It’s possible that a lot of people don’t know what the folks at the DFW Western District Office in Dalton do. Oh sure, we know that they weigh in deer during hunting season and stock trout in the spring and fall, but what else?
Well, DFW Western District Supervisor Andrew Madden and Aquatic Biologist Leanda Fontaine-Gagnon made a presentation providing some information at a recent monthly meeting of the Taconic Chapter of Trout Unlimited. The presentation, which was held at the Pleasant and Main Café & General Store in Housatonic, MA was basically an overview of the district’s activities.
Andrew Madden started the presentation by providing an overview of non-fish related programs. He mentioned that the mission of the MassWildlife is protecting the biodiversity in the state. Some highlights included:
- Counties covered by the Western District include Berkshire and western towns of Hampton, Hampshire and Franklin Counties. With a small staff of 10 employees, they manage and focus on land protection including managing over 67,000 acres in Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) and Wildlife Conservation Easements (WCE).
- They manage 500 acres of fields (e.g. mowing).
- They stock 72 waters.
- They stock 23 pheasant areas.
- They band Bald Eagles.
- They monitor 10 collared bears.
- They have a focus on Outreach to colleges
- Conduct Paraplegic Deer hunts.
A list of Projects includes the following:
- Loons – they established the first nesting pair in Berkshire County.
- Bats – many are endangered due to White Nose disease.
- Bears – a current challenge is to establish bi-laws to prevent intentional bear feeding.
- Large Animal Response – capture and relocate large animals as necessary.
Leanda Fontaine Gagnon followed up by presenting an overview of aquatic-related project, including:
Trout Stocking – is a renewable resource that improves angling opportunities. The stocking program occurs over an average of 10 weeks in the spring through around Memorial Day.
- Includes Brook, Brown, Rainbow and Tiger trout
- Approximately 400,000-450,000 pounds of trout are stocked statewide of which the Western District receives about 20% of them.
- Approximately 10,000 Landlocked salmon smolts from the Palmer Hatchery are stocked in the Quabbin Reservoir.
- There are four hatcheries in Western Mass: Palmer, Belchertown, Sunderland, and Montague. The fifth hatchery is in Sandwich.
- MassWildlife posts a stocking schedule and report at the following address: Mass.gov
Angling Education Program – learn to fish for the general public. It is a free program including use of equipment.
Fishery Conservation – the main watersheds include the Hoosic River, Deerfield River, Farmington River, and Westfield River.
Fish Sampling – there have been a total of 11,500 surveys statewide over the years and over 6,400 since 1998. The types of surveys include:
- Electrofishing (shocking) – including wading rivers streams with shock backpacks as well as using barges and boats outfitted with shocking equipment for lakes and ponds.
- Netting, including gillnets and traps. Additionally, this netting often occurs when lakes and ponds are iced over in the winter.
- Angling Creel Surveys.
Data gathered from surveys provide information about fish communities in the water to compare the fish species over the years. It can tell you things like water quality, as well as the amount and location of wild trout populations. It can also lend help in monitoring changes in habitat, water temperature, water quality, and river/stream connectivity.
Cold Water Resources – There are over 1,200 Cold Water Resources (CWR) in Western Mass. There are many threats that can negatively impact CFRs including:
- Impervious Surfaces – such as paved roads and parking lots which impact drainage and warm the water.
- Surrounding Landowners.
- Loss of Riparian Buffer Zones – such as mowing and cutting of brush and cover down to the water’s edge.
- Inadequate connectivity of rivers and streams caused by damaged culverts, dams, etc.
Freshwater Mussel Surveys:
- Mussel populations are great indicators of fish health.
- They are great water filtration systems for our water.
- MassWildlife Western District staff actually don scuba gear to survey local waters for mussels to determine size, species, and the type of substrate they live in.
- Mussels and fish live symbiotically, where the fish provide a reproduction vehicle when the mussels temporarily lay minute mussels in the fish’s mouth. These tiny mussels will live in the fish’s mouth until it is large enough to drop to the water body substrate and live on its own. The fish are not impacted.
Aquatic Invasive Plant Removal – Hand-pulling Water Chestnut plants from lakes and ponds.
Becoming an Outdoorswoman (BOW) program
The BOW Program offers shooting skills workshops, hunting seminars, fly tying and other classes and activities designed for adult women.
These are just some of the things with which the staff is involved. Things like weighing in deer and bear, youth fish stocking days, helping people obtain required licensing, answering a myriad of fish and wildlife questions, presentations at various sportsmen’s groups, etc. They are a pretty busy bunch, wouldn’t you say?
Trout Stocking
Subject to change, the following waters were scheduled to be stocked with trout last week:
Ashfield Pond in Ashfield, Deerfield River (Upper section only) in Charlemont and Florida, Littleville Reservoir in Chester and Huntington, Westfield River (East Branch) in Chesterfield, Cummington and Huntington; Konkapot River in Monterey and New Marlborough, Pontoosuc Lake, Laurel Lake, Greenwater Pond, Goose Pond, Lake Buel, Lake Garfield, Big Pond, Otis Reservoir and Windsor Pond in Windsor.
Celebrate the Housatonic River Valley
The Housatonic Valley Association (HVA) invites people of all ages to celebrate the Housatonic River Watershed from May 26 until July 4. It is a free event that helps protect waterways and lands across the nearly 2,000 square mile watershed.
People can share photos and updates from their adventures and activities or attend an HVA-led event like a hike along the Appalachian Trail, river day for kids at Troutbeck or a hands-on session about HVA’s Follow the Forest initiative.
Participants can also join friendly competitions either solo or with a team such as most miles hiked or biked or best team photo and compete for exciting prizes like a guided river rafting trip for four, REI daypacks, Patagonia prize pack, Helinox Chair Ones and more.
“This event is all about bringing people together to explore and celebrate the Housatonic River Valley from the Berkshires and eastern New York through western Connecticut to Long Island Sound,” said Lynn Werner, HVA Executive Director. “By getting out there and sharing your experiences online, whether it’s paddling your favorite stream or hiking a local land trust trail or photographing wildlife, you’ll be raising awareness about how special this area is and why we’re all working so hard to protect it.”
Additional information and registration may be found at www.hvatoday.org.
Spring turkey hunting ends today
Sorry, if you haven’t bagged a wild turkey yet, then you will have to wait until the fall turkey hunting season to get another chance. The fall season opens on October 16 in our zone.
From what I hear, it was a very good spring turkey hunting season. Lots of birds were taken.
Incidentally, there was a nice group of women who participated in the BOW Turkey Hunting event. This program is designed for adult women (18 and older) who are new to turkey hunting and includes an in-person seminar and a mentored hunt.
The hunters and their mentors gathered on opening morning at Devens RFTA to put their skills to the test. (The Devens Reserve Force Training Area is located in Middlesex and Worcester counties).
Most of the women were surrounded by turkeys at one time or another, but they wouldn’t get close enough for a shot. Kelly Swart Blanchard lucked out though and she bagged a 14.75 lbs. jake.