By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 5 August 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers – Lake Ontario was rough on Sunday, but several people have hooked good-size fish at the beginning of the Orleans County Fishing Derby. This photo was taken at the shores of the Golden Hill State Park in Barker, about a mile west of the Orleans County line.
Julie Schaeffer of Sligo, Pa. leads the Orleans County Fishing Derby with a 31-pound, 11-ounce Chinook. The derby started Saturday and runs until Aug. 18.
The Albion Rotary Club sponsors the derby and will hand out $8,800 in prizes, including $4,000 to the angler who catches the biggest fish at Lake Ontario and its tributaries from the Niagara River to the Genesee River.
Other leading fish include a 12-pound, 11-ounce rainbow trout, and a 12-pound, 13-ounce brown trout. No lake trout is on the leaderboard yet.
Last year’s derby had an unusual winner: a lake trout that weighed 34 pounds, 6 ounces. A Chinook almost always claims the top prize.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 5 August 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers
Gene Ott walks his dog, Delia, last night at the Golden Hill State Park in Barker, just west of the Orleans County line. Ott lives in Rising Sun, Indiana. He is on his way to see a friend in New Hampshire. The two served in Vietnam together. Ott said his friend is having health problems.
Pest confirmed in 15 counties, including Orleans neighbors
Photo courtesy of Cornell University – The Ash Borer has been detected in nearby Monroe and Genesee counties.
Press release, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a member of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry Committee, today urged additional funding to help research, control and eradicate the Emerald Ash Borer, an invasive insect threatening the 900 million ash trees in New York and throughout the country. There are no known methods to control the Emerald Ash Borer.
“New York State is home to some of the world’s most beautiful forests that today are at a major risk,” Sen. Gillibrand said. “Unless we take action, this harmful insect will continue to spread and eat away at trees and forests. We need to make the right investment and bring this harmful insect to a halt before it’s too late.”
The infestation of the Emerald Ash Boer, native to China, was first reported in New York State in 2009 when it was found in Randolph, Cattaraugus County. It has since been found in 14 other counties, including Ulster, Greene, Livingston, Monroe, Steuben, Genesee, Erie, Orange, Albany, Niagara, Dutchess and Tioga, and has now spread to Delaware and Otsego counties.
New York’s forests are also a strong economic driver. The state’s forest industry employs more than 60,000 workers and generates approximately $4.6 billion to the state’s economy, according to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
The insect is suspected of first entering the U.S. near Detroit, Michigan, in 2002, where it led to the killing of millions of ash trees in the Midwest, then making its way to 19 states. The beetle has the potential to destroy upwards of 7 percent of the state’s forests and 7.5 percent of trees across the United States.
In a letter to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Sen. Gillibrand advocated for the proper resources to control the invasive species and protect New York’s forests.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 19 July 2013 at 12:00 am
About two months ago my 7-year-old daughter planted sunflower seeds in a small patch of dirt by our house in the village of Albion. I was dubious the plants would grow. I figured they would need more space.
The sunflowers have flourished, towering 7 or 8 feet high. This morning they are in bloom.
A few feet away in the front stands a Rose of Sharon that is also is full glory.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 26 June 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
POINT BREEZE – An Albion family visited Point Breeze today and couldn’t pass up the chance to skip rocks in Lake Ontario. Sophia Dash, 2, and her cousin Amelia Sanchez, 9, took turns tossing rocks in the water.
Amelia’s brother, Carlitos Sanchez, 12, was good at getting the rocks to jump in the water – to the delight of his sister and little cousin.
HOLLEY – The Holley Canal Park was peaceful this evening, perfect for a stroll. The park is located off East Avenue. It includes docks, a gazebo, picnic tables, grills and camping spots for tents.
Trails at the park lead to a playground, fishing spots and the waterfalls.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 2 June 2013 at 12:00 am
Photographer shares shots of Mount Albion, water plant
Albion photographer Bruce Landis rented an airplane and a pilot for a day last month and took numerous landscape shots in Orleans County, right when the fruit trees were in bloom.
Landis, owner of Photos by Bruce and Associates, shared photos of the tower at Mount Albion Cemetery. The 68-foot-high tower was built in 1876 as a memorial to the 500 people from the county who died in the Civil War.
Landis also flew over Carlton by the Lake Ontario shoreline and captured this photo of the Village of Albion Water Treatment plant on Wilson Road. The bubbles in the water are at the end of the intake pipe that draws in the water for the plant.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 22 May 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers – Caledonia Fish hatchery manager Alan Mack, bottom, works with Brian Edmonds from the DEC’s Salmon River Hatchery to unload a truck full of lake trout.
The lake trout are yearlings that are about 7 inches long.
POINT BREEZE – A decade from now, many of them will hopefully be two feet long, trophy fish that will draw angling tourists and their money to Orleans County.
For now, the 80,600 lake trout that were stocked off the Oak Orchard Harbor are about seven inches long. This morning they were hauled on a barge 2.1 miles from the harbor and released into Lake Ontario.
A sample of the lake trout are measured, and checked to see if a fin is clipped. The group includes, from left: Matt Sanderson, senior aquatic biologist for the DEC in Avon; and Mike Waterhouse, the county’s sportsfishing coordinator.
The fish were taken out where the lake is 150 feet deep. That is their preferred environment, and also avoids many of the predators, bigger fish and birds, that stalk the waters close to shore.
“If we stocked them off shore they’d have to run a 2-mile gauntlet to get through,” said Alan Mack, the Caledonia Fish Hatchery manager. “If we stocked them by the shore the chance of them getting eaten are pretty good.”
The lake trout that were released today were raised at the Allegheny National Fish Hatchery in Warren, Pa. The fish each had a fin clipped to show it was a hatchery-raised fish. A tiny tag in its snout will help the state Department of Environmental Conservation track it for survivability. The tag will note the fish was released near the Oak Orchard on May 22, 2013. It will also indicate one of three strains of lake trout: Lake Cayuga, Lake Chautauqua and Lake Champlain.
The fish are taken out 2.1 miles from shore and released into water that is 150 feet deep. That reduces the predators that are closer to shore. In this photo, the vessel carrying a truck of fish returns from the lake through the Oak Orchard Harbor.
DEC officials get ready to swap out this truck with another one, and then make the 2.1-mile trip out to the lake.
“It will help us know which ones survive more and have the highest catch-ability,” Mack said on the barge this morning.
The DEC has already stocked steelhead in Orleans County this spring, as well as a batch of pen-reared Chinook salmon. Next week more Chinook and brown trout will be stocked with cohoes put in the lake in the fall.
Fishing has a $12 million annual economic impact in Orleans County, according to county officials, with about $1 billion each year in the state, Mack said.
After a year in a fish hatchery in Warren, Pa, these lake trout are released into Lake Ontario.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 22 May 2013 at 12:00 am
POINT BREEZE – I don’t get out on the lake very often, maybe once a year. Today was one of those occasions.
I took a 2.1-mile ride on a barge carrying a truck full of 16,000 lake trout. I wrote about that earlier today. (Click here to see that article.)
I wanted to share a few more pictures from the trip, including a shot of the breakwall at the Oak Orchard Harbor and one of a guy fishing from the east pier. The other picture is a view from the back of the vessel while we head out to the lake.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 20 May 2013 at 12:00 am
Scientists from the Great Lakes Observing System were at Point Breeze on Saturday to send an autonomous underwater vehicle into Lake Ontario. Dick Anderson, a Point Breeze resident, sent us these photos of the AUV. The GLOS sent the vehicle into the lake for four hours to gather data about water temperatures and water quality. The GLOS is based in Ann Arbor, Mich.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 10 May 2013 at 12:00 am
ALBION – I heard the bell on the Main Street lift bridge a little after 9 this morning and headed out the door with my camera, just in time to get this boater passing underneath the bridge, working his way westward with his dog as a companion.There are 16 lift bridges along the canal, and Orleans County has seven of them. There are four in Niagara County and five in Monroe.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 8 May 2013 at 12:00 am
Photo by Tom Rivers
This double-rainbow appeared at about 8 p.m. today. I was at the Albion Village Board meeting and left the meeting to try to get a picture. I missed the double-rainbow at its peak. One rainbow shows up better than the other in this picture looking at the top of the United Methodist Church on Platt Street.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 4 May 2013 at 12:00 am
The 524-mile state canal system, which runs through Orleans County, officially opened today for its 189th season.
Canal village residents will soon be hearing the bells on the lift bridges, and tugboats, tenders and recreational boaters will be traveling along the iconic waterway.
Several official canal vessels, including the tender in the photo above, stay in Albion during the winter months. The tender is a working vessel on the canal.
The bell on the Main Street Lift Bridge in Albion is pictured in the photo below.
By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 30 April 2013 at 12:00 am
Photos by Tom Rivers
Jeff Robinson of Lyndonville spent the morning fishing in Johnson Creek with his daughters Alexa, center, and Brooke. Robinson said it’s a little early for the fish to bite, but he enjoyed the outdoors with his children. In the photo below, Alexa, right, and Brooke wait for a tug on their fishing line.
