If you like to fish for trout in the Park, you'll be glad to see this.
With a combination of proactive thinking on the part of
Baxter Park’s Information and Education staff, and the generous outreach
and donation of equipment from the Kennebec Chapter of Trout Unlimited, we have
installed a number of wader, water shoes and equipment cleaning stations at
Park campgrounds near popular fishing streams and ponds.
 |
| Didymo cleaning station at Daicey Pond |
These stations provide clear
and easily understandable directions so that fishermen and women, especially
those who have fished in other New England waters, can clean and disinfect
their gear before entering the waters of the Park to fish. Besides invasive and exotic plants like
Hydrilla and Eurasian Milfoil, we are really concerned about organisms such as
Didymo (Didymosphenia geminata ) or “Rock Snot”.
This microscopic algae is a nightmare to
anyone who loves the clear, free flowing water of Maine streams and rivers and
particularly to those who might like to catch a native eastern brook trout now
and then. Didymo is a very nasty algae
that thrive in clear, fast flowing water.
Once established, there is no practical way to remove it and the stream
habitat is severly degraded for fish like trout, not to mention human
aesthetics. Didymo was known in Canada in the late 1800's but didn't cause problems until the late 1990's. Troubling. Didymo moved east of the Mississippi in 2005 and is now established in
many streams in New England (Vermont, New Hampshire) and Pennsylvania along with many western states. It can find a new home when tiny pieces and
bits of the algae from an infected stream become lodged in a crack in a wading
boot or a fold in a wader. This stuff
scares the daylights out of us. So if
you know a fisherman who likes to travel to fish and fishes on vacation, be
sure to encourage them to disinfect their gear before coming to the Park or to
use one of our stations (follow the directions!!) before putting their gear in
the cold, clear water of Park streams and ponds.
