Current and Past Conservation Projects
Current Projects
Coming Soon!Past Projects
The Gunpowder RiverBush Cabin Run
Little Gunpowder Falls
The Gunpowder River
The
MDTU got a concession from the City that they would study the impact on water supply of a minimum release of 11.5 cubic feet per second, cfs, from Prettyboy. Later that year they reported that the 11.5 cfs would have caused them to lose water twice since the 1930's but the amount was too small to measure. However, they still could not provide the release since the cone valves that allowed controlled release were rusted shut and beyond repair. So if they tried to release 11.5 cfs they might inadvertently be releasing 25 or even 50 cfs.
This standoff lasted for three years when Torrey Brown, chairman of the House Environmental Matters Committee, helped put some pressure on the city to solve the problem. Finally in 1980, the city began releasing water at a continuous rate of not less than 11.5 cfs from Prettyboy Reservoir. The Maryland Chapter of Trout Unlimited began a cooperative study with the MD Department of Natural Resources to determine the temperature regime that would result from this release. After two years of studies with recording thermometers it was determined that the water temperatures were marginally high for brook trout but ideal for brown trout.
Maryland Trout Unlimited then went to work to set up an intercept hatchery where it collected wild brown trout from
There was a concern regarding the adult hatchery fish that were stocked each year by the State. Several thousand adult trout were stocked for the fishing season. In order to prevent the trout from becoming food for the adult hatchery fish, a barrier was constructed about one mile downstream of Prettyboy Dam. It consisted of a dam made of gabion baskets anchored in the banks with a 50 foot long telephone pole and had two by fours mounted on top and extending downstream four feet beyond the dam to prevent fish from jumping the dam. The brown trout fry from
In the mean time, downstream the state was conducting a massive stocking program using purchased fry and eggs. At one point the state even planted cutthroat eggs in the gravel to see what they would do. Finally MDTU met with the Fisheries Service and got an agreement that concentration on the establishment of a self-sustaining brown trout population would be the first priority and that rainbow trout, cutthroat or any other exotic species would not be stocked until it had been agreed that the brown trout population was not likely to become self-sustaining. It was the following year, eight years after the first stocking that a significant numbers of young of year brown trout were found in the annual survey conducted by Sate Fisheries.
The rest of the story is well known. The Gunpowder now supports a self-sustaining brown trout population which is pretty impressive. Many large fish can be seen on any given day, whether or not they are caught by anyone. The fishery has become so popular that parking is difficult to find on weekends.
Bush Cabin Run
The project was implemented by volunteer labor with donated technical assistance from Brightwater, Inc. and Envirens, Inc. Approximately 180 feet of stream bank along the east side of Bush Cabin run was badly eroding as a result of a flood scour that occurred several years ago. It not only wasn’t healing itself, it was getting worse.The restoration design was developed by Brightwater, Inc. who also secured the rights of entry and necessary environmental permits. Plants , biologs seed and mulch were purchased from Sylva Nurseries, and its parent company, Envirens, provided hands-on assistance in the installation.
The work was accomplished on the weekends of April 14 and April 28, 2007 after two postponements for weather - one due to a snow storm and the other due to high water. Volunteers were recruited through emails, promotion by Backwater Angler, and talks at Trout Unlimited meetings from the fall of 2006 through the spring of 2007. Posters were distributed in local sporting goods stores including Backwater Angler, Bass Pro Shop, and Set’s Sport shop.
In all, there were thirty-two people who participated in work parties consisting of two eight-hour days on the stream. On an interesting note there was a torrential rainstorm the night after the first half of the project was completed. A photograph of the site during the flood is enclosed. None of the revetment or plantings failed and everything survived the flood.
Little Gunpowder Falls
Easter had already moved his fences about 100 feet back from the stream when McIntosh and Huneke came calling. In 1993 and 1994, several thousand trees were planted and, despite significant losses to the January 1996 flood, there's "quite a nice group of 20- to 25-foot poplars and oaks," according to Easter. He obviously cares deeply about his farm and its long history; it was divided in 1740 out of a 10,000-acre farm given by Lord Baltimore to his wife. "I liked the land so much I couldn't bear to think about seeing anything happen to it," Easter says, "so I put it in the Maryland Environmental Trust."
Stautberg, too, fenced his off the stream (except for a cattle crossing) and put in thousands of seedlings along a mile of the Little Gunpowder and three quarters of a mile of the tributary Yellow Branch. Stautberg, not himself a troutfisher, looks forward to seeing his mile of the Little Gunpowder shaded and cool right up to where it enters the Sweet Air section of the well-forested Gunpowder State Park.
The Maryland DNR and TU have had help on the Little Gunpowder project from various other agencies, including the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Farm Service Agency, Forest Service, and Fish and Wildlife Service. They have provided financial and in-kind assistance such as trees and volunteer help. The landowners themselves have paid for many of the improvements.
Huneke calculates that more than 60 acres of riparian forest have been restored with some 30,000 seedlings along five miles of the Little Gunpowder and its feeder streams. Four miles of fencing is keeping out 350 head of cattle on seven adjacent farms. "When fully established, these riparian forest buffers should lower summer stream temperature by 10 degrees, and filter out some 40,000 pounds of nitrogen and 5,000 pounds of phosphorus a year." Huneke concedes that planting buffers isn't always easy. "We've had some success and we've had some failures, as when muskrats or mice wiped out two-tenths of an acre of seedlings." He also says that the success of the project is largely due to the grassroots partnerships between the public agencies, nonprofit groups such as TU, and the local landowners. As for TU's Maryland Chapter, the Little Gunpowder project is a new departure. "Traditionally," says Jay Boynton, its 1997 President, "we've come in only to protect trout streams in crisis--when they're threatened with road building, development, and the like. But in the last few years, we've focused on getting in with landowners and correcting problems on the watershed, on their land, and on Chesapeake Bay."