Six Nova Scotia Projects Receive Funding

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Six Nova Scotia projects receive funding from Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation




June 1, 2009, Fredericton, NB – Groups working to conserve wild Atlantic salmon stocks in Nova Scotia (NS) will receive a total of $52,800 in funding from the Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation (ASCF) this year. The Foundation announced its 2009 grant recipients today. Six Nova Scotia projects were among the 20 to be funded, which also included four in New Brunswick, four in Quebec, three in Prince Edward Island and three in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The total value of grants awarded by the Foundation for 2009 is $219,850.

“This is just our second round of awards,” said ASCF Chair, the Honourable Rémi Bujold, when the successful applications were announced, “but the Foundation is already gaining recognition as the funding agent for wild Atlantic salmon conservation in Canada. Our plan is to be a reliable and long-term supporter of salmon conservation by community partners.”

Some 46 applications were submitted by conservation, environmental, sports angling and Aboriginal groups in Atlantic Canada and Québec to fund work to be done during the 2009 season. “This shows that there is widespread and active interest in, and commitment to, conservation of wild Atlantic salmon,” said Hon. Bujold.

Nova Scotia applications were assessed and selected by the Foundation’s Nova Scotia advisory committee and its Central Advisory Committee. The $52,800 awarded in Nova Scotia includes:

• $15,000 for the Nova Scotia Salmon Association to mount a demonstration project in Beaver Bank aimed at restoring the West River, which has been extensively damaged by acid rain;


• $9,000 to the LaHave River Salmon Association in Bridgewater to improve and maintain the water quality of the LaHave River watershed through water quality monitoring and a public education program;


• $9,000 to the Sackville Rivers Association for a comprehensive watershed study to establish priorities for Atlantic Salmon habitat restoration and improvement in the watershed;


• $7,500 for the St. Mary’s River Association (Sherbrooke) to identify culverts that interrupt spawning migration and develop a restoration plan for culvert remediation;


• $6,300 to Antigonish’s Habitat Unlimited to continue its work on fish habitat restoration in Wright’s River;


• $6,000 to the Mabou & District Community Development Association for its Shea’s Brook restoration project to create a more complex habitat suitable for salmon spawning, development, and migration.
  
  “The salmon fishery is essential not only to the province’s ecology, but also to its economy, First Nations and to the growing eco-tourism industry,” Scott Cook, chair of the Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation’s Nova Scotia Advisory Committee, said when the funding was announced. “These projects will contribute significantly to the reestablishment and conservation of this valuable resource in Nova Scotia.”
  
  Work on the spring 2009 projects will begin as soon as environmental conditions allow.
  
  The Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation is a volunteer, non-profit, charitable organization established with the goal of helping to achieve healthy and sustainable wild Atlantic salmon stocks in Atlantic Canada and Québec. Funded with an endowment from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the Foundation has created a trust fund to promote and strengthen partnerships among groups working to conserve wild Atlantic salmon. Conservation projects and program administration are financed from interest earned by the trust fund.
  
  For more information on the Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation please visit the website at http://www.salmonconservation.ca/.

Spring is Springing

Fishing season is only a few days away and the lake I overlook from my window is still frozen solid.

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I knew the sun had some warmth because my furry thermometer was showing warm enough to nap.

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Here are some scenes from March 29th in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
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Lake Micmac

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back yard

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front yard

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And this from Barb at work:

FISHERIES/AQUACULTURE--New Sportfishing Licences System for People With
Disabilities
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Sportfishing anglers with disabilities will have a new process for
getting a licence when the season opens in Nova Scotia on April 1.

"Sportfishing is an outdoor activity that can be enjoyed by people of
any age or ability," said Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Ron
Chisholm. "We are pleased to offer free sportfishing licences to people
with disabilities."

Free general fishing licences are available for Nova Scotians with
disabilities who meet the criteria. Under the new system, an accessible
parking identification permit issued by the Registrar of Motor Vehicles
will qualify as proof of disability, or anglers can have their
application for a fishing licence confirmed by a doctor.

Application forms are available at Access Nova Scotia and the Department
of Natural Resources. Anglers who qualify for this type of fishing
licence can pick one up at their local Department of Natural Resources
office.

Information on angling and the 2009 sportfishing regulations is
available at www.gov.ns.ca/fish/sportfishing .

At the Camp - Bear Falls on the Medway River, Nova Scotia

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As I write this I am sitting on the dock at my cottage. From here I can watch for salmon surmounting the short rise to the pool stretching out on three sides of me.

The sound of the falls is a muted roar. It is exactly the same sound as the wind during a hurricane but softer, less jagged, without the threat. A Bald Eagle flies over and agitates the Black Backed Gulls sitting on either side of one of the narrow dumps over which the river rushes.

They have been sentries to that gate since time immemorial. The rocks painted white with their droppings, witnesses to their patience. What they hope for is hard for me to know. I have seen elvers, the little glass eels, leave the water there and creep snakelike over the spray dampened rocks to avoid the treacherous currents but they are scarcely a meal for those voracious scavengers.

Along with the salmon, alewives, or as the primordial Mi'kmaq called them "Kiacks", run in their thousands through the channels of these falls. Shad too run in this river but rarely this far up. There are trout here, the speckled treasure of the Nova Scotian backwoods and all the small minnows, catfish, parr, and fry. Somewhere in the rich life of the river is their reward.

The gulls settle back to watchful immobility. The Eagle drifts on down the river with the strange, slow motion flight of his imperious kind, unimpressed by the constancy of the Gulls.

I am a firm believer in the adage that knowledge is power.

All else being equal, the fisherman that has the most, practical knowledge about the life and habits of his quarry will in the long run catch more fish or have more fun – usually both.

Nova Scotia has long been famous for its Brook Trout fishing. A great old book called “The Tent Dwellers” tells the story of affluent Americans making the journey to the backwoods of this province for a guided trout fishing trip in the early 1900’s. The book was written by Albert Bigelow Paine and published in 1908.

If you haven’t read it, let me recommend it.
My point though is that even if a hundred years have passed since this wonderful yarn was first spun, with a bit of knowledge and effort you can still find fishing here almost as they experienced it.




The Brook Trout - What you might not have known.

The Brook Trout is a native North American species but it is not really a trout. It is a Char.
Char is the common name for members of the genus Salvelinus. So, if we look at the proper name for Brook Trout which is Salvelinus Fontinalis, we get some clues to the lifestyle of the Brook Trout. Salvelinus tells us that it is a Char and the Fontinalis part means “of springs” or “living in springs”.

That is an important bit of information when it comes to figuring out where you might find trout.
Brook Trout prefer to spawn in places where springs well up. This is more important to them than almost any other consideration such as what the gravel is like on the bottom. If there are no springs then Brook Trout will spawn in riffles or runs out of pools but these spots must meet very select criteria. The water must flow at a certain speed; the gravel bottom must be within a certain size and so on.

Interesting information or not so much but here is the bit that may help you to locate fish when a field. Because they are so well adapted to this environment and able to spawn successfully in brooks, rivers, ponds and lakes, Brook Trout might be found in any –even the smallest –spring fed water.

To locate trout in tiny brooks look for cover. That is where the trout will be.

In a stream trout prefer a bottom of gravel and smallish rocks. The cover only needs to be near by. They will establish a territory and feeding lane and stay there. If you locate one of these spots the same trout is likely to be there all season. They will usually chase other trout out of their chosen territory but funnily enough are quite happy to share a bit of cover when needed.

In a lake things are very different. Trout in a lake are not territorial and cover is not important to them. It is of interest to the fisherman however because cover might be where bait fish and insects congregate. Where there is food there are probably trout.

The most important thing to know about Brook Trout is that they don’t need much more than 2 feet of water to be comfortable. Rarely will a Brook Trout be found much deeper than 15 feet. It is not uncommon in the summer, as water temperatures rise, to find trout in very shallow water clustered around a spring even though there is deeper water of almost the same temperature within easy reach.

The important key to beginning to understand Brook Trout and consequently becoming a more effective fisherman is in their name, Salvelinus Fontinalis –Char that lives in springs.

In this case knowledge really is power, taxonomically speaking.

The American Chestnut

All right, so my last post about global warming sounded a bit cranky. Well if the truth be told the whole discussion has me a bit irritated. I like practical solutions to problems rather than knee jerk reactions. Here is a case in point. There is a beautiful tree called the American Chestnut that is endangered and has been since the 1950’s. This tree, once called “The Redwood of the East” produces an edible nut and was once the most common tree species in the Eastern United States. Although Nova Scotia is out of its natural range we do have a handful of these magnificent trees. Speculation is that when the United Empire Loyalists emigrated here after the American War of Independence they brought the seeds of the American Chestnut with them. You can see from the picture that these trees are big, capable of growing to well over one hundred feet tall with trunks ten feet around. The lumber is light and strong with a lovely straight grain. It was used to make everything from shingles to furniture. Because of the amount of tannic acid in the wood it was especially useful for outdoor applications like making telephone poles. We have all heard the song lyric, “chestnuts roasting on an open fire…” well these are the nuts they are talking about. The nuts fed not only people but woodland creatures such as bears, deer, squirrels, raccoons, birds and more counted on their bounty as well.
In the late 1800’s chestnut trees from Asia were imported into North America. I’m not sure why, probably for ornamental reasons. In 1904 a fungus was found to be killing American Chestnut trees in New York. By 1950, about three and a half billion American Chestnut trees were dead. That’s 90 per cent of the species –gone.
Late in the 1980’s a group called The American Chestnut Foundation began working on a way to bring these trees back. They cross bred seed from the survivors with fungus resistant seed from China and then bred the fungus resistant hybrids with pure American Chestnuts. By this backcrossing they now have a tree which is a fungus resistant American Chestnut. Well, to be precise I guess its 94% American Chestnut and 6% Chinese Chestnut but still what an amazing accomplishment. I admire the folks who did this work. Others may have spent their energy pushing for a ban on all ornamental trees or feeding the squirrels displaced by the lack of nuts, I should specify edible nuts when discussing possible reactions. These folks at The American Chestnut Foundation thought the problem through, decided on a practical and more importantly possible solution, and then quietly set about the work. They have saved a species. Because of their quiet dedication we, or our children, will someday see the restoration of the natural forests of North America. They are the sort of folks I'd like to hear more from on issues such as climate change.

The picture of the American Chestnut tree above came from http://www.uoguelph.ca/~chestnut/novascotia.htm

The Carnivorous Plants of Nova Scotia

In honour of Halloween, I’m going to tell you about a fascinating part of the natural history of Nova Scotia. We have several varieties of meat-eating plants!

Technically they are insectivorous – they eat bugs but still, think about it. Plants that capture and digest insects are surprisingly common here.

We have a plant called the pitcher plant, three types of Sundew, a killer called the Butterwort and lots of Bladderworts.

The plants hunt in different ways from passive traps to actively luring the victim with the promise of sweets then slamming a door shut behind them.

The pitcher plant looks like a vase with water in it. When an insect falls in, the downward facing hairs lining the pitcher keep the prey from climbing back out.

The liquid in the base of the vase is an enzyme rich soup that breaks the insect down so that its nutrients can be absorbed by the plant.

Slightly more aggressive is the Sundew.

It hunts by using sticky hairs to trap the bug and then gradually folds more of the sticky hairs and its leaves around the victim, trapping and slowly digesting it.

We have three of these hunters here, the Round Leaved, the Narrow Leaved and a very rare Sundew called the Thread Leaved Sundew, which is endangered now but there are still a few in boggy places around Shelburne. It’s a tiny plant big ones are only about 10 centimeters tall.

The Butterwort hunts by using a sticky coating on its leaves. It is just like fly paper. An insect lands on it and is unable to escape before the slow enfolding of the leaves traps it.

The name of this plant comes from the Old English word for plant, “wort”. The butter part of the name may refer to the sticky goo on its leaves.

The champion and most active hunter in the group is the Bladderwort.

This is a common submergent plant seen in boggy ponds. There are a lot of varieties.

It has a series of bladder like structures along its stems. These bladders are really traps. They are hollow with a tiny door at one end surrounded by hairs.

The trap secretes a sweet liquid that acts as bait. When an unsuspecting victim approaches the plant and stimulates the trigger hairs surrounding the bladders- snap!

The door flies open and the insect is sucked inside to be slowly digested.

The thing these plants have in common is that they have all evolved to live in the acidic, low-nutrient bogs and swamps of Nova Scotia. What they can’t get from the water and soil they get by hunting.

To me, that's amazing.

Silver's Pool, on the St. Mary's River

I got an interesting email today from Mitchell, a guy I've been corresponding with recently. He met my father by chance and dropped me an email about this blog. Turns out we know a lot of people and places in common. He caught a wonderful fish this year on the LaHave. A big, buck salmon around eighteen pounds. I asked if had any pictures thinking it would be great to post them here and tell the story. Well, no luck on the pictures. He was fishing alone. It did make me think about my big fish, also caught when I was alone and so big that I underplay it when telling the story. It's the story that is really the interesting part of "fish stories" anyway, the fish- not so much.

The first salmon I ever caught in Nova Scotia was in Silver's Pool, on the St. Mary's River. After returning from my introduction to Salmon fishing in Newfoundland I still had some vacation left. I spent a few days trying for Salmon on the Medway River with mixed results. I saw a couple. One came for my Orange Bomber as I accidentally dragged it like a miniature speedboat across the pool after a wind-collapsed cast. I didn't have a clue what to do, the fish literally charged across the pool and slashed at my fly. If I hadn't pulled it away from him he'd have been hooked for sure. I ended up dragging that bug across the pool until I just couldn't stand the sloppiness of it any longer. Never saw that fish again but I'd like to get a crack at him now that I've had a bit of seasoning. Would likely be the same result but at least I'd bugger it up confidently this time.

Anyway, I decided to go to the St. Mary's River the next day, as much to have a look at it as to do some fishing. It was late in the season, water levels were low and warm, not salmon fishing weather at all. In fact, I was the only one fishing the Medway that I'd seen. When I got to the St. Mary's it was the same thing- no one on the river. I drove across a small, white bridge spanning the river. There was a Fisheries Officer on the bridge, casually leaning on the rail. I parked at the far end and walked back to speak with him. What an amazing spot. The river is fairly narrow above the bridge, below it widens out into a slow, deep stream overlooked by a picture perfect cottage. My fear was that the Department of Fisheries had closed the river to salmon fishing because of the water temperature. I had a chat with the Game Warden. The river was still open but anybody who knew anything about salmon fishing knew better than to waste their time fishing on a bluebird day like this. I explained that I was new to the game and wondered if he had any tips, like where I should try. Turns out the bridge we were standing on over looks a pool called Silver's Pool. I showed him my fly box and he picked out a fly for me to try. It was a tiny black fly of no particular name. I tie it for trout fishing. It just happened to be the smallest thing in my fly box.
This time of year there is a lot of grassy weed growth in the St. Mary's. To the uninitiated not only is it difficult to pick out where the fish might lay. It is difficult to imagine that there could be a fish there at all. The Game Warden pointed out to me a spot where there was a small gap in the weeds about the size of a shoebox. "If there was a fish in the pool", he said, "That's where he'd be". I was using a Canadian Tire all-in-one Fly-Fishing kit and looked the part of a tender foot from ball cap to boot tips. The Game Warden leaned on the bridge railing and watched me begin my fishing. I admire him still for his unfailing courtesy when I know how hard it must have been not laugh out loud as I took a position above the pool and made my cast. I think back now and realize I wasn't even in the right place to fish the pool properly. I don't know how many casts I made - not many - before a silver flash deep in the pool heralded the strike and a wrenching pull arced my rod. "Jeezuz boy, let'r run" hollered the Game Warden from up on the bridge. The first jump is still as clear in my memory as if it were a photograph. The rest is a bit of blur. I got the fish in, a lovely dime-bright grilse. As I tagged it, the impact of the moment hit. I'd done it.

Oh yeah, I still tie that little black fly but now it's got a name.

The picture of salmon in Silver's Pool comes from : http://www.sawmilllanding.com/waterfront_lifestyle/fly_fishing.htm