OUTDOORS COLUMN: MWV Trout Adventure Program A Good Idea

BY GEORGE GRANT
Outdoors Columnist
MeadWestvaco is a Glen Allen, Va.-headquartered packaging and paper products corporation that has taken on an ambitious project. The company calls the effort the MWV Trout Adventure program. The core of the program focuses on three counties in West Virginia – Fayette, Greenbrier and Nicholas – and it’s directed toward restoring brook trout habitat.

The project got underway on Laurel Creek near Jettsville, W.Va., in August of this year with the installation of four liming stations on the main branch and tributaries of Laurel Creek. MeadWestvaco eventually intends for it to encompass 538 miles of stream on the company’s 146,000 acres of forest land in West Virginia.

I know, you’re wondering about liming – perhaps even envisioning the slice of citrus jammed into the neck of a bottle of beer served when you’re dining in your favorite Mexican eatery. Nope, that ain’t it.

Trout, especially brook trout, have some very specific environmental requirements and the acidity of a stream’s water is critical to their survival. When the acidity of a stream reaches a certain point they, and the elaborate web of aquatic plant and insect life that supports them, disappear.

Acidity and its opposite alkalinity are measured on a scale that is referred to as pH. Values above seven on this scale are alkaline; values below are acidic. Laurel Creek was found to have a pH of six, definitely into the range that will eliminate a healthy brook trout population.

There are two main causes for the acidification of trout streams – runoff and acid rain. Coal mining is a major source of acidification and the backbone of West Virginia’s economy. The waste removed from mined coal often contains sulfur that is leeched out by rainfall and naturally transported to the nearest stream. The hydrogen in water and the sulfur combine to produce sulfuric acid.

The coal that goes to market will also produce sulfur compounds when it is burned. Carried into the atmosphere these compounds react with the water vapor that eventually falls as rain. Water runs downhill and if you travel downhill in these mountains you’ll eventually reach a stream. Try it; I guarantee you’ll get your feet wet.

Lime, basically calcium carbonate, is alkaline and neutralizes acid. Add enough of it and the stream’s pH will eventually reach a value of seven. At that point you’ve got a trout stream. Go just a fraction beyond it and you get a great trout stream. There’s a very good reason that the Limestone Streams of Pennsylvania’s Cumberland Valley are recognized as some of America’s best trout water.

MeadWestvaco will start out by adding 25 tons of lime each year at their chosen liming stations. They believe that this will maintain the pH levels in Laurel Creek and promote the restoration of a viable brook trout population.

They’re probably right about that. Dominion Power has used a similar technique to restore other brook trout streams.

Thanks, MeadWestvaco. Carry it through on all 538 miles of water. It will be money and effort well spent.