April Meeting
The April meeting of the LJRA will be held Thursday April 12th at 7PM at the Edgewater Inn. Hope to see you there.
2018 clean up canceled
Annual Riverbank Cleanup- Canceled!
Unfortunately, Mother Nature is playing dirty tricks on us again. The Little J watershed is predicted to receive 2-4 inches of snow late Friday night into Saturday afternoon. Out of concern for the safety of the volunteers and the effectiveness of the clean up (can’t see trash under inches of snow) the directors decided to cancel the River Bank Clean-up. We are considering scheduling a low water clean up this summer. Check back to the website for more information or visit the Facebook Page. We appreciate your willingness to participate. The next project will be habitat restoration at Kelso Run in June.
February meeting
February Metting
The LJRA will meet on Thursday February 8th, at 7:00PM at the Edgewater Inn. Topics will include Brown Trout Behavior Study, the status of posted properties, upcoming projects and plans for the river bank clean-up scheduled for Saturday April 7th.
Winter Banquet
Winter Banquet
The LJRA held its annual Winter Banquet at the Edgewater Inn on Jan 19th. Approximately 55 were in attendance. Mike Grimm from the American Eagle Paper Company was the recipient of the first “Friend of the River Award”. Mike is pictured next to Bill Anderson (left panel). Mike was recognized for his adoption of practices that greatly reduced water consumption, eliminated the discharge of heated water into the Little Bald Eagle (trib to the J), releasing a major cold water spring at the headwaters of the J and supporting efforts to construct a fish passageway around the mill’s dam in Tyrone.
Keystone Cold water conference
Keystone Cold Water Conference
The Pennsylvania Council of Trout Unlimited will host the 13th Keystone Coldwater Conference February 23-24, 2018 at the Ramada Inn Conference Center in State College. More information and a link to register online can be found here. The LJRA will reimburse its members for the cost of registration if they attend.
Projects for 2018
Goals and Projects of 2018
Work to reopen closed sections on the middle river for the spring fishing season.
Thirteenth annual Spring River-bank Clean-up is scheduled for Saturday April 7th. This activity not only cleans the river, but also improves landowner relations.
Kelso Run brook trout habitat restoration was rescheduled from this past fall to early June 2018. The project is fully funded and permitted.
Trout habitat improvement on the upper J. Channel narrowing and structure installation is planned on 400 feet of the river upstream of the Tipton off ramp. The project design is complete. Funding and permitting will be secured this year.
Complete design and approvals for the fish passage around the American Eagle Paper Mill dam in Tyrone.
Install temperature, flow and other gauges on lower river in cooperation with HCCD. The goal is to provide the data in real time on a web-based interface.
Fly patterns
J fly patterns
We are looking to increase the number of patterns posted on the site. Members can submit their patterns via email to: ljraweb [at] gmail.com. Please include photographs (<0.5MB) and information on hook, materials and notes on how to tie. They don’t have to be new, just what you tie and works on the J. Videos welcome too! The best way to contribute a video is to upload it to youtube or vimeo and email me a link to embed the video.
update postings
New Enterprise update
President Bill Anderson met with the person in charge of land management for New Enterprise today. She was attentive and receptive to ideas to increase angler access to the J, including fishing easements and land transfers. She will present our ideas to the company soon. Conversations will continue. We should not expect immediate resolution, but the response from NE today was encouraging. In the meantime, it is important that we honor the postings and not trespassing on their land.
River of the year
The Little Juniata has been named a finalist for “River of the Year”
Vote here: http://www.pariveroftheyear.org/ . You can place one vote for each email address.
If we win, the LJRA will receive $10,000 for additional projects such as stream bank protection, riparian buffers, fish habitat improvements and clean-ups.
New Enterprise Posting
New Enterprise Posting
New Enterprise Limestone Quarry posted their land recently from Limestone Road to the Pemberton Bridge. Apparently this is a new policy for all NE lands throughout the state and is not specific to the area surrounding the Little J and, to our knowledge, was not precipitated by events at the Pemberton location. We have contacted the NES&L and we are meeting with their management next Tuesday (Dec 5th) to discuss options to increase angler access. LJRA will do everything possible to reverse this loss of access on the river. A priority of the LJRA is to increase angler access and improve landowner relations. In the meantime, it is important to respect NE’s wishes that no one trespasses on the land. The LJRA has had a good relationship with NE, due in part to our cleaning up their land along the J for 12 years during the annual riverbank clean up. Check the website for updates.