President's Letter

(Ron Wilson)

It's been a quieter summer than usual for the Friends. The frequent changes in river level have made it difficult for Eddie's crew of river monitors to count the little critters in the river. But the higher water has been great for boating. We had a good turnout for the river clean-up day in April.  More than a dozen bags of trash were removed at Rt 9 bridge near Gt. Cacapon and the Power Dam public river access site as well as a large dump of paint cans downstream from that site. Board members have attended several local/regional meetings related to river and water quality issues.  

Our electronic newsletter is working out quite well, thanks to the efforts of our webmaster and editor Don Robinson. Only a handful of members have requested hard copies.  Even this has become easier since getting our old copier refurbished. If you have comments or suggestions about the newsletter, let us know.

We had a fine members picnic on Aug 23 at River Ridge with about 30 people in attendance, including several from way up the river near Yellow Springs. Years ago it was folks from that area who encouraged the FCR to get organized. Rebecca MacLeod  (Natural Resources Conservation Services, USDA) who oversaw much of the stream bank restoration made a presentation about the project. She indicated that it was a good example of cooperation between a local volunteer organization and numerous state and federal agencies to reclaim a damaged section of river bank. The project also provided her with an experimental setting for learning what worked along the stream bank. She spoke briefly about the situation further upstream with regard to poultry and agricultural run-off into the river. She thought that conditions had been improving over the last few years. Following the picnic a number of us went to restoration site just upstream from Morgan Woods to see first-hand what we have achieved. Rebecca was pleased that so many of the plants we put in this spring were growing, given the less than ideal summer weather and water levels. We all would like to thank Abby Chapple, our past president, for all of her efforts in coordinating the restoration project.

After a slow start this summer, the hydrilla plants in the river have made a comeback. See more about this problem in this newletter and on our website .

Our next major activity will be our booth at the Apple Butter Festival in Berkeley Springs, Oct. 11 and 12. We will again be doing a raffle fund raiser with a kayak or canoe as the major prize. Tickets will be mailed to all members in early Sept., so hopefully you have already decided to buy some tickets. We will need help at our booth both days. If any of you can come, even for a few hours, please let me know. (call me at 301-585-8965 or Ruth Storhaug at 304-947-7031)

  It's also not too early to think about renewing your annual member/contribution. See the form elsewhere in the newsletter/website. Any contributions received after Oct.1, will be considered as a 2004 membership. Finally, I encourage any of you who would like to become more active in river related projects or have projects you would like to be considered, to let me know.

A Victory for the Cacapon River-—and all West Virginia rivers!

(Barbara Tufty)

Time to rejoice, O Friends of the Cacapon River... fish and otters... frogs and kingfishers! And everyone who lives by and enjoys the River! We recently won a legal battle to keep it clean and sparkling.  A federal judge has just turned down an inadequate West Virginia environmental policy that would have allowed the degradation of water quality of our state rivers.

In a recent 81-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin sent back to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection their proposed anti-degradation "rules" concerning the condition of West Virginia streams and rivers. Many of their issues were  in violation  of the Clean Water Act.

Here's some background history of the case:

The Clean Water Act of 1972 was intended to make our nation's waters safe for fishing, drinking, and swimming by 1983 and eliminate the discharge of pollutants into our waters by 1985. (In the 1970s, this was the dream of America!  What happened to that vision? How have we let America slip into an Age of Pollution?)

By 1983 America had not achieved the goal of clean waters, so Congress in 1987 set a new target of preventing further river degradation by regulating rather than stopping water pollution.  Anti-degradation procedures, intended to protect the current quality of rivers and streams, allowed that new growth and developments with its pollution could proceed under a review process---but only if economic or social benefits such as jobs would offset the degradation.

Each state of the nation was supposed to adopt an anti-degradation program to keep clean waters clean and prevent dirty waters from getting more polluted. But West Virginia's DEP waited until 2001  before it acted (and only because a lawsuit was threatened) and even then its efforts to comply with the anti-degradation law were full of exemptions and weak provisions that would bring diminished protection of its rivers down to the lowest levels.

In July, 2001,  WV's DEP submitted its  anti-degradation procedures to Bush's EPA, which approved them in November, 2001. That's when WV environmentalists stepped up to demand the  right to live a healthy life with clean water, and to oppose our anti-environmental  legislators who continue to permit polluters to get away with degrading our rivers.

In January, 2002, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and West Virginia Rivers Coalition filed a complaint against EPA, alleging that it approved an illegal anti-degradation plan for WV  waters---and violated the intent of the Clean Water Act. The Coalitions were joined with many concerned groups and individuals (29 co-plaintiffs in all: environmental groups, social justice groups, local watershed groups, and concerned citizens), including the Friends of the Cacapon River, dedicated to protecting the Cacapon, once labeled the "least polluted river east of the Rocky Mountains.".

And on Friday, August 29, 2003, Judge Goodwin ruled on the law suit, and sent the case back to EPA for further proceedings consistent with his opinion. He had found many legal loopholes in WV's anti-degradation  rulings that in essence could deteriorate our streams and rivers. He concluded that the EPA "acted arbitrarily and capriciously" in approving several items.

Now the case rests while business and city and industry attorneys and West Virginia and federal environmental regulators discuss what to do now.

"Simply put," said Abby Chapple, a citizen plaintiff in the law suit, and past president of the Friends of the Cacapon River, "the West Virginia Department of  Environmental Protection will have to rewrite its anti-degradation rules. It is outrageous that they were so badly written in the first place. They simply tried to circumvent the Clean Water Act and they got caught. Let's hope they do a better job the second time around."
Environmentalists throughout West Virginia rejoiced over Judge Goodwin's decision: "Thank goodness we still have the courts to fall back on when the legislative branch of government is so obviously in bed with the big polluters,'" stated Vivian Stockman, project coordinator for the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. "We are all waiting to see if EPA will appeal the ruling to the notoriously conservative 4th Circuit Court in Richmond, Virginia."

Fish in the Cacapon River II

(Don Robinson)

Sunfish

Sunfish are like birds in that the male is the most colorful, and in particular is downright flashy during the spawning season. Cacapon sunfish all have nearly the same breeding habits. They spawn from late May through much of the summer in water temperatures of 67 to 82 degrees. The male fans out a nest (called a redd) about a foot or two in diameter and two or three inches deep in shallow water with its tail (caudal fin) and pectoral fins and lures or bullies females (often more than one) to the nest where she lays some of her thousands of eggs. The female Bluegill carries around 50,000 of them. Females lay all their eggs in several nests, and each nest contains the eggs of several females. This would enhance the chance of survival of the genes of the individual. The eggs stick to the rocks in the nest, and then the male fertilizes them and guards the nest from predation while trying to sweep it free from nest-choking silt. Too much silt from high water and/or actions of man can destroy a nest. The male remains at his post watching the hatchlings for a period of time while they stay in a close school and feed on minute crustaceans and grow large enough to live independently. Sometimes there are large numbers of nests in a cluster where conditions for nesting are ideal, usually sandy covered gravel in 1 to 4 feet of water. The sunfish all interbreed to some extent, especially in turbid waters where the markings are not as visible, so identifying a specific fish can be challenging. Five species reproduce in the Cacapon River. A 'sunny' can reproduce during its second or third summer. They live about 7 years given normal circumstances.

Sunfish feed on insects, insect larva, snails, crustaceans, crayfish, and smaller fish. Most don’t predate on minnows as heartily as bass because they have smaller mouths. A school of very tame sunfish will bite at moles and scabs on a human if the human stands still enough.  The bite is startling, but really isn’t harmful since the bite is from their Velcro-like teeth. There is a part of the anatomy called an ear flap, but it is not a hearing mechanism. These fish, like the bass, are mostly visual feeders, but can sense vibration with their lateral line. The ones near our dock get their diet supplemented by sliced American cheese bits we throw in to watch them feed, and any leftover or moldy stuff, since they don’t mind the spoiled flavor too much. Over time, they become tame enough to take it from your fingers if you are patient. One of my favorite river things to do on a hot summer day when the water is clear is get a snorkel and goggles and sit on the bottom in front of my dock and have somebody toss cheese to the sunfish as I watch them from under the surface. They always seem to adapt to my presence if I am still and wait long enough. (Hence the water must be warm!) Their beautiful coloration can be seen from under the surface if the river is clear. After researching the various breeds for this article, I am waiting anxiously for the water to warm up and see if I can identify them better than I could before. The best way to see the coloration of these beauties is to take them from the water, gawk for a few short minutes, and then return them for another day’s sport.

The drawings on this page came from the website of the Native Fish Conservancy at http://www.nativefish.org.

Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus)

Bluegills, as well as other sunfish, are called brim or bream in the south. The fish gets its name from the bluish rim on the gill flap.

The female has vertical barring on its round, flat, greenish body and the male is the one with yellow/orange belly, while the female is white-bellied. The front part of the dorsal fin is spiny as it is on all pan fish. Both male and female bluegills have a dark spot at the back of the dorsal fin, which is a way to distinguish the bluegill from the pumpkinseed and others when it is seen from the bank, dock or in the water. It is a popular game fish and puts up a good scrap when hooked. They can grow to around 15”, but that is rare, since they are so easily caught.

This fish is not native to the Cacapon River or the Potomac basin, but was likely intentionally stocked for sport fishing. One introduced, they easily become established.

The bluegill has been introduced in Africa, Hawaii, Asia, South and Central America from the 1930s through the 1950s. Some places it has become such a bad pest that it has been eradicated and at least one native species has ceased to exist because of competition from the Bluegill.

Green Sunfish  (Lepomis cyanellus)

Like the bluegill, this sunny has a dark spot on the dorsal fin, but it also has a dark spot on its anal fin. Generally there is a yellowish or orangish edge to the second dorsal, caudal and anal fins. It is bluish-green on its back and sides and often is flecked with metallic yellow/green spots, while its cheek has green wavy lines on it. The ear is dark with a whitish or yellowish tip.

It too is not a native but introduced into the Potomac watershed from further west. It came to the Cacapon as many other places by accidental stocking of misidentified bluegills according to the USGS. It has a larger mouth than most of the other Lepomis, so likely it will eat more fish than some of the others. They can grow to 12” in length.

The green sunfish has been introduced in parts of Africa as a forage fish for ‘black bass’ (I assume that means largemouth, also introduced), where it has only been moderately successful. Most of the reproducing populations are stunted. In one place it was introduced, Zimbabwe in 1940, it had disappeared by 1970. It has also been introduced in Germany, parts of Asia and Brazil.

Longear Sunfish (Lepomis megalotis)

Sometimes this fish carries the epithet “Cherry Bream”.

The species name megalotis is Greek for ‘great ear’. True to its name, there is an unusually long, dark ear flap with a whitish or reddish edge on this sunfish, bordered above and below by a blue line. Wavy blue lines mark its cheeks, and the adult is a deep rusty brown-red or olive above with a bright orange belly, and has bright blue spots and streaks on its sides. The fins are clear and without spots. The breeding males have richest coloration. They generally don’t exceed 8” in length. There is a lot of variability in the way it appears in different parts of the country, and there may be as many as six subspecies of the longear, some of which may be separate species.

It prefers clear, warm, weedy waters of rivers, ponds and lakes, and feeds on the surface more than some of the other sunfish.

This sunny is native to the Mississippi drainage, but introduced into the Cacapon and Potomac watershed. It is considered a threatened species in some states. In researching this fish, I found an aquarium site recommending this as a ‘natural’ aquarium fish due to its beautiful coloration. Research has shown that when the breeding conditions are ideal in an aquarium, it will breed every two weeks for at least a year. 

Redbreast Sunfish (Lepomis auritus)

This sunny is native to the Potomac watershed, Atlantic drainage, and the Cacapon River, but stocked and established elsewhere. In fact it may be leading to a decline in the longear in some areas where the redbreast is not native. They have a relatively large mouth so they have a wider variety of prey than the longear, hence compete better for food.

Out of the water, you will see a few wavy blue lines along the cheek and gill coverings. The back and sides are dark olive with yellow flecks. There are distinct red-brown to red-orange vertical stripes on this sunfish, whose ear is actually longer and narrower than the ear of the longear sunfish. The breeding male has a bright orange belly.

The redbreast was introduced to lakes in Italy in 1957 where it is now considered a pest, since it has displaced native species.

Pumpkinseed (Lepomis gibbosus)

Other names for this fish are punkinseed, pond perch, sun bass, and common sunfish.

The pumpkinseed is a small (typically 5” when grown), colorful sunfish, and sunfish are among the most beautiful of all US native fishes. It has blue and orange mottling along its sides and a dark green back. The drawing above is not as colorful as the real fish, in my opinion. It has brilliant blue stripes on its mouth and gill covering. This sunfish is native to the Cacapon and the Potomac watershed. The caudal fin, anal fin and second dorsal fin are likely to have rows of dark brown stripes or speckles of orange.

They’ll feed on about anything, and can be caught using lures, especially flies and poppers. They generally stick close to shore and will aggressively strike most kinds of live bait also, making them a favorite catch of young fishermen.

The pumpkinseed has been introduced in Europe and South America where it is reproducing successfully in some places.

Addendum: I was able to identify all of these sunfish except the pumpkinseed feeding on the cheese I threw in for them at my dock this year.

The next installment of Fish in the Cacapon River will be about minnows. Minnows make up the smallest fish in the Cacapon as well as the largest, with several others in between.

The Green Monster of Our River: Hydrilla

(Barbara Tufty)

In Greek mythology, Hydra was a huge water monster with nine heads on long snakelike bodies. If one head were cut off, two more would grow in its place. The Greek hero Hercules was confronted with twelve fearful tasks, one of which was to destroy the Hydra—a wildly strenuous ordeal, but he managed to kill it--- and even sent it up into the sky where, as the constellation Hydra, it silently weaves long coils south of Leo and east of Orion.

Here in the Cacapon River, our Hydrilla is only a small  water plant that, like the monster Hydra, has a disagreeable habit of sprouting more branches and heads wherever it is cut or yanked.

Hydrilla verticillata is one of the submerged aquatic vegetations (called SAV by researchers) that live underwater, rooting on the river bottom, and stretching out long green  branching strands that grow as rapidly as an inch each day. The stems are covered with small pointed leaves growing in whorls of three to five leaves, usually five with small sawteeth on the edges that feel rough when you pull the stem through your hand. Hydrilla is sometimes confused with the common waterweed Elodea canadensis whose leaves are in whorls of only three and are not as markedly toothed.

Once the growing tip reaches the sunlit river surface, it spreads out in dense masses, blocking sunshine from native water plants below, and interfering with boats, swimmers, and fishermen. It has become a serious obnoxious weed for aquatic systems in some places, causing substantial economic hardships, interfering with water uses,  and generating other adverse impacts.

Like the mythical Hydra, Hydrilla is hard to control, or even destroy. Cut it up, mow it, pull up, and it happily recreates thousands of new plants from pieces of broken stems and leaf whorls that float downstream and set up new colonies.

The good news of our river monster is that it is not toxic or harmful to humans or animals. Fish, waterfowl, and small invertebrates feed on it and find shelter among wavy branches of its submerged forest--- if it doesn't grow too thick. Also, like other water plants, it can clarify the water, lowering sediment suspension.

Hydrilla  originated as a native water plant growing in the warm waters of Asia, but it has been transplanted to other continents, mainly as an attractive ornamental plant for water gardens, aquariums, and fish tanks. From contained tanks  it escaped into the wild waters or were  inadvertently trashed into a nearby slow-moving stream or quiet canal.  It now can be found  in Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, Africa, Europe,  South America, and now North America. It was first discovered in the United States in the early 1960s, at two Florida locations, a canal near Miami and in Crystal River.  As an alien plant with no natural  enemies here to feed on it or crowd it out, it spread rapidly through Florida and then traveled northward through the Gulf  and Atlantic Coast States reaching as far north as Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, and our own West Virginia. It has also traveled to the western states of California and Washington. A question often asked is: how far north will it wander? In Poland and Russia, it has been found as far north as 50 degrees north latitude—about as far north here as the U.S. and Canadian border.  Hydrilla is now listed in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Federal Noxious Weed Act. This means it cannot legally  be imported into or transported within the United States.

Hydrilla is a hardy plant, adapted to using low levels of light for photosynthesis. This means it can begin to stretch and grow earlier in the morning than other aquatic plants, and later in the day, thus becoming more successful in competition.

Members of the Friends of the Cacapon River first discovered Hydrilla in our river waters in the summer of 2000—downstream from Largent bridge, where the river spreads out 100 feet wide and runs slowly. The plant grows best in quiet sunlit waters and slow moving waters, so it found a home in a tranquil spot of the Cacapon.

Several methods of controlling it have been tried, almost all of which are inappropriate for our free-flowing Cacapon.  One way is to introduce sterile Chinese grass carp to devour it—but these alien predators might thrive throughout the river and drive out our native fish and other river fauna. Another attempt at controlling the Hydrilla is by herbicides—but these chemicals would quickly sweep downstream and kill other plants and river life. Another method is to physically mow it down with an underwater mower, but such heavy —and expensive- equipment would not work on the rocky floor of our river—and besides, it would cut off only the top parts of the plants that would float downstream and start new plantations in other parts of the river.  Another way is to dig it up manually—stems, tubers, and all—a rather futile task, for you are sure to break the green monster into small fragments from which more would grow. Thanks a bunch! Some researchers are working with  insects that can attack and control the green pest—Hydrilla tuber weevils and Hydrilla leaf-mining flies.

Ron Wilson, FCR president, has researched yet a nother method: using sheets of black plastic which can be spread across the Hydrilla patch to block sunlight and inhibit its growth. The plastic can be weighed down underwater with concrete blocks upstream and across the bed of Hydrilla or can float on the surface above it. This past summer some Hydrilla was found in the river stretch  Wilson was monitoring beside his cabin, but not enough plants were found to cause alarm to try to eradicate them. The heavy icy winter may have damaged the plants. High and cloudy water conditions much of the spring and summer may also have delayed growth, Wilson reported, and he saw no Hydrilla in front of his cabin until the July 4th weekend, much later than earlier years. But it made up for a slow start with rapid growth in August. Large masses of the plant exist now, but still not as far across the river as last year. A representative of the WV Department of Agriculture came to inspect the Wilson cabin site and expressed great interest as this was the first "officially" reported infestation in West Virginia. He took samples and will be in touch with Wilson.

Batches of Hydrilla come and go in varying places and degrees in the Cacapon. As one river watcher commented, "We have to accept the green monster, as we've come to put up with gypsy moths, cockroaches and crows. Hydrilla is not yet a  big problem here. Not the end of the world."  But as another riverside resident fumed, " When Hydrilla really  takes off and clogs the river from bank to bank and bottom to top for hundreds of yards at a stretch,  it makes wading and swimming, fishing and boating impossible!"
If anyone has seen patches of Hydrilla growing in the river beside their cabin, please report  it so we can map where it is spreading. Report to Ron Wilson, FCR, Box321, Great Cacapon, WV 25422.; or call Ruth Storhaug, 304-947-7031.