 2013. Failure to comply with these closures could result in fines, court dates and collateral forfeiture citations. The areas to be closed will have signs, buoys and potentially physical barriers to enforce the no-fishing areas. The Corps is prepared to spend $2 million dollars on these potential physical barriers which could potentially hamper future rescue efforts in these areas.”

The final public meeting is planned for Feb. 5 in Nashville. Go here to learn more.

President, Congress, Supreme Court Also Deserve Blame for Asian Carp Threat

Writing in the Great Lakes Echo, Gary Wilson makes a great point about the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers being a convenient scapegoat for fact that Asian carp are perilously close to entering the Great Lakes --- or might have already:

We’re rapidly approaching the three-year anniversary of the discovery of Asian carp environmental DNA past electrical barriers designed to keep the carp out of Lake Michigan. That event triggered massive fish kills, lawsuits, a call for separation of the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River and a flood of media exposure that shows no signs of abating.

Since then, the Army Corps of Engineers, proprietors of the barriers, insists they’ve been effective. Lawsuits brought by Michigan and other states requesting definitive and quicker action by the Army Corps continues to wind its way through the legal system. And studies to determine the feasibility and cost of physical separation are in process.

Through it all there has been one consistent theme: Blame the Army Corps of Engineers. Everyone needs a scapegoat it seems, and politicians, environmentalists, and editorial boards have found one in the Corps. The complaints: It’s too slow, bureaucratic, and even “clueless,” according to one editorial writer.

You’ll find no defense of the Corps here. It needs to be held accountable like everyone else. But the Army Corps is only a small part of a big federal picture charged with protecting the Great Lakes from Asian Carp. One policy analyst with years of Great Lakes experience recently made that case. Noah Hall says “all three branches of the federal government aren’t doing the job” when it comes to keeping Asian carp out of the Great Lakes.

Read the full story here.

Low Water Threatens Access, Navigation on Huron, Michigan, Superior

Top photo of Lake Michigan shoreline at Pere Marquette Park is from Oct. 12, 2012, while the lower is of the same location on July 20, 2011.

Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Superior all are dangerously close to all-time record lows.

Additionally, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers warns that if the current trend continues, these lakes will reach historic lows later this year or early in 2013. That could have serious negative implications for access and navigation, as well as the environmental health of the Great Lakes ecosystem.

A mild winter with little snow followed by a hot summer with little rain likely is the biggest factor leading to these low-water conditions.

Read more here. 

Anglers, Boaters Getting 'Locked' Out

Starting this month, anglers and other boaters will find water access reduced --- in some cases, even eliminated --- at reservoir systems managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In a few cases, new restrictive policies already are in place.

Officials cite budget constraint as the reason. They say that aging infrastructure requires that they direct funding that normally would go to lower priority facilities and operations to those with higher priorities.       

Among the lowest priorities is lock service, especially on systems where commercial traffic has diminished or, in some cases, disappeared entirely. As a consequence, service has been or will be reduced and/or eliminated at 63 locks nationwide.

In West Virginia, that policy translates into lost access on the Upper Monongahela River, a popular bass fishery.

“With the proposed lock closings, recreational users will have extremely limited access to the two middle pools in West Virginia,” says Jerod Harman, conservation director for the West Virginia B.A.S.S. Federation Nation. “The Corps will basically shut down 13.4 miles of navigable waters, or approximately 1/3 of the fishable waters on the river in West Virginia.

“But, more importantly, this has restricted the thoroughfare from Fairmont to Morgantown. It would be kind of like the only bridge was lost on a major interstate highway. You can either drive on ‘that side’ or you can drive on ‘this side.’ But you can’t get there from here!”

The Alabama, Allegheny, Arkansas, Black Warrior, Chattahoochee, Cumberland, Mississippi, Ouachita, Red, Tennessee, West Pearl, and many other systems also will see locks service reduced or even eliminated for recreational traffic.

As a consequence, some fisheries, such as Hildebrand Pool on the Monongahela, no longer will have public access.

“It’s outrageous,” says Barry Pallay, vice president of the Upper Monongahela River Association (UMRA), which has been working with the Corps, communities, B.A.S.S., and others to maintain recreational access.

“Not only is there not access at Hildebrand, but the only access on the Morgantown Pool, Uffington boat ramp, gets silted in.”

With locks closed to recreational traffic, anglers also will be denied the freedom to fish several pools from one launch site, while larger pleasure craft won’t be able to cruise through a system, On the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF), for example, boaters can no longer go from Eufaula, Ala., to Apalachicola, Fla.

That’s because locks at Walter F. George (Lake Eufaula), George W. Andrews, and Jim Woodruff (Lake Seminole) rank as only a “1” in importance. Level 6 locks are manned 24/7, while level 1 locks are opened for commercial navigation by appointment only.

“We’d have to have at least more than a thousand recreational lockages to raise up to level 3, which involves someone manning the locks one shift per day,” says Bill Smallwood, ACF project manager.

The three locks had no commercial traffic in 2011, with recreational lockages numbered nearly 300 at Lake Eufaula and 140 at Seminole.

Out on the Ouachita, a new lock operation schedule means service reduced from 24 hours to 18 hours a day at two Louisiana locks and from 24 hours to 16 hours at two Arkansas locks.

"This could be the beginning of the end for this project," said Bill Hobgood, executive director of the Ouachita River Valley Association.

But the UMRA, B.A.S.S., and others are determined to protect and restore access for recreational use on these systems.

“I am working with Gordon Robertson at the American Sportfishing Association to set up a meeting with the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works to discuss the serious impacts that closure of 60 locks will have for recreational fishing and boating,” said Noreen Clough, B.A.S.S. National Conservation Director.

UMRA, meanwhile, intends to find a solution, possibly one that can be applied nationally, and Pallay says that Corps officials, in turn, have been cooperative.

During a joint public meeting in July, officers from the Pittsburgh District said this in their Power Point presentation:

“As the federal government steps out, who steps in? We are willing to try anything; to explore any idea. Let’s set the example for the nation on how to do this right.”

UMRA has placed some of its recommendations in a resolution endorsed by communities along the Upper Monongahela. Among them: open the locks during recreation boating season, authorize use of part-time employees or even auxiliary volunteers as lock operators, and investigate innovative ways to fund operation of locks.

“We want to find ways to keep the locks open while we work on long-term solutions,” Pallay says. “And now we are ratcheting up the effort.

“We’re hoping that by April of next year we will be testing a pilot or demonstration project that can be replicated in other places.”

(Reprinted from B.A.S.S. Times.)

Angler Support Needed for Federal Fish Hatcheries

Your help is needed to keep federal fish hatcheries open. You can do that by supporting H.R. 5931.

Because of a diminishing budget, the National Fish Hatchery System within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) can no longer afford to raise and release millions of rainbow trout and other important recreational species annually to mitigate for the loss of native fisheries due to dams and other water development projects.

H.R. 5931 would require the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation and other agencies responsible for creation and management of those projects to reimburse FWS for the stocked fish, which only makes sense.

Keep America Fishing says this: “With the help of angler advocates like you, a similar threat was avoided last year, but hatchery funding will continue to be an issue until Congress takes action. H.R. 5931, legislation recently introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives, will require the responsible agencies to pay for their portion of mitigation hatchery operations.

“Urge your Member of Congress to support H.R. 5931 and help keep your local fishing spot well stocked with trout and other popular sportfish.” Click here to send your message today!”