Ernie Nester Chapter of Trout Unlimited Annual Contribution for Limestone
Steve Young, Past President of the Ernie Nester Chapter of Trout Unlimited (ENCTU), presented the WVDNR Commission with a $6,000 check from the ENCTU at their Quarterly Commission Meeting on February 12, 2017, in South Charleston, West Virginia. The money will be used to pay for limestone fines to improve pH stream water quality in West Virginia.
Each year the ENCTU through the Bucket Brigade outing places nearly ten tons of limestone sand into the headwaters of the Middle Fork of the Williams River in the Monongahela National Forest. The project improves water quality for brook trout, the state's official fish.
The purpose of the Bucket Brigade project is to improve the pH water quality of the Middle Fork of the Williams River, so brook trout will continue their resurgence after being absent from the watershed for over fifty years.
The stream is within a wilderness area, which means no machinery can be used to place the limestone in the river. Nearly ten tons of limestone sand was placed by hand using buckets carried by volunteers.
