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As you are aware Friends of the Upper Delaware River continues to protect the Upper Delaware River’s wild trout and their habitat. The ONE BUG™ fundraiser has been a great tool in helping us achieve our goals. This three day event sponsored by FUDR celebrates the sport and camaraderie of fly fishing by bringing together flyfishers like you to take part in the fishing, good will and further support of this magnificent fishery. Last years 2009 event was a great success and we hope to do it all again this year with your help. Please get back in the boats with your favorite guides and chase the wild Delaware River rainbows and hungry spring brown trout, starting off the new decade the right way!

The headquarters for the  2010 “ONE BUG ™” event is the Old Capitol Theatre and will be held on April 23, 24 & 25.

This year’s roster is limited to 20 teams.

The proceeds from this event will be used to help prevent flooding and to fight the ongoing battle for consistent cold water releases, habitat and stream improvements and the enhancement and protection of the Upper Delaware River’s wild trout fishery.

::click here to Sign Up!::

Team donation:

Pay with Paypal ™

General admission tickets are also available to the public on a first come first serve basis for the Friday evening event that WILL SELL OUT! Admission includes BUFFET, OPEN BAR & LIVE AUCTION. This $100 ticket also includes a one year membership to FUDR.

::click here for General Admission Tickets::

For more information contact:

Jim “Coz” Costolnick

607-760-2270 cell  bwo@hancock.net

or

Dan Plummer

607-363-2001  catskilldan@mac.com

4-23-09 “OLD CAPITOL THEATRE”

7:00pm – OPEN BAR AND BUFFET

7:15pm –  CHECK IN

9:00pm – AUCTION Saturday

4-24-09 900am – 10:00am BREAKFAST “BLUESTONE GRILL”

9:30am – 10:30am GO OVER RULES

10:30-11:00am MEET GUIDES “BORDER WATER”; DEPART TO BEAT

12:00am OFFICIAL START TIME – LUNCH ON THE WATER

7:30pm OFFICIAL STOP TIME

8:30pm DINNER “BLUESTONE GRILL”

9:30pm FIRST DAYS STANDINGS Sunday

4-25-09 7:30am – 8:30am BREAKFAST “HANCOCK HOUSE”

8:30am – 9:30am MEET GUIDES “BORDER WATER”

9:30am DEPART TO BEAT

10:30am OFFICIAL START TIME – LUNCH ON THE WATER

5:30pm OFFICIAL STOP TIME

6:30pm BANQUET “OLD CAPITOL THEATRE”

7:30pm AWARDS “OLD CAPITOL THEATRE” ]]> http://fudr.org/?feed=rss2&p=76 0 http://fudr.org/?p=74 http://fudr.org/?p=74#comments Fri, 15 Jan 2010 19:40:47 +0000 fudradmin http://fudr.org/?p=74 Team Entry Fee

Regular Team Entry Fee: $2,200 – Corporate Team Entry Fee $4,000 – $300.00 per Alternate

The Team Fee is due ASAP. New teams are chosen on a first come first serve basis.

OR

General Admission Ticket Only

This $100 ticket also includes a one year membership to FUDR.
Pay with Paypal ™

or Make checks payable to F.U.D.R.

Please send your Team Entry Fee to:

Friends of the Upper Delaware River

C/O Sandy Bing (treasurer)
1148 5th Avenue
NY, NY 10128

Any more questions? Contact Dan Plummer at catskilldan@mac.com

PROSPECTIVE TEAM MEMBERS: Please identify your professional team member (all licensed guides within the last three years is considered a Professional)

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Any more questions? Contact Dan Plummer at catskilldan@mac.com

Dear Mr. Rush:

On behalf of the ten conservancy organizations that have joined in signing this letter, we are requesting that you reconsider and reverse a decision made by your agency to discontinue funding for the operation and maintenance of 26 stream gauges located in the area from the City draws most of it potable water supply.

The list of gauges for which the City plans to withdraw its support in three stages over the next 18 months was recently posted on the National Water Information System website of the U.S. Geologic Service. This list includes six gauges specifically identified by USGS as being used for flood prediction and flood modeling. USGS reports that the annual operation and maintenance cost for each gauge is $17,000, so the potential savings for the City from withdrawing this support for all 26 gauges is $442,000 per year. This amount is less than 0.05% of DEP’s $1 Billion+ operating budget for 2009.

However, many of the members of organizations joining in this letter as well as the communities located throughout these watersheds rely – on a daily basis – on the information provided by these gauges. The information provided by these gauges is the essential to the National Weather Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the flood emergency coordinators in each of the communities throughout the watersheds that contribute to the City’s water supply system. We also understand that many of these gauges will perform important functions in the new flood analysis model being prepared for the Delaware River Basin by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the USGS and the National Weather Service and to be delivered to the Delaware River Basin Commission for public release in the next few months. If maintenance of these gauges is discontinued, the effectiveness of the model will be compromised from the moment it is released.

These gauges also provide information that is essential to the protection and sustainability of the aqautic ecosystem of these watersheds. This ecosystem supports some of the best fisheries, water-based recreational uses and ecological tourism in the eastern United States. Protection and recovery of various endangered and threatened species also depends on the information from these gauges.

Finally, without the continued operation of these gauges, we question how the City will be able to comply with its obligations under the U.S. Supreme Court decree entered in 1954 in State of New Jersey v. State of New York and City of New York, 347 U.S. 995 (1954).

We urge you to reconsider and reverse the decision to withdraw financial support for these critically important facilities.

Sincerely,

Jeff Zimmerman
Zimmerman & Associates
jjzimmerman@comcast.net
(240) 912-6685

On behalf of:

Friends of the Upper Delaware River
Aquatic Conservation Unlimited
Drowning on the Delaware
Trout Unlimited, Inc.
R.A.F.T.
North Delaware River Watershed Conservancy
Delaware Riverside Conservancy
New Jersey State Council of Trout Unlimited
New York State Council of Trout Unlimited
Pennsylvania State Council of Trout Unlimited ]]> http://fudr.org/?feed=rss2&p=59 1 http://fudr.org/?p=56 http://fudr.org/?p=56#comments Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:38:49 +0000 admin http://fudr.org/?p=56 Stream Status April 20, 2009

Sorry guys, but the West Branch 1,500cfs to 110cfs release swings have begun. The proposed flows in the Letter to the Decree Parties, would limit the step change from 1,500 to 600cfs; protecting a much larger wetted (habitat) area.

…and the effects of a dry Winter and Spring are beginning to show up on the East Branch and Neversink.

Friends of the Upper Delaware River held their 2nd annual One Bug™ fly fishing fundraiser in Hancock, N.Y over the last weekend in April. The 3-day event, designed to create public awareness of the challenges to the Upper Delaware River system, was again a winner for FUDR.

Dan Plummer, chairman of the conservation group said, ” The One Bug is doing a great job drawing attention to the problems on the Upper Delaware River and its tributaries. By getting influential people here and on the river fishing for two days, we can show them first hand what issues need immediate attention. We are getting some great people involved and I feel a positive change is near.”

The main “issue” Plummer is referring to is the current water release plan called the Flexible Flow Management Program (FFMP). FUDR, Trout Unlimited, Aquatic Conservation Unlimited, NorDel and other concerned groups have all argued that the FFMP is not getting the job done. “It’s putting people along the river at great risk of flooding during high flows and damaging the ecosystem during low flows,” said Diane Tharp of NorDel.

Local fly shop owner and One Bug organizer Jim “Coz” Costolnick said, “We had 26 fishermen on the river for two days and we only caught 8 fish all weekend. The low water conditions combined with some very hot days caused the fish and the insects to shut down. The current FFMP needs to be completely redone or things will only get worse. For this whole thing to be sustainable, the fish and bugs all need consistent cold water flows”.

Lee Hartman FUDR vice-president and chairman of the Delaware River Committee of the Pennsylvania Council of Trout Unlimited asserted, ” If we could get more consistent cold water releases from the bottom of the reservoirs, the fishery, the aquatic ecosystem and the local economy would all improve exponentially. We all know the water is there, we just need more of it in the rivers and this can be done without causing anyone to go without”.

Assemblyman Cliff Crouch, a guest speaker at the One Bug, told the fishermen and locals, “I believe in the work FUDR is doing and will help in any way I can. We need to get our area back in shape”. Crouch, who has already helped FUDR and Hancock start stream restoration work to repair local streams destroyed by flooding, explained, “The stream restoration is exactly the type of public-private partnership we need to improve our communities and strengthen the tourism and recreations parts of our economy.”

Newly elected Hancock mayor Celia Vazquez added, “The One Bug has brought some much needed revenue into the area, with all the participants staying in local hotels, eating and drinking in our restaurants, and spending money in our shops. We welcome them all and I’m impressed with the sophistication of the event”.

Everyone involved in the weekend festivities were told by guides, biologists, and other experts that the precious water stored behind the massive earthen dams needs to be shared, Plummer said, “The water is there and it belongs to all of us. FUDR is more than willing to show that putting a release plan in place that works for everyone can be done with just a little more effort”.

One Bug champions Andy “Big Fish” Tumalo and Paul Weamer summed it up by saying, ” These rivers are our rivers too and we appreciate all that FUDR is doing to make them better.”

For further information contact Dan Plummer at (310) 363-7848 or catskilldan@mac.com

New Release Program Proposed to Stop Flawed FFMP From Harming Upper Delaware River and Endangering Downstream Communities

Hancock, NY — Friends of the Upper Delaware River called today for major changes to the schedule of releases from the New York City reservoirs. “The City’s practice of hoarding water creates unnecessarily full reservoirs, deprives the river of flows needed to sustain the fishery and cold water ecosystem, and creates a dangerous flood risk potential all the way downstream to Trenton,” said Dan Plummer, chairman of FUDR. Al Caucci, a noted author and expert on aquatic insects in the upper Delaware River and its tributaries, added, “The release pattern in April is especially damaging to aquatic life, fluctuating from 1500 cfs to 110 cfs and then back to 1500 cfs as the Cannonsville Reservoir goes from 100% to 99.9% and back to 100%. The last weekend in April releases to the West Branch were lower than they have been in years. Fishermen, businessmen, and flood victims wonder in amazement how officials could have come up with such a damaging plan!” Susan Alper, co-owner of the Bluestone Grill in Hancock lamented, “When the rivers go down, so does our business.”

Low flows coupled with sunny hot weather over the last weekend of April caused temperatures downriver to climb to levels that stressed the trout and likely killed many of the cold water insects on which they feed. Dr. Robert Bachman, a fisheries biologist and commissioner of the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission, explained, “The trout begin to seek refuge in colder water and stop feeding as water temperatures reach or exceed 68 degrees F. Temperatures above this rapidly become lethal for cold water insects.”

Commenting on New York City’s reservoirs release program, Cathy Myers, deputy commissioner of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, said, “No one believes this schedule is ideal for fisheries management.” She went on to state, “We remain committed to improving sustainability of this remarkable fishery,” and noted that the fish commissions of both Pennsylvania and New York are working on joint recommendations, “to make better use of the water we have available for fish habitat enhancement.”

Lee Hartman, vice president of FUDR, announced, “On April 20, we presented to New York City and the governors in the four basin states a comprehensive proposal for a new release schedule for the next year. This proposal does not rely on any water that the City needs for its water supply. For the sake of the river and the economy of this region, we urge the government parties to adopt and implement it as quickly as possible. The cold water ecosystem of this river cannot survive under the current management policies without the significantly greater releases provided by our proposal. In the past, the upper Delaware River has been a destination for thousands of anglers each year from across the country. The decline of this great fishery and its unique wild rainbow population would be a devastating loss for everyone.”

For further information, contact Dan Plummer at (607) 363 — 7848.