Due to its wilderness regulations, no motorized vehicles are allowed and access is limited to foot travel only. Last year, John found a couple drainage ditches off the scenic highway and dumped limestone fines, hoping they’d make their way down to the Middle Fork. 

 “When we first tested the Middle Fork before treatments the PH was in the upper 3’s to lower 4’s on most of the main stem and a few tributaries,” stated John.

The idea of placing limestone sand is not only to neutralize the acidic water but to also help coat the streambed. The geology of this freestone stream doesn’t have the buffering properties capable of neutralizing the acid rain. 

Poor logging operations in the early 1900s contributed to this poor buffering bedrock and left a major scar on the habitat.    Practically all the virgin timber was cut and the landscapes were left bare.  In the higher elevations like the scenic highway area, as well as Dolly Sods and Spruce Knob, rocky soil was all that was left.
 
Add the acid rain to the poor buffering, rocky landscape and an acidic Middle Fork is what you end up with. The water got too acidic and the brookies just couldn’t survive any more and they packed up and moved out sometime during the 1950s.

So there is a need to place as much sand as possible, at first to help raise the PH levels suitable for not only trout but aquatic insects also. John and other DNR personnel had already placed around 7 tons of limestone sand into the Middle Fork drainage and it’s working.  The water is improving but not as fast as John had hoped, so TU volunteers joined with DNR in their first major Back the Brookie project on June 28.

Through hard work and cooperation almost 6 tons of additional limestone sand was directly placed in the extreme head of the main drainage. The 28 members formed a line and a bucket brigade to haul the lime in a quarter of a mile to its destination. The limestone sand was passed back and forth on down the line two buckets at a time until it reached the dump site.

A total of 357 buckets (almost 6 tons) of lime passed through these two hands as well as everyone else’s who showed up. 

That’s quite an accomplishment. We were averaging 2 tons per hour.  John had hoped to get at least 10 tons of sand into the Middle Fork before the end of the year and we helped exceed his expectations.  Approximately 13 tons of lime will make its way through the entire watershed and hopefully one day in the near future native brook trout will make their way back. John feels confident within the next couple years that the PH will climb back into the mid 6’s and the brook trout will swim back upstream to their long lost home.

The idea is to hopefully let nature take its course and let the brookie naturally find its way to the better quality water. There are a couple tributaries that harbor a few native brook trout and hopefully they’ll move down and make their way up to repopulate the Middle Fork watershed. I can’t wait to one day fish this stream and catch my first trout out of it, knowing that I played a small part in helping a native species thrive where they should be once again. 

After all the limestone sand was placed, John couldn’t have said it better when he stated that, “When we all work together you can see what can be accomplished.”

Moving 6 tons of sand is quite an accomplishment to be proud of knowing that it’s going to help the habitat of our state fish. 

If you’re interested in helping out, I not only encourage you to join TU but also get involved.  Trout Unlimited’s motto is to conserve, protect and restore North America’s coldwater fisheries and their watersheds.  It’s a great organization to be part of and they do great things for our West Virginia trout waters.

The KVCTU has personally maintained a strong interest in restoring the Middle Fork watershed and has contributed $2,500 each year to help the DNR pay for limestone sand.

I for one couldn’t have thought of a more rewarding way to spend last Saturday. Add the two black bears Tara and I spotted on the scenic highway along with the beautiful scenery and the day was complete. Bringing a dead stream back to life takes some hard work, but it will be worth it in the end when there’s a feisty Middle Fork brookie attached to the other end of my line. 

I’m looking forward to that day and with all the effort that was put forth last Saturday along with the work John and the DNR have already done, I won’t have to wait that long. It will be a great day to see the native brookies swimming in their natural homes where they should be once again.

Links to check out:

WV Chapter of Trout Unlimited

Kanawha Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited

WV Back the Brookie