I attended the 5th Annual Sustainable Raritan River Conference today, 6/11/13:

[AndyS]

I attended the 5th Annual Raritan River Conference today. I sat through some really cool power point presentations. I learned a lot today. The Raritan river watershed is the size of Rhode Island, there are 47 waste water treatment plants within the shed, and it encompasses 7 counties and 80 municipalities.
Never having gone to college it is really fun to sit and listen what people have to say. There was a lot of talk about fertilizers and storm water run off. I take pride in the fact Dr. Amy Soli from the Stony Brook Millstone Watershed Association calls me by my first name. NJDEP was there also. I asked what may have been a stupid question to them. I asked them what is the difference between the NJDEP and NJFG&W. She told me and I have a hard time putting it into words, maybe Mark B. can elaborate a little more on this. NJDEP had a display of electro shocking and stream maintenance, much the same way NJFG&W does. I saw one of my heroes, Bill Shultz. One of my other heroes wasn’t there, apparently he is laying low until the Nevius St. dam comes down, John Jengo. Remember there are still over 1,700 dams in New Jersey alone, so if one dam comes down a year I think we are making progress. No new news on the dams on the Millstone yet, both slated for removal. The Oyster Restoration Project was there also. These people bust their butts. They don’t take trains and dump them in the ocean and say, we are heroes, no, they go about the long drawn out process of restoring oyster beds in Raritan bay. I think oyster beds do more good than dumping trains in the ocean but that is just my own opinion.
Was I upset that part of the title for the 5th annual conference was “fish ability” and very little was said about the actual fish, well yes to be honest. Was I upset NJFG&W wasn’t represented there, well yes.
Will I go to the next meeting in October at Dukes farms, wouldn’t miss it for the world.
Cost me a days pay, $50.00 entrance fee, and $12.00 to park. Remember, I saw this river in the 70’s when nothing lived below Cyanamid. Now I go to these meetings where hundreds of people show up to talk about a huge water shed right here in good old New Jersey and what can be done to make it better.

Here are a few links if you get time check them out and try to show them your support.

http://www.raritan.rutgers.edu/

http://thewatershed.org/

http://www.raritanheadwaters.org/

http://www.waterkeeper.org/ht/d/Orga...Details/id/589

http://nynjbaykeeper.org/


Within some of the power point presentations there was talk of Round Valley, Spruce Run and the Passaic river. My pledge was to monitor water temperatures in Bound Brook and Manville this summer. Next stop on my tour to talk about the Raritan river is the Somerset County Sportsmen’s Federation and Central Jersey Trout Unlimited. I’m going to talk to these people not only about the shad, and striped bass but the 133 trout that used the fish ladder in South Bound Brook in 2012 and the nearest stocking point is miles away in Raritan. Remember these trout numbers were not in parenthesis so these are trout going UP the river, where did they come from ?

http://www.raritan.rutgers.edu/resources/Fisheries.pdf

I may try to get the Raritan Headwaters Association to speak at one of the Round Valley Trout Association meetings.

In closing hoping a speedy recovery to the queen bee in charge of the whole thing, Dr. Judy Shaw who could not attend due to an accident.

Ps. I won a door prize, dinner at The Barge Restaurant in Perth Amboy.

[Super]

Excellent information. Please continue to keep us informed.

[FASTEDDIE29]

Thanx for the scoop Andy. Good info!!!

[GetANet]

Sounds pretty good and THE BARGE is AWESOME!!!!!!!Been there to eat many times!!!!YUMYUMYUMYUM!!!!!!!

[lunkertaker]

Small world Andy

I work with Amy Soli's husband and am very familiar with her work.

Thanks again on behalf of NJF FW Community for attending.

[Mark B.]

The NJ Department of Environmental Protection consists of many different programs / units.

The Division of Fish & Wildlife is one,…..it manages the State’s fish & wildlife populations.

Another is, Water Monitoring and Standards. I’m sure that their Bureau of Freshwater and Biological Monitoring http://www.state.nj.us/dep/wms/bfbm/ are the ones that attended that conference.

They use biological indicators (fish, invertebrates…), as well as water chemistry, to monitor & assess the quality of the State’s freshwaters.

NJDF&W and WMS share data, and work together on projects.

[anthrax2244]

Andy- Thank you for the being a steward of the Raritan and for the fishing report on MCR. The 133 trout using the fish ladder is very interesting and in my mind creates a strong case for a sea-run brown program in the Raritan...Move over big D the big R is on its way!