Welcome to the latest installment of the Wednesday Wake-Up Call, a roundup of the most pressing conservation issues important to anglers. Working with our friends at Trout Unlimited, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, The Everglades Foundation, Captains for Clean Water, VoteWater.org, Bonefish & Tarpon Trust, and Conservation Hawks (among others), we’ll make sure you’ve got the information you need to understand the issues and form solid opinions.
2. The Golden Trout Project Seeks to restore Species to Native Waters
California golden trout have been transplanted across the American West, but the native range of these undeniably beautiful fish is limited to the headwaters of the Kern River in the southern Sierra Nevada in California. Treasured by anglers, golden trout only occupy a small portion of their original home water, much of which is contained within the Golden Trout Wilderness, a protected backcountry part of the Kern Plateau spanning the Sequoia and Inyo National Forests. All of it is above 7,500 feet in elevation.
Within this small remaining geography, golden trout are struggling. The legacies of extensive habitat degradation along with hybridization and competition with nonnative trout have deeply reduced their numbers. Rising temperatures and extended droughts brought about by climate change add compounding threats to already fragile populations of the rare, iconic trout. During the first decade of the 21st century, the federal government weighed listing golden trout as an Endangered Species after Trout Unlimited filed a petition. In California, these fish are designated as a State Species of Special Concern.
The threat of an Endangered Species Act (ESA) listing was a wake-up call. After years of deliberation, the listing was avoided because the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) made commitments to work with Trout Unlimited and the US Forest Service to create a plan to restore golden trout habitat and recover their populations. Much of this work was built on expanding the existing advocacy, science, and restoration work of the Golden Trout Project, a long-standing collaboration between dedicated Trout Unlimited volunteers, Fly Fishers International (née Federation of Fly Fishers) clubs, CalTrout, the US Forest Service, CDFW, and other regional conservation organizations and volunteers.
Click here for the full story on americanflyfishing.com
2. Algae Blankets Lake Okeechobee
Another summer, another blue-green algae bloom. Lake Okeechobee is once again covered with hundreds of square miles of blue-green algae.
Look at this video (above) shot by Ralph Arwood over the Lake this past Sunday. Everywhere you look you see the slimy green algae floating on the surface of the lake. The bloom is so dense that its green hue can even be seen from space in satellite images. According to NOAA’s National Center for Coastal Ocean Science, the bloom covers 460 square miles of the lake or nearly half.
Captain Chris Wittman, the co-founder of Captains for Clean Water, says these yearly massive blooms on the lake are being fed from years of nutrient pollution entering the lake.
For Capt. Wittman and Captains for Clean Water the solution is Everglades restoration and reconnecting the system along with removing barriers to the flow. That is starting to be done with through the construction of the new EAA Reservoirs. But those reservoirs will take years to construct and will likely be delayed further with the ongoing litigation.
Click here for the full story on fox4now.com
Related Stories:
- Florida agriculture fuels coastal algae blooms. How much remains unclear on miamiherald.com
3. Everglades Foundation Launches New Video Series
The Everglades Foundation has announced a new initiative, “Everglades Stories from Across the Watershed,” to connect Floridians to the importance of this ecosystem in our everyday life.
Begoñe Cazalis, director of communications for the Everglades Foundation, has produced and directed a series of 20 engaging videos, each centering around a person who shares knowledge about the critical ecosystem, helping viewers understand what is at stake to lose.
What emerges from these stories is a deeper understanding of the statewide expanse of the Everglades ecosystem, how it came to be endangered, how it impacts the health and livelihoods of millions for Floridians, and what is being done to restore it. You can watch these stories live on the Everglades Foundation website, its Youtube channel on its own playlist, and on its Instagram account @Evergladesfoundation.
Stay connected with The Everglades Foundation as they release a couple of new videos each week.