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Trout Season Opening Day

Fishermen Turn Out for Opening Day By Liz Page BLOOMVILLE – The fishermen were few and far between first thing Saturday morning, but those who stuck it out were treated to a beautiful, sunshiny day, after midmorning. Tara Fairbairn, of Stamford, has been going out on opening day since she was a kid and her partner, Kenny Palmatier, is also an avid fisherman. Missing from their annual rite of passage on Saturday was their son, Andrew, who was feeling a bit under the weather and didn't want to get wet. The rain on Saturday morning went from steady to intermittent, producing some soaking rain in between. It was wet and Friday's showers had turned many waterways into a chocolate brown that made it difficult for the fish to see the bait. The water was high and swift, which is nothing unusual for opening day Tara was using a lure at the bridge in Bloomville, a favorite spot to cast a fishing line for many anglers. She said they usually don't go there on opening day, opting for some quieter spots, but because it was muddy, she said they were starting at Bloomville and would work their way to the less muddy water where they could hopefully switch their bait to worms. One of the keys to catching a fish is that the water is clear enough for them to see the bait. Fairbairn and I stood there for a time, marveling at how calming it was to stand at the edge of the streambank, cast a line and watch it feed downstream. "It is calming. That's why I like fishing," said Fairbairn. She said she was only one in the family to catch a fish on opening day last year, which was cold, with a couple of inches of snow. The conditions were not ideal. "I was the only one who caught a fish," she smiled. It is a family affair for them and Fairbairn is an avid angler. She said she invested in a rod last year that allows you to feel the fish strike the line. "It took a little getting used to, but I do like it." It started to rain fairly heavy again and I decided to leave. Fairbairn made her way to the car to wait out the rain again. Her only regret, she said, was not bringing a book to read while she was sitting in the car. Once the rain let up, she would go back to the streambank. Cliff Mueller was out early opening day, but said he didn't last long. "The streams looked like chocolate milk and I didn't see any other fishermen. I lasted about 20 minutes," he said. Many believe the opening day falls on April Fool's day, because the weather most of the time is not ideal. It is a teaser for anglers to get out into nature and enjoy the outdoors. So the annual rite of spring has taken place, marking one more sign of spring and soon the state Department of Environmental Conservation will be stocking local streams and ponds. To see where and when the stocking takes place, visit the DEC website at dec.ny.gov or to get the latest regulations.

Sandstone of the Catskills

THE CATSKILL GEOLOGISTS BY PROFESSORS ROBERT AND JOHANNA TITUS Opus 40, A Devonian Home? We always look into a sedimentary rock and see the sediment that lies within. At the Opus 40 quarry most of that sediment was sand. It has been cemented and thus petrified into the Catskill bluestone that we see all over the quarry today. But it was, long ago, soft wet sediment. The thick sandstones at Opus were mostly deposited in river channels, rivers of the ancient Catskill Delta. All these sands are hard cold sandstones today, but we always have to remember that these were once river channels and there were animals who called them home. We have not yet found any fossil shells or bones in the quarry, but we have found some other fossils. Take a look at our photo. That’s an unusually dark sandstone for the Catskills; it’s a black sandstone with a large number of light-gray curvy patterns within it. What earth could those curves be? Well, paleontologists know them as trace fossils. They are, indeed, not shells nor bones. Instead, they record the behaviors of ancient organisms. From time to time, you leave footprints when you walk across wet grounds. Imagine if, somehow, those prints hardened into rock. Then your footprints would have become trace fossils. That’s not likely to actually happen but it does sometimes with invertebrate animals who live in soft sediments. That’s what happened here. Think about what you are looking at. About 380 million years ago, when these sands lay on a river bottom, animals squirmed around within those sediments and that left the marks. We geologists use the word burrowing to describe this. And that burrowing produced burrows. It should have been that they would never have been preserved; instead, floodwaters should have soon washed them all away. But that just did not happen. They remained, undisturbed as the years passed by. They were buried by thicker and thicker heavy sediments and, under all that weight, slowly hardened into the rock we see today. But what were those animals, and what were they doing? That’s an interesting scientific question and it might seem one that is impossible to answer. But what does the evidence say? That evidence is in the color. Where the rock is dark that is because it is rich in biological material, mostly carbon, that’s the black stuff. Where the rock is gray, then there is much less biological material. And that is within the burrows. What happened? Maybe you can guess. Those burrowing animals, as they worked through those sands, removed the biological material. They were consuming it as food. Who does this today? Worms do. The way to bet is that these are the burrows of ancient Devonian worms.Contact the authors at randjtitus@prodigy.net . Join their facebook page “The Catskill Geologist.” Read their blogs at “thecatskillgeologist.”

Mud Season Story

Mud season is here, much to hikers’ discontent By Jennifer Patterson With it finally beginning to feel like spring, many people are itching to get outdoors. While hikers are understandably eager to dust off their boots and enjoy some fresh air, officials from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation are urging outdoor enthusiasts to be extra prepared or to stay off the trails entirely during spring’s notorious mud season. It happens every year, when snow starts to melt and spring showers begin. This combination of moisture in the ground, along with fluctuating temperatures, creates the perfect environment for muddy trails. The Catskills are experiencing an early start to mud season because the ground wasn’t able to consistently freeze during the winter. And despite the heavy late snowfall, a relatively mild winter translated to little snow on hiking trails, causing a muddy mess as spring temperatures continue to warm. Mud season usually beings in late March and lasts until May or June, when trails dry up and harden with sustained warmer temperatures. Hiking during this messy season not only presents safety concerns, but it also compounds conservation challenges on trails and in forests, according to the DEC. Hikers who hit the trails early can unknowingly cause expensive damage to trail systems and the natural environment. New York’s changing climate has extended mud season, with higher temperatures in late winter increasing the contrast between conditions at the trailhead and mountain peaks, according to the DEC. These differences create a range of challenging conditions, like steep trails with thick mud, deep slushy snow, slippery areas with compacted ice (the DEC refers to narrow snowy/icy paths as “monorails”) and flooded trails. If hikers aren’t wearing the proper footwear with spikes, their adventure will be no walk in the park. Many trails can also seem to disappear from step to step and become streams. Crossing these areas is inadvisable, especially when there is fast-moving frigid water. Hikers who fall are at risk of hypothermia. In addition, when hikers try to avoid mud and walk around it, they may inadvertently trample and destroy vulnerable vegetation that is just starting to regrow after the winter months. Loss of vegetation impacts wildlife habitat, as high foot traffic causes changes to the soil and grass that animals and insects rely on. Mountain biking on muddy trails is also discouraged by the DEC, because bikes leave behind large holes that need additional repairs when they dry up, affecting the usability of the trail for the rest of the season. The DEC frequently issues “muddy trail advisories” to keep hikers off the trails, allowing snow to melt and the ground to dry thoroughly. For information, go to https://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/113437.html.