Recently, Mike Vito of the Deerfield River Chapter of Trout Unlimited informed me that a chapter member received a significant recognition from Trout Unlimited. Active member and chapter board member Kevin Kaminski received the “Spirit of TU Award.” Trout Unlimited was founded in Michigan in 1959 and presently has 300,000 members and friends and more than 400 chapters nationwide. This year is their debut of the new Spirit of TU Award.
In a press release, Vito stated, “When the Covid-19 pandemic hit last year, we almost had to shut down our mobile Brown Trout Telemetry Study. But lucky for our chapter, Kevin stepped up and took on the mobile project himself,” he stated as president of the Deerfield River Watershed Trout Unlimited (DRWTU) Chapter #349. Since October 2019, the DRWTU chapter, along with biologists at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Eastern Ecological Science Center/Silvio O. Conte Anadromous Fish Lab in Turners Falls, have been tracking the movements of 30 brown trout that were surgically fitted with radio transmitters. DRWTU members, USGS biologists and the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife, are hoping to learn about the impacts that daily, hydro-peaking flows from Brookfield Renewable Power Company’s Fife Brook Hydro-Electric Dam and Bear Swamp Pump Storage Facilities, in Rowe, has on the daily lives of these Brown Trout, especially during their fall spawn.
At its onset, the mobile project tasked 30 DRWTU volunteers to attach a single mobile-receiver system to their vehicles, driving up and down the 8.5-mile test area detecting and recording the positional coordinates from the trout’s transmitters. But then Covid-19 nearly shut the project down. “Health guidelines prohibited 30 people from sharing a single, mobile receiver unit,” Vito said. “But then Kevin stepped up and offered to do the receiver runs himself. He saved this project. We’re all so grateful to Kevin.”
“Despite challenging and uncertain times in the last year, volunteers continued to bring the Trout Unlimited cold-water conservation mission to life in a variety of new, innovative and truly inspiring ways”, shared Trout Unlimited National Leadership Development Manager Lisa Beranek. “While we appreciate volunteers throughout the year, we wanted to make this National Volunteer Week a week of jubilation and celebration by highlighting the rising volunteer stars that embodied resourcefulness, innovation, and action through a new recognition opportunity — the Spirit of TU Award.”
Kaminski, of Greenfield, was elected to the DRWTU Board of Directors in early 2019. He works for the City of Northampton at the city’s Wastewater Treatment Plant.
With the development of miniaturized electronic tracking devices and satellite technology, fish and wildlife managers have been able to obtain study data previously unimaginable and this study is an excellent example. At Monday’s Massachusetts Fisheries and Wildlife Board meeting, held again via Zoom, MassWildlife biologist Rebecca Quinones presented to the board. Her excellent presentation was entitled “Coldwater Refugia as Cornerstones of Aquatic Conservation.” Cold water refuges are areas that are colder than the main river temperature. MassWildlife has cataloged nearly all the cold-water stream habitat and is using federal grant funding in an ongoing effort to gather data on the issue of rising water temperatures and the potential impact on fish and the ecosystem. Eastern brook trout would be the primary “canary in the mine shaft” as the species is extremely temperature sensitive.
This writer is old enough to remember when most of the local streams, many which you could step across, held populations of “brookies” that were sought after by fishermen young and old. For a variety of reasons, those streams are now devoid of trout. A former Mahar Fish’N Game Club member, Henry Anderson, did a science fair project on native brook trout in the trickling brook that feeds the manmade Mahar Pond and found small brook there. Clearly, there is much to learn about what is happening in the cold-water resources but studies like the brown trout study saved by the efforts of Kevin Kaminsky, are valuable going forward and he is to be commended for his efforts and the great work done by the local TU chapter and chapters all across the country.
Fishing right now is good, with both cold water and warm water species active. All local trout waters have been stocked with beautiful brook, brown, rainbow and tiger trout and fish are, according to multiple people who have gone out of their way to tell me, biting very well. This week, I saw the first evidence of warm water species moving into the shallows prior to spawning as water temperatures rise and bluegills and bass are active.
Get out there and wet a line. A bonus to those fishing trips could be an eagle sighting. The sightings of eagles locally seems to be at an all-time high and one might suspect that more than one pair of mature bald eagles could be nesting locally. No matter how times I get to view an eagle, it still is inspiring.
Mike Roche is a retired teacher who has been involved in conservation and wildlife issues his entire life. He has written the Sportsman’s Corner since 1984 and has served as advisor to the Mahar Fish’N Game Club, Counselor and Director of the Massachusetts Conservation Camp, has been a Massachusetts Hunter Education Instructor for over 40 years and is a licensed New York hunting guide. He can be reached at mikeroche3@msn.com.