Allegheny Mountain Chapter of Trout Unlimited

Officers and Directors Report

The officers and directors met on May 2, 2017 and took the following actions:
•    Approved sponsoring to send four youth from our region to the Pennsylvania Rivers Conservation and Fly Fishing Youth Camp at the Allenberry Resort Inn in Boiling Springs, PA.
•    Approved donating $333 to Clarion University for a $1000 educational award to a student studying biology. Oil Creek Chapter and Iron Furnace each contribute $333 to this program too. We have been in this partnership for many years
•    Approved a one-time donation of $500 to the Galeton Development Corporation for the Galeton Dam and Lake Feasibility Study. The Galeton Dam is a significant fish passage barrier for Pine Creek, and this study will address providing fish passage and other ecological issues.

The next AMCTU board meeting is 7 pm on August 1, 2017 at the DuBois Nursing Home. All membership is welcomed to attend board meetings.

Projects Update

West Branch Susquehanna Benchmark Sampling
National TU received funding to repeat the 2009 West Branch Susquehanna Benchmark to chart improvements in the river since that time.  There are over 100 sample sites from Carrolltown to Lock Haven. Water quality will be collected twice, once under high flow conditions and once under low flow conditions. The high flow samples were collected the week of May 15 by TU, Conservation District Employees, Susquehanna River Basin Commission, Western PA Conservancy, and numerous volunteers. Low flow sampling will be the week of July 17. Macroinvertebrates will be collected at all the sites, many of which have already been completed. Fisheries samples will be done in coordination with the PA Fish and Boat Commission in July. The results will be published in a report likely in 2018. The report from the 2009 Benchmark can be found online at http://www.wbsrc.org/benchmark-recovery.html. Kelly Williams is heavily involved in this effort and is a team leader for one of the sample sections. Feel free to reach out to Kelly at kwilliamsccd@atlanticbbn.net or 814-591-1299 if you want to learn more.

Camp Run/Cooks Run
The efforts of the PA Department of Environmental Protection to restore Cooks Run in Clinton County by reclaiming the Fran Contracting No. 2 site, which impacts Rock and Camp Runs, is ongoing. The project has been bid out with all bids due by June. Ground should be broke sometime this summer and we should see some results by this time next year. 

Montgomery Run Riparian Planting
We will be holding a public meeting in June to kick off the Coldwater Heritage Partnership grant to plant trees along Montgomery Run in Clearfield County. Kelly Williams and George Kutskel have completed water quality and visual sampling. We plan to plant trees this fall.  Help will be needed!

Fishing Skills Instruction
Seven members of the chapter have taken the fishing skills instructors course offered by the PA Fish and Boat Commission. We now have 10 chapter members who can host a fishing event such as SMART Angler or Family Fishing. We also had seven members take the Fly Fishing Instructors course and we would like to host at introduction to fly fishing sometime this fall.

Meetings and Events

Thank you for another successful AMCTU Banquet and Trout Kickoff. Congratulations to the winners of our annual raffle:
#1   Bryan Buterbaugh – Punxsutawney, PA – Orvis Fly Rod
#2   Bryan Snyder – DuBois, PA – $200.00 Sheetz Card
#3   Laura Flanagan – DuBois, PA – $100.00 Sheetz Card
#4   Ron Williams – Reynoldsville, PA – $50.00 Sheetz Card
And a special congratulations to the 2017 Al Gretz Golden Reel Award winner Phyllis Gretz!

We have completed several youth fishing events this year, including the DuBois Middle School fly-fishing club outing at the Tannery Dam on May 10. A big THANK YOU to Doug Wolfe, Steve Melesky, Codey Schlemmer and Bob Reitz – their help was greatly appreciated. We had over 75 people learning how to fish. The only bad thing was that the fish were not very cooperative. 

The annual environmental day with students from the DuBois Area Middle School on was held on May 19 at Camp Mountain Run. It was a great day. THANK YOU to all who helped out: Steve Maleski, Codey Schlemmer, Doug Wolfe, Ken Undercoffer, Jason Reed, Eric Wilson, Kelly Williams from Clearfield Conservation District and AMCTU member, Rachel Kester from National TU and AMCTU member and her intern Jen Graves, Luke Bonar from the Western PA Conservancy and his intern Tyler Martonik, Tali MacArthur Program Director PA Trout, and Matt Holt and his students from Brockway Area Schools. Without all these volunteers we would not be able to provide this great program for the past fourteen-plus years!

Other events completed were our chapter picnic with Iron Furnace on May 23, Clearfield County Youth Field Day on June 3, and Jefferson County Youth Field Day on June 10.

Upcoming Events

Kelly Williams will be hosting a Family Fishing Day at the Tannery Dam in DuBois on June 16, 2017 from 5:30-8 pm.  There will be preregistration for that event since we have a limited number of rods.

Doug Wolfe, Codey Schlemmer, and Kelly Williams are organizing a Veteran’s Fishing Program at the Tannery Dam in DuBois on July 8, 2017 from 9 am until 1 pm. This will be s a free event open to any veteran that would like to attend. We will have preregistration just so we know how many people to expect, but no one that comes will be turned away.

If you have questions about either event or would like to help, reach out to Kelly at kwilliamsccd@atlanticbbn.net or 814-591-1299.

Enjoy your summer fishing! The next AMCTU membership meeting will be September 19, 2017 – check the website amctu.org for meeting details.