Ramapo River Restoration

[Pete]

You may recall that in 2014 the Borough of Oakland undertook a project to restore their section of the Ramapo River, not unlike similar projects on the Musconetcong, and the Raritan.

Since the Borough Council never does it right the first time, there were a series of missteps that culminated in the the Mayor & council meeting of 5/23/18 when the contract with a certain contractor was terminated for "Breach of Contract".

One of the most severe critics of the "missteps" has since become a Councilman, and is now taking the lead in resuscitating the project, and reestablishing a relationship with the DEP.

At last night's council meeting he announced that he expected the work on the "Muscle Study" to be completed today. This should enable them to make a realistic scope of work, and apply for the permits with a realistic probability of approval .... If things go well the work could be done in 2019.

~~~~~~EDIT - 10/13/18~~~~~~~~
The Muscle study has been completed.
EJTU is back on board.

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[Rusty Spinner]

That would be mussels, not muscles.

The mighty 'Po has at least one species of state T&E freshwater mussels that would need to be protected against certain intrusions that could happen in a river channel restoration project. Glad to see the Borough Council moving forward once again; it will be interesting to see where it goes from here.

[Pete]

That would be mussels, not muscles. ....

As you may be aware mussels thrive on organic waste.
Due to over-development in the Ramapo Valley, serviced by thousands of aging septic fields, our mussels have become quite muscular.

[Rusty Spinner]

As you may be aware mussels thrive on organic waste.
Due to over-development in the Ramapo Valley, serviced by thousands of aging septic fields, our mussels have become quite muscular.

Given the fact that more than half of the water flowing in the Ramapo as it passes through your Borough of Oakland is treated sewerage from upstream, those mussels may take down smaller anglers out wading in it.

[tompg]

are the giant boulders still sitting down by the railroad bridge. What do they want to do them? drop one in the middle of the river every 25 yards?

[Rusty Spinner]

are the giant boulders still sitting down by the railroad bridge. What do they want to do them? drop one in the middle of the river every 25 yards?

Boulders are used to build structures and to add habitat during river channel restoration projects. I understand that some of those boulders are a bit too large although a talented heavy equipment operator with lots of experience working in rivers know how to bury most of them and use them regardless of size. Not sure if the ones stored near the bottom of the project will be used or not.

[Catskill Mountain Man]

Fish it in ny, its much nicer

[Pete]

https://www.northjersey.com/story/ne...es/3055920002/

...The rule proposes to protect a portion of the Ramapo River from the Patriots Way bridge in Oakland to Little Pond Brook, including all unnamed tributaries. The DEP confirmed the presence of the eastern lampmussel — a mussel on the state's threatened species list — in that 5½-mile portion of the Ramapo...

I can't help but wonder if more of the river would be included if the "mussel study" hadn't been limited to Oakland.

[Rusty Spinner]

https://www.northjersey.com/story/ne...es/3055920002/


I can't help but wonder if more of the river would be included if the "mussel study" hadn't been limited to Oakland.

Most of the Eastern lamp mussels are up in Mahwah, so that water should be included although no formal survey for mussels has been done in a long time as far as I know above Glen Gray Road bridge. But I know the guy that performed the initial survey for lamp mussels in that area which he did when he worked for the DEP Division of F&W on their threatened and non-game biology team. NJ lacks resources for freshwater mussel studies, and so very little is known about their presence, distribution, health, host fish species needs, etc. that only when river restoration (including dam removal) projects are done in rivers known to have freshwater mussels, that mussels are identified. And we (contractors and/or clients) then tackle the issue for that specific site to satisfy permitting requirements.

I work very closely with Division biologists and not just the fisheries team who do a ton of sampling each year. Most of the reason I see from my experience why certain animal species are listed as threatened or endangered or species of special concern is simply because NJ lacks the resources to study populations of rare animals. It seems whenever I go looking for something reported as a T&E species for a given site, that species winds up being there in some abundance. Because we don't know, states like NJ tend to take the approach that everything is rare unless proven not. It puts a lot of critters on lists that IMO don't belong on those lists.