SWCFFF NEWS

Many of you don’t know that the Southwest Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers (SWCFFF) was dormant for sometime. Well, we are back and starting to do some good things. One of the big projects that we have helped out with is the “Big Meadows Restoration Project.” Wayne Luallen, a member of the Kaweah Fly Fishers and a SWCFFF member, brought this project up to the SWCFFF asking for help. Wayne and his wife Donna live in Visalia and fish the Big Meadows Creek area for over 30 years. When Wayne noticed that the Big Meadows area was going down hill fast. Instead of saying “Oh well” and looking for another area to fish he took some action. Talking about it to other members of the Kaweah Fly Fishers one member spoke to Jayne Ferrante, a member of the Fly Fishers for Conservation group, about the problem in Big Meadows. Jayne Ferrante went to Roland Brady, Ph.D. from USC Fresno Earth Science and showed Roland the meadow and the damage that was being done. This was in the fall of 2003. After much time and effort The Big Meadows Project was completed in 2007 with other studies going on for three more years.

On the Deep Creek Website (deepcrekkflyfishers.org) you can see an aerial picture of the Big Meadows Creek drainage and read the article written by Jayne Ferrante about the restoration efforts that were done. Jayne Ferrante has worked for a total of four years writing grants and collecting other monies for the Big Meadows Restoration Project. There will be monitoring and data assimilation continuing on for three years, as well as wildlife studies and aquatic species studies going on until 2009. In June of 2009 there is a one-year anniversary party in the meadow planned.

The SWCFFF has been proud to help out with this project. Other things the SWCFFF has done is help out with a clean-up on the Kern River this last fall sponsored by Guy Jeans of the Kern River Fly Shop and a clean-up on Rush Creek this last summer sponsored by the Silver Lake Resort in June Lake. In the future the SWCFFF will be working with the Kern River Fly Fishers, Southern Sierra Flyfishers, and Aguabonita Flyfishers to help start a hatchery for the Kern River Rainbow. I’ll talk more about this project in the future.   

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