Point Mountain TCA river channel restoration plan photos

[Rusty Spinner]

Here is a photo of the upper, middle and lower reaches we plan to restore March 10-14 if the weather cooperates. Right now, the snow cover on the ground is our only obstacle, but next week and the following week we think we'll see some thawing. We need to grub boulders off the Hunterdon Park's hillside for the project, otherwise, working in a heated machine in the river doesn't matter if it remains cold. Flows are actually low right now.

upper stretch below nice riffles:


middle stretch where it is very wide and an island (medial bar) sets up in low flows:


lower stretch just above the "S-Bend" with badly eroding banks:


Restoration site plan overhead:



Two of the cross sections of the channel showing existing and post-restoration views:

 

[lightenup]

Well Rusty...since this will be your swan song...make it a good one!!!!!

 

[Rusty Spinner]

Well Rusty...since this will be your swan song...make it a good one!!!!!

Actually, I have 3 more Musky watershed projects to wrap up that I began as a TU staffer other than this one. One is West Portal Brook, a wild brookie trib in Asbury which we will do right after Point Mountain, one is on Lubber's Run, a big trib in the upper watershed, and then there is the Wattles Tract which is immediately downstream of Point Mountain Road bridge. That last one will be great and I hope will take some pressure off the TCA above it when we restore 3/4 of a mile over a 1 mile reach down to the Mannon farm on state land known as the Wattles Tract (part of the Musconetcong River WMA). We have to leave about 1/4 mile alone as it has a state endangered dragonfly nymph population located there. That should come off between summer and fall of this year, thanks to our friends at NJ Audubon who qualified for Farm Bill funds even though it is public land. They are managing it for the state which gave us the loophole we needed to get the funding which is awesome. I need to give kudos to our friends at Theodore Gordon Flyfishers as well for a generous grant they gave TU to help with survey, design and boulders for Wattles without which we wouldn't be able to pull that one off. I wish I did almost only public lands projects so all anglers could benefit, but that's not always the case.

Either way, it will be good to do Point Mountain because it got multiple delays over the last 6 years and is now coming to fruition.

 

[Rusty Spinner]

So far, we're on for Tuesday, March 10 - the 13th. Finally!

 

[Rusty Spinner]

Still in total limbo......no word from DEP Land Use Regulation and the Division of F&W's lands management review is not yet complete with both DEP agencies closed today for the Snowmeggedon part XXVII

 

[tomfly]

Bureaucrats taking their time on an approval . Gee that the first time I heard of that happening.

 

[Rusty Spinner]

Bureaucrats taking their time on an approval . Gee that the first time I heard of that happening.

That's not it, everything is approved. It's just that NJDEP Land Use Regulation made a mistake on the exclusion dates when they issued the permits and the Division forgot to perform the lands management review since part of our work is on Division land (the rest on Hunterdon Park land as the river is split 50/50). Yet the Division fully signed off on the DEP permit.....

 

[MACFLY]

Oh so tHey aren't lazy just incompetent

That's not it, everything is approved. It's just that NJDEP Land Use Regulation made a mistake on the exclusion dates when they issued the permits and the Division forgot to perform the lands management review since part of our work is on Division land (the rest on Hunterdon Park land as the river is split 50/50). Yet the Division fully signed off on the DEP permit.....

 

[Rusty Spinner]

Oh so tHey aren't lazy just incompetent

And yet the left still believes that more government is the solution to all of our woes. It truly amazes me! My only thought is that these liberals don't ever interact with the government to know the gross incompetence at nearly every level of local, county, state, and federal government. I have had to deal with each of those levels in my job and quite often, so I see how poorly things run on all levels. And the higher up the chain such as the federal level, the more f-ed up it gets.

 

[emoussa]

And yet the left still believes that more government is the solution to all of our woes. It truly amazes me! My only thought is that these liberals don't ever interact with the government to know the gross incompetence at nearly every level of local, county, state, and federal government. I have had to deal with each of those levels in my job and quite often, so I see how poorly things run on all levels. And the higher up the chain such as the federal level, the more f-ed up it gets.

Better wait til you get all your approvals/permits and work done before you bash our fine public employees.

I'm a project engineer for a construction company so I interact with quite a few government entities. Unfortunately, I know what you're talking about. My solution is to do as much of their job for them as you can legally do and then smile, kiss ass and pray they can lift their arms high enough to stamp something for you.

 

[Rusty Spinner]

Better wait til you get all your approvals/permits and work done before you bash our fine public employees.

I hear what you are saying, but the only positive changes I've ever seen to any governmental practices have been when I or others were publicly critical of those poor existing practices. And yes, I often get calls on my cell from "higher ups" asking what they could do differently moving forward. I fear no government bureaucrat. That's probably because I follow rules, even when the rules make no sense. And each of the people I am dealing with recognize their inefficiencies and mistakes. It is often not the person, but rather the bad processes that cause these issues.

 

[tomfly]

I hear what you are saying, but the only positive changes I've ever seen to any governmental practices have been when I or others were publicly critical of those poor existing practices. And yes, I often get calls on my cell from "higher ups" asking what they could do differently moving forward. I fear no government bureaucrat. That's probably because I follow rules, even when the rules make no sense. And each of the people I am dealing with recognize their inefficiencies and mistakes. It is often not the person, but rather the bad processes that cause these issues.

It is the same in Corporate America. Some idiot comes up with a new policy or procedure that over rides the ones were in place, that were working just fine. I think they come up with some new untested way to accomplish tasks , to justify their existence to the higher ups. Example: The company rolled out new biometric login system in for the computer systems. Latterly with in hours of the roll out . The Network security staff in which I am a part of were able to circumvent the new log in procedure and hack into a users computer and gain access to the network.

 

[MACFLY]

Actually not the same unless your company is the exception. In the case you just cited I would expect resolution would come to address said screw up. Not so in the case of government except on rare occasions.

It is the same in Corporate America. Some idiot comes up with a new policy or procedure that over rides the ones were in place, that were working just fine. I think they come up with some new untested way to accomplish tasks , to justify their existence to the higher ups. Example: The company rolled out new biometric login system in for the computer systems. Latterly with in hours of the roll out . The Network security staff in which I am a part of were able to circumvent the new log in procedure and hack into a users computer and gain access to the network.

 

[tomfly]

Actually not the same unless your company is the exception. In the case you just cited I would expect resolution would come to address said screw up. Not so in the case of government except on rare occasions.

the vender that sold the biometric software fixed the problem wit in a few days.. Are argument is that the testing procedures were lacking auditing that would have been done by our IT staff. The higher ups in our department decided that the audit process was not in the budget for the project and was omitted. We hacked the system by coping a finger print with a photo copy machine and using the copied print to unlock the computer.

 

[MACFLY]

the vender that sold the biometric software fixed the problem wit in a few days.. Are argument is that the testing procedures were lacking auditing that would have been done by our IT staff. The higher ups in our department decided that the audit process was not in the budget for the project and was omitted. We hacked the system by coping a finger print with a photo copy machine and using the copied print to unlock the computer.

Stop talking like a Nerd

 

[tomfly]

Stop talking like a Nerd

It is my nature

 

[lightenup]

Stop talking like a Nerd

He sounds more like a geek than a nerd........

 

[Rusty Spinner]

I would hate to interrupt the nerd talk, but we got our waiver to begin work on the 16th. We still need the formal letter from DEP Land Use stating they screwed up and have assurances that letter is on its way. Then we also need the Division to complete its lands management review favorably, of course. But the latter is being done by the same biologist team that approved the DEP Land Use permit in the first place, so I like our odds so far! Plus, the extra week means less snow and ice.

I need to take up drinking.......

 

[FIN-ITE 34]

I would hate to interrupt the nerd talk, but we got our waiver to begin work on the 16th. We still need the formal letter from DEP Land Use stating they screwed up and have assurances that letter is on its way. Then we also need the Division to complete its lands management review favorably, of course. But the latter is being done by the same biologist team that approved the DEP Land Use permit in the first place, so I like our odds so far! Plus, the extra week means less snow and ice.

I need to take up drinking.......

You love it. Gives you the chance to trash talk big government and the libs.

 

[Rusty Spinner]

You love it. Gives you the chance to trash talk big government and the libs.

Or just prove that government is in the way of progress. Or is that progressives that are in the way of progress?





All I really care about after 2+ grueling weeks pushing this through is getting in the river and restoring it!

 

[Rusty Spinner]

All hurdles cleared, but now the flows are working against us. Stay tuned to the never ending saga of the Point Mountain TCA restoration project.......................................................................................................................

 

[Rusty Spinner]

We just pulled the plug after receiving a quote that was 3 times what we anticipated to survey for mussels on Monday. No guarantee we could do the survey and no guarantee we could work if any species of concern were found. So we wait and get it set for after June 15 when we can get back in the Musky to work. Oh well, time to drink instead.

But we will be restoring West Portal Brook, a Musky native brook trout trib, next week instead.

 

[lightenup]

We just pulled the plug after receiving a quote that was 3 times what we anticipated to survey for mussels on Monday. No guarantee we could do the survey and no guarantee we could work if any species of concern were found. So we wait and get it set for after June 15 when we can get back in the Musky to work. Oh well, time to drink instead.

But we will be restoring West Portal Brook, a Musky native brook trout trib, next week instead.

Dragonflies, mussels, don't worry, the salty run-off will kill all of them.....:crap:

 

[Rusty Spinner]

Dragonflies, mussels, don't worry, the salty run-off will kill all of them.....:crap:

If you were a true friend, you'd deep fry some of these to sell at the drive thru and make my life easier. :beer:

 

[lightenup]

If you were a true friend, you'd deep fry some of these to sell at the drive thru and make my life easier. :beer:

Done...bring 'em in...the more endangered the more we can charge.....

 

[tomfly]

Rusty will this mussel survey suffice?