FUDR
YEAR IN REVIEW 2005
Thanks to the support of our Directors, members
and our growing list of Friends, in the past year FUDR has
made unprecedented strides in our efforts to protect and enhance the
unique upper Delaware wild trout fishery, the fishery’s related
economies and the region’s ecology. FUDR has continued to focus
a public spotlight on the issues and concerns of this world-class
fishery and, more importantly, has firmly established the foundations
necessary to secure the future of this unique resource.
During the year, FUDR established a Legal
Committee comprised of noted legal scholars, experienced environmental
attorneys and knowledgeable general practice lawyers. Supplementing
this experienced legal team is a less experienced, though no less
enthusiastic, team of environmental law students from one of our most
highly recognized eastern universities? FUDR’s Legal Committee is
already researching and evaluating what laws, regulations and
accountability measures will be essential for the long-term protection
of the River. And they are studying what legal authority the various
regulatory agencies have for the decisions and actions they have
taken. The Committee has not ruled out taking legal action.
Drawing on recognized experts in wild trout
fisheries, computer modeling, environmental engineering, hydrology,
aquatic biology, statistics and riparian structure, FUDR assembled the
only Scientific Committee, that is independent of the regulatory
agencies, to study the problems of, and propose solutions for, the
upper Delaware fishery - most especially the critically needed cold
water reservoir releases. Replacing the seriously flawed computer
model that continues to be used by the agencies, FUDR authorized the
Committee to develop its own, more accurate and efficient model.
Indeed, the computer program was written by one of our newer members.
This statistical team, functioning within our Scientific Committee, is
nearing completion of the only study being done that will
scientifically determine what the cold water releases can be for the
upper Delaware and its tributaries. Already, FUDR has
scientifically/statistically determined that a reservoir release
protocol is viable and would be vastly superior to the current system
of arbitrarily determined flow and temperature “targets.” And, through
our research, we have invalidated the agencies’ long used argument
that high reservoir levels in late September are needed to assure full
reservoirs the following June 1st.
FUDR has also been studying the negative effects
on the Delaware’s various individual flood plains that man has,
through nearly 200 years of history, seriously altered. Reflecting
FUDR’s commitment to a comprehensive approach to the entire ecology,
we’ve just begun a major, long-term tributary restoration initiative.
Based on objective criteria, individual restoration projects will not
only be initiated on the larger tributaries, but also on the smaller
tributaries that feed into the larger. By restoring tributaries to
their historic course, spawning will be enhanced, silting reduced and
the natural flood plains will be more fully utilized - contributing to
flood minimization.
This past season, the arbitrarily determined
provisions contained in the Delaware River Basin Commission’s
ill-conceived Revision 7, created an artificial drought - for the
fishery only. That is, while releases for the fishery were
unnecessarily restricted to the point of fish kills, the reservoirs
remained very nearly full. FUDR was the only conservation organization
to develop and vigorously fight for the adoption of a temporary
emergency plan that would have relieved this situation without
jeopardizing the needs of any consumer. Yet, despite these adverse
ecological and economic conditions (conditions that led virtually
every business in the Village of Hancock, the focal center of the
fishery, to sign a petition endorsing FUDR and calling for the
rescinding of Revision 7), the regulatory authorities nonetheless
rejected the plan. They did so not because FUDR’s plan wasn’t viable,
it was and it was publicly acknowledged as such; but rather because it
represented a temporary shift away from the historically failed system
of “banks” and “targets” as specified in Revision 7.
During the past year, we have continued our
educational/awareness efforts with elected officials in the four
contiguous states and with countless related organizations and
businesses. And our efforts have not gone unnoticed: increasingly the
media, including such prestigious publications as The New
York Times, have begun to follow the issues of the Delaware
and have written of our efforts. More recently, Field & Stream,
perhaps the largest outdoor publication in the country, named us as
one of its “Heroes of Conservation.”
As a still young organization, we have
accomplished much of what was, indeed, unimaginable only months ago.
Still, much more needs to be done and we hope that you support our
efforts.
Thank
You,
Craig
Findley, President
Friends
of the Upper Delaware River
