Cleaning first D or cleaning other runs: legel or not?

[mountainbuns]

Originally Posted by TF

There are some rivers or stretches if river that they may not clear the strainers out of the river where recreation is not the main concern, but rather the habitat is. (i.e. Fish, wildlife, etc) A prime example of this is the San Miguel. The BLM works extensively to keep the river clear, but only to a minimal as this stretch of river is in the San Miguel Area of Critical Environmental Concern. By just going out and clearing everything out of the drainage, you could potentially cause more damage then good.

This is an important point. I'll admit that when I saw the photos of the "halfway done" wood clearing operation, it made my stomach churn. I don't know details of this stream,... fish/habitat issues and whether taking out that logjam is a "significant" impact, so I mean this very generally. I just hope that kayakers are not indiscriminately clearing wood, especially in streams that see very few boaters, that have sensitive species, and/or that have potential problems with access or shared use (fisherman who can be big allies in the fight for recreational river rights).

-Claire

[COLDFEAR]

The Halfway Done photo is taken on the middle fork of the Shoshone and I have talked with our Local Game and Fish department about log jams/ fish habitat etc. and was basically told if a log jam provided prime fish habitat it would be almost imposible to clear such as a log jam that is daming the river or something like that. This specific log jam was created in 2003 with huge high water and now stops fish from sponding upstream any further which I was told by a local fisherman is a concern. This is by far the biggest log jam I have ever cleaned and in the end there is only 10 logs being removed. My stomach churned as I was cleaning it but that's because I was getting hungry!