web1_attorneys1.jpg

Young Luzerne County public defenders gain valuable experience

web1_Venesky-1.jpg

Outdoors with Tom Venesky: Put wildlife first in Sunday hunting debate

<p>Trout Unlimited&#8217;s Kathleen Lavelle and her crew waded through a thick swamp in Bear Creek on Tuesday in search of a natural gem.</p><p>Wild brook trout.</p><p>Lavelle, who is a field technician for TU, along with college students Toby Boyer, Jen Graves and Cody Anderson, spent last week scouring the numerous small mountain streams in Bear Creek searching for the presence of wild trout. The work is being done in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission&#8217;s unassessed waters program, which aims to identify which streams hold populations of self-sustaining wild trout. It&#8217;s a monumental task, considering there are nearly 90,000 miles of streams in the state, but the PFBC, TU and other groups have been chipping away at the task for the last five years.</p><p>&#8220;If a stream is to be listed as a wild trout stream or Class A, this is where it all starts,&#8221; Lavelle said.</p><p>Electroshocking is used to find trout, and last year Lavelle and her group sampled 123 streams. Thirty were dry but half held wild trout. Among the largest were a wild brook trout that exceeded 15 inches in length, and a few wild browns that topped 18 inches.</p><p>But that&#8217;s not what impressed Lavelle.</p><p>&#8220;What&#8217;s more exciting is to find the young-of-the-year trout. That shows they&#8217;re naturally reproducing in that particular stream,&#8221; she said. &#8220;If the water&#8217;s cold enough and there are no barriers, the trout are generally there.&#8221;</p><p>Lavelle and her crew waded up an unnamed tributary through the thick woods on Tuesday and didn&#8217;t find a fish. A culvert pipe that carried the stream under a dirt road may be a barrier to trout movement, Lavelle said, and the reason they didn&#8217;t find any fish.</p><p>At the beginning of each survey, Lavelle&#8217;s crew samples the water for pH, temperature, conductivity and alkalinity. Temperature and pH are important indicators, she said. Ideal water temperature is 57 degrees, Lavelle said, and trout can survive in a pH in the low threes.</p><p>The crew surveys approximately 100 meters of each stream, documenting all aquatic life they find while battling thorns and bugs and watching for rattlesnakes.</p><p>While the first stream failed to yield any trout, a trek up Bear Creek, not far from the Bear Creek Lutheren Camp, produced a different result.</p><p>The crew entered the stream as it traversed a swamp but failed to find any fish. As the stream entered the woods, the muddy bottom gave way to rock and the trout began to appear. Graves manned the backpack electrochocker and probed every undercut bank and log as the mild electric current temporarily stunned wild trout long enough to net them.</p><p>At the end of the stretch, the group collected eight wild brook trout and two exceeded 8 inches.</p><p>Lavelle said the rocky bottom and the shade provided by the tree canopy provided perfect habitat for trout. And where the habitat is good, she said, trout are usually found.</p><p>Lavelle&#8217;s crew will continue working for several more weeks assessing streams throughout the region. It can be challenging hiking to some of the remote streams and several times, she said, they&#8217;ve reached a location only to find the stream had dried up.</p><p>But there&#8217;s one element that is harder to overcome.</p><p>&#8220;Landowner permission is time-consuming and it&#8217;s been an obstacle,&#8221; Lavelle said. &#8220;It takes a lot of work finding who owns the land and then knocking on doors. The surveying and hiking through the woods isn&#8217;t nearly as challenging as obtaining landowner permission on private land.&#8221;</p><p>But once that hurdle is cleared, the results that can be found are critical to preserving the state&#8217;s wild trout streams.</p><p>&#8220;We typically do streams that are one meter in width, and in some places we&#8217;ll find 30 to 40 brook trout,&#8221; Lavelle said. &#8220;We did a stream last year where the bottom was blanketed in iron from mine drainage, but the water was being treated so the chemistry wasn&#8217;t bad and we still found trout. They can survive when conditions are right.&#8221;</p><style>
.neFileBlock {
	margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
	margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
	border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
	padding-bottom: 5px;
	padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
	font-size: 85%;
}
</style>
<div class='neFileBlock'>
<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_trout13.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Cody Anderson (left) hands a wild brook trout to Toby Boyer to be weighed before being relased back into Bear Creek. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_trout13.jpg</photo0><caption0>Cody Anderson (left) hands a wild brook trout to Toby Boyer to be weighed before being relased back into Bear Creek. </caption0><photoCredit0>Tom Venesky| Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_trout43.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">A wild brook trout from Bear Creek. Trout Unlimited crews are searching streams in the area for the presence of wild trout. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_trout43.jpg</photo1><caption1>A wild brook trout from Bear Creek. Trout Unlimited crews are searching streams in the area for the presence of wild trout. </caption1><photoCredit1>Tom Venesky| Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_trout23.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Jen Graves and Toby Boyer electroshock a small stream in Bear Creek Township last week searching for wild trout. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_trout23.jpg</photo2><caption2>Jen Graves and Toby Boyer electroshock a small stream in Bear Creek Township last week searching for wild trout. </caption2><photoCredit2>Tom Venesky| Times Leader </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_trout33.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">From the left, Jen Graves, Toby Boyer, Cody Anderson and Kathleen Lavelle wait to net wild trout in a pool in Bear Creek last week. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_trout33.jpg</photo3><caption3>From the left, Jen Graves, Toby Boyer, Cody Anderson and Kathleen Lavelle wait to net wild trout in a pool in Bear Creek last week. </caption3><photoCredit3>Tom Venesky| Times Leader </photoCredit3></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Tom Venesky</p><p>tvenesky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>ONLINE</strong></p><p>To see video of Trout Unlimted&#8217;s Kathleen Lavelle discuss the wild trout survey conducted in Bear Creek, visit timesleader.com.</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Tom Venesky at 570-991-6395 or on Twitter @TLTomVenesky</p></shirttailMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><videoMeta><p><table class="mceItemTable" style="border:none;width:98%;"><tbody><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoID:</td><td id="videoid" style="width:50em;font-size:90%;">cd02c08d31207aed6990741640b327ddf3740444</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoType:</td><td id="videotype" style="font-size:90%;">BIMVid</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">URL:</td><td id="url" style="font-size:90%;"></p><p></td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Embed String:</td><td id="videoembedstring" style="font-size:90%;"></p><p></td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Caption:</td><td id="videocaption" style="font-size:90%;">Kathleen Lavelle of Trout Unlimited conducts wild trout survey in Bear Creek.</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Credit:</td><td id="videocredit" style="font-size:90%;">Tom Venesky | Times Leader</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Position:</td><td id="videoposition" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr></tbody></table></p><p style="margin-top:10px;font-size:70%;color:#555;">(use the &#8220;for files&#8230;&#8221; link above to associate attached files with this source)</p></videoMeta></div>

Trout Unlimited conducting wild trout survey