Site Discussions

Fascinating! Thanks so much for sharing this interesting experience and information.

As the author of a book on brook trout (Squaretail: The Definitive Guide to Brook Trout), and Executive Director for a native fish non-profit (Native Fish Coalition), I understand what the regions wild native brook trout are up against.  Habitat degradation, fragmentation, warming water, nonnative fish, droughts, and floods have all taken their toll.  Another problem is angler exploitation and stocking, the latter of which is driven by the former.  NH and VT routinely stock over wild brook trout, including nonnative browns and rainbows.  In addition to competing with wild fish for food and space, stocked fish displace wild fish, and can introduce disease and parasites, negatively impact genetics, and prey on them due to their larger-than-natural size and concentrated high numbers.  Angler exploitation, a real problem in frontcountry rivers and streams as well as small ponds, reduces populations making them more susceptible to the impacts of floods and droughts, decreases genetic diversity, and diminishes fishing quality which results in calls for stocking.  In ME, the primary problem is nonnative fish such as muskies, pike, bass, smelt, and golden shiners.  In NH, while wild native brook trout persist in backcountry headwater streams, they are all but gone from most rivers, large streams, lakes, ponds, and easy-access small streams.  These waters are propped up almost solely through recurring stocking.  Interestingly, when I was young, many of the backcountry streams were exploited by the “worm and creel” anglers, which compromised many to the point that they too needed to be stocked.  As this group of anglers passed, traffic in the backcountry went way down and wild fish populations went up.  In fact, in some cases the streams of my youth are fishing better today than they did forty-plus years ago.  While addressing habitat degradation and fragmentation is critical to preserving and restoring wild brook trout, if we want to see them in the frontcountry, large rivers, and lakes and ponds again, we will need to address angler exploitation and stocking as well, something most groups have avoided due to pressure from state fish and game agencies and the angling community.  In Maine, there is a term that has been used by generations of anglers to describe waters with poor fishing: Fished out.  And to be clear, pressure is not the problem, harvest is, as many western waters withstand far more fishing pressure than most northeastern waters.  Adding woody debris is cited as reducing predation, in some cases man is the predator we need to protect the fish from.

I think these picture-dialog portraits of weekly happenings in our NH woods is one of the most interesting and informative articles anywhere available.

I have put a link to your ‘Week in the Woods’ on our Sutton Conservation Commission website. 

Henry Howell, Chair
Sutton Conservation Commission

Thank you Brett!

This is way cool. Wish I knew more about these wonderful creatures. 

This past summer I had a number of Covid refugees spending time in the Barrett Pond (Stoddard, NH) environs.  A couple kids with magnifying glasses and one with a very cheap “microscope” commented on all the “water wild life” in our pond. I have no idea what they found, but,  they found lots of remarkable forms of life in and around that pond resulting in hours of speculation and uncertainty. The kids loved it.

If you (or anyone from Harris Center) would like to make Barrett Pond a focus of your studies (short or long term), I’d like to invite you to set up shop here for a season or a decade or longer.  Does the Harris Center have any formal long-term study sites in Stoddard?     

I’m not going anywhere and I think you know where to find us.

George

This is the best article I’ve read all day, maybe all week! Roy Amey is a character and I mean that with the most fondness. Someone needs to make a movie of the life and times of him and his wife!

A marvelous photo sequence!!
I’m eager to see the red eft and adult forms to come.

Robert, thank you for the feedback. Collin, now (late March) is a good time to install the boxes. Periodically check them to make sure other birds haven’t taken over.

My tray feeder is protected by a baffle. Otherwise, the squirrels would be having a field day. Good luck.

Can you imagine my pleasure at running into the name of my old friend Gerard Courtin in this article? When I corresponded with Gerry, he said that this research was conducted in the back yard of a neighbor in Sudbury, Ontario.

Thank you.

Joel White
Lancaster, NH

I am just learning about fairy shrimp and am looking at the vernal pools in our woods in a whole new light. Love northern woodlands!

Thank you;  this was a very interesting post and answered many of the questions I’d been thinking about.

Well written article on the amazing work of Steven Johnson, Conservation photographer and professor at EMU.

I was bit by this bug (White-spotted Sawyer Beetle) just now in my bedroom. The bit did hurt and caught my attention. I’m not sure how it got in my room but it was on the side of my bed. I captured it and ran outside to let it go.

Broad-winged hawks do kettle on their northward migration, but late winter / early spring sightings are rare in Massachusetts. They begin to return in numbers starting in mid-April. Turkey vultures also kettle during migration and March is when they’re moving through the Bay State. Distinguishing features or behaviors are hard to recognize when birds are soaring at high altitudes, but if the birds are soaring with two-toned wings held in a shallow V and if they teeter as they glide, then that would indicate turkey vulture.

I enjoyed this article very much. It was well written and gave me a much welcome overview of the life of this species, while at the same time sharing with readers the writer’s enjoyment of this creature.

Do broad winged hawks kettle in a northern migration in the early spring? I am sure that is what I saw on March 16th 2021, a few days ago. I saw a speck of a bird way up high in the sky when I was outside my house in Northeastern MA. It was barely visible with the naked eye, but when I looked at it with my binoculars, I saw many more, 10 or 12 soaring around and around in circles. Their altitude was astounding. The sky was clear blue, but without the binoculars I couldn’t see them at all. I keep reading that broad shouldered hawks migrate like this in the fall, but why wouldn’t they do the same in the spring, as they arrive in the north to breed?

Great article…the connections Ms. Brunner is making are inspiring.  The earth is an eco-system with millions of subsets….she is onto a most beautiful set.

Just found a great early logging calendar put out by Brown Co. Wish I could find a way to share it here!

Thanks for the story Lee. My son and I just built two companion nest boxes out of rough cut hemlock to put up in the swampy outskirts of our yard. Two questions: 1) Is there a time of Spring I should put these out to encourage bluebirds taking to it over tree swallows (or other undesired nesters)? and 2) How did you prevent the squirrels from taking all the raisins at your feeding tray? As soon as I put out any food that’s NOT in a squirrel-proof feeder, the critters have a feast on it long before most of the yardbirds even discover it’s there!

Hi Lee, very nice article. I have been helping Bluebirds for over 40 years, providing nest boxes, and creating “Bluebird Trails”.  I have found that a club in Michigan, has some wonderful information on Bluebirds. Their website is michiganbluebirds.org. They have some great bluebird box designs, and I have found that the most successful design is the Gilwood Slot Box. The bluebirds love it, and the House Spartows don’t.  Thanks for a great article, take care. Gib

Has anyone tried the Makita double-battery electric chain saw?
I believe the top of line version is half the price of the Stihl, and at WW lumber, it came with an extra set of batteries?