Bucket o' fry on the river

Drew Ransom and his able assistant Matt Devine of the state fishery department work in the river.
Patrick L. Sullivan
Drew Ransom and his able assistant Matt Devine of the state fishery department work in the river.
Usually by mid-June I have shifted from tributariessuch as the Blackberry River, Macedonia Brook and Furnace Brook to the Housatonic itself.
But with the wettest May I can recall in the books, and June shaping up to be pretty soggy as well, the Hous has not been at a wading-friendly level in a while.
I’m not saying it can’t be done at 1000 cfs and above. I’m just saying I’m not going to do it.
So I’ve been in the Blackberry a lot. It’s convenient when I only have a couple of hours, and it’s been stocked three times this spring.
And while truck trout are somewhat easier to fool than their wild counterparts, the terrain of the Blackberry -- both in and around the water -- is pretty tricky.
So taken as a whole it’s a suitably challenging prospect.
One fine afternoon I was messing around just upstream of the bridge at Beckley Furnace, trying out a couple of rods I had forgotten about: a Cabelas CGR fiberglass 7.5 foot 5 or 6 weight, and a 6’10” Tenkara rod from Zen Tenkara.
The CGR line of fiberglass rods are a great value in my opinion. I have half a dozen of them, in line weights 2-8. None are longer than 7.5 feet. My favorite is the 6.5 foot 4 weight, an ideal tool for flicking flies at brook trout in close quarters.
(A quick check of the Cabelas website shows they currently only have the 7 foot 5 weight available.)
They list at $79.95, but I got most of mine when they were 50% off.
Which is just insane.
The Zen Tenkara rod is unusual. In the fixed-line world, a 10-footer is a shorty. Under seven feet is rare.
And Karin Miller, the courteous and popular proprietor of Zen Tenkara, specializes in big fish rods. They are sturdy and they are long.
So this model, the Hachi, stands out from the rest of the line.
Both the CGR, which I had rigged with a double tapered #5 line, and the Hachi, which had about 7 feet of #3 fluorocarbon level line plus tippet, are full flex rods. “Wiggly,” for the layman.
I was playing around with a dry-dropper rig on the fly rod and two wet flies and/or small weighted nymphs on the Hachi, and having a good time playing the 12-14 inch fish, mostly rainbows, when I beheld a couple of young men approaching with buckets.
“Dang,” I said. Buckets are never a good sign.
Well, almost never. In this case the bucket brigade was from the state fisheries department in the form of biologist Drew Ransom and his able assistant Matt Devine.
The buckets contained hundreds of brown trout fry, about six months old, that were essentially superfluous to the state hatchery’s requirements.
Hundreds of brown trout fry were planted in the Blackberry River.Patrick L. Sullivan
Ransom said the idea was to plant them in the Blackberry, from Beckley Furnace down to Route 7, and see what happens.
I suggested they would get eaten up pronto by the resident trout and the scientists agreed that was a likely scenario for most of the fry.
But a few might escape that fate and establish themselves.
Devine, eyeing a mini Wooly Bugger in a silvery-grey color I had on my line, opined that the fly would do an admirable job imitating the fry.
I agreed but I didn’t test the theory, at least not then and there. Too close to chumming.
The water temperature that day was 63 degrees and rising, not surprising since it was the middle of a two-day heat wave with air temps cracking 90.
A few days later, and after some additional rain, the water temp had dropped to about 60, but how long that will last is anyone’s guess.
Once water temperatures hit 68 it is time to stop fishing for trout. They have trouble breathing at 68 and above, and even if perfect catch and release practices are followed, they will be severely stressed by the time they are caught, played, netted, admired, had their photograph taken, and returned to the water. They probably won’t make it.
So I’m guessing we’re right about at the end of the practical trout season on the Blackberry until fall, when the water temps will be down again and the state’s stocking trucks return.
If you do go I recommend a dawn raid. The water temperature will be its lowest point and there won’t be anyone else around except fanatics like me.
And I am easily avoided. In fact, like a bear,I will go out of my way to avoid you.
Cobbler n’ Cream
5 to 7 p.m.
Freund’s Farm Market & Bakery | 324 Norfolk Rd.
Canaan Carnival
6 to 10 p.m.
Bunny McGuire Park
Canaan Carnival
6 to 10 p.m.
Bunny McGuire Park
Cocktail Party
5 to 7 p.m.
Douglas Library | 108 Main St.
Canaan Carnival
6 to 10 p.m.
Bunny McGuire Park
Boot Drive
8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
North Canaan Fire Co. | 4 E. Main St.
3rd Annual Fly-In
8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Triumph Airfield | 547 W. Main St.
Canaan Railroad Station Museum
10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Canaan Union Station
New England Accordion Connection
9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Canaan Union Station
Canaan Carnival
3 to 10 p.m.
Bunny McGuire Park
Berkshire Resilience Brass Band
5 to 8 p.m.
Canaan Union Station
Barbecued Chicken Dinner
5 to 7 p.m.
St. Martin of Tours | 4 Main St.
Canaan Fireman’s parade
6 p.m.
Rosa setigera is a native climbing rose whose simple flowers allow bees to easily collect pollen.
After moving to West Cornwall in 2012, we were given a thoughtful housewarming gift: the 1997 edition of “Dirr’s Hardy Trees and Shrubs.” We were told the encyclopedic volume was the definitive gardener’s reference guide — a fact I already knew, having purchased one several months earlier at the recommendation of a gardener I admire.
At the time, we were in the thick of winter invasive removal, and I enjoyed reading and dreaming about the trees and shrubs I could plant to fill in the bare spots where the bittersweet, barberry, multiflora rose and other invasive plants had been.Years later, I purchased the 2011 edition, updated and inclusive of plants for warm climates.
On the cover of the new edition, a quote from Adrian Higgins of The Washington Post boasts, “Michael Dirr is the oracle of ornamental horticulture. I trust his judgements implicitly.”I heartily disagree with Mr. Higgins:I blame this book — and my poor use of it — for some of my worst tree and shrub choices.
I realize some readers might find this declaration inflammatory. The book still occupies a place of high regard among experienced and novice gardeners alike, so please allow me to explain.
In addition to giving the reader his opinion on the aesthetic worthiness of the woody plants included in the book, Mr. Dirr makes good on the book’s title with a review of each species’ hardiness. What makes a tree hardy?It thrives in its intended site, resisting disease with leaves and bark not readily eaten by insects and other critters.
Non-native plants make up the majority of the recommended hardy plants in the book.And here is why:Native trees and shrubs are, by evolution’s design, food source and host to our native fauna — critters large and small. There is no substitute equal to the fauna’s co-evolved flora.A native caterpillar cannot eat a kousa dogwood leaf, as it has not evolved to digest it.Non-native plants seemingly have the advantage if the lens we look through values pristine, uneaten leaves.
In the days when there were sufficient thriving ecosystems to maintain local habitats, a non-native specimen tree here and there was just fine.But where we live in Northwest Connecticut, our woods, meadows, marshes and other natural areas have, for a couple of decades, been severely compromised by invasives that have almost entirely removed the food sources for native insects. It is up to us — now — to plant native plants to save the food chain.Without insects, not only will native animals die, but human food sources will also be at risk.
The security of our food pipeline seems a worthy exchange for some caterpillar-eaten leaves — and to be clear, we’re not talking about non-native infestations such as spongy moth, but rather native caterpillars, which are the singular food source for nesting birds.
My issue is that, in being a trusted source for plant selection, Dirr’s book should give equal — if not prioritized — space to information on ecological impact.For example, it would be good to know when selecting a tree, that a native oak provides food and other ecosystem services to more than 400 native animal species, while a native tulip poplar supports fewer than 30 — though that includes the Eastern tiger swallowtail. Including information on the birds and insects attracted to a given plant would enable reader to weigh these factors in choosing what to grow.But this information is not mentioned at all.
Dirr makes no mention of the role some of these plants have played in the degradation of our natural areas — an omission that is highly relevant, as many of the plants featured in his book are, in fact, invasive culprits. Plants like barberry, porcelain berry and tree of heaven are showcased for consideration alongside native plants without recognition of the devastating infestations they can manifest. Tree of Heaven is now responsible for hosting the spotted lanternfly, which is devastating crops.
Similarly Euonymous alatus (winged euonymous) and Actinidia arguta (hardy kiwi) — two highly invasive plants touted in the book — have been banned or are close to being banned for sale from nurseries in the state of Massachusetts. To his credit, Dirr does point out the invasive nature of Ligustrum sinense (Chinese privet), calling it “a terrible and devastating escapee that terrorizes floodplains, fencerows and even open fields, reducing native vegetation to rubble.” Yet Japanese honeysuckle gets an understated warning, with Dirr describing this massively invasive shrub as “bullying their way into understory and open areas.”
The latest edition of Dirr’s book devotes seven pages of copy and photos to various Berberis species, about which Dirr waxes poetic. He notes the addition of “30 new cultivars” in the latest revision and complains that “this species is under assault for its aggressive invasive nature.” He refers to Berberis thunbergii — Japanese barberry, the most invasive of them all — as “the species of major importance in garden commerce.” This plant has already been outlawed for sale in New York, Pennsylvania, New Hamphsire and Maine.A few weeks ago, a bill was passed in Connecticut recognizing the harm of a broad group of invasive plants. Under this new legislation, barberry will be phased out from sale or transport by October 2028.
In understating the invasive nature of many non-natives and de-prioritizing the importance of native species, Dirr’s widely used reference may be partly responsible for many a devastated woodland, forest, meadow and marsh in New England — if not across the U.S.Certainly, the evolution of species, and scientific knowledge about the environment, is changing faster than new editions of books can be printed. I can only hope that if a new edition of Mr. Dirr’s reference book is in the works that it will account for this criteria we now know to be vital in plant selection.
Which brings me back to that quote on the cover from The Washington Post and the larger issue it suggests:Should “ornamental horticulture” get a pass when it comes to ecological survival?I think we can agree — it should not.The consequences are simply too destructive.
Dee Salomon ‘ungardens’ in Litchfield County.
Foxtrot Farm & Flowers’ historic barn space during UAW’s 2024 exhibition entitled “Unruly Edges.”
Art lovers, mark your calendars. The sixth edition of Upstate Art Weekend (UAW) returns July 17 to 21, with an exciting lineup of exhibitions and events celebrating the cultural vibrancy of the region. Spanning eight counties and over 130 venues, UAW invites residents and visitors alike to explore the Hudson Valley’s thriving creative communities.
Here’s a preview of four must-see exhibitions in the area:
1. Wassaic Project (37 Furnace Bank Road, Wassaic)
“So It Goes” is a powerful group exhibition curated by Eve Biddle, Bowie Zunino, Jeff Barnett-Winsby, and Will Hutnick. The title, drawn from Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five,” signals a reckoning with how we process the horrors of the world. Through play, reflection, and immersive scale, 43 artists respond with urgency and imagination. Installations can be seen throughout the town of Wassaic at Maxon Mills, Gridley Chapel, and Luther Barn, each space transformed by this deeply thoughtful show.
2. Foxtrot Farm & Flowers (6862 Route 82, Stanfordville)
“Queer Bestiary,” a group show curated by Charlotte Woolf, is inspired by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian’s book “Forest Euphoria.” The exhibition investigates queer ecology and human relationship to land through the work of 10 artists using painting, sculpture, textiles, and photography. The exhibit is accompanied by a variety of interactive experiences including tattoo pop-ups, karaoke, book readings, and pick-your-own flowers.
3. ChaShaMa North/ChaNorth (2600 Route 199, Pine Plains)
ChaShaMa North (ChaNorth) will have open studios all weekend and has partnered with Paradice Palase, a platform for emerging artists, to mount a site-specific sculpture exhibition featuring 20 artists entitled “Alone, You Are Heard.” On Saturday evening, July 19, stop by for Weird Music Night for an audio-visual synthesis of experimental music, performance art, and unexpected happenings. Don’t miss this opportunity to experience an eclectic lineup of acts that redefine the boundaries of performance.
4. Millbrook Arts Project(3 Friendly Lane, Millbrook)
The Millbrook Arts Project is hosting a curated exhibit entitled “Generated Utility” at the newly renovated gallery at the village library. The exhibit will feature the work of artists Natalie Beall and Kathy Greenwood. Additionally, visitors will have access to 12 open artists studios across town. The weekend culminates in a free outdoor concert on Saturday evening at 6 p.m. at the Millbrook Bandshell. Enjoy the Indie-Folk sounds of Strawberry Runners and She Keeps Bees.
For more information and a complete list of participating artists and locations, visit: upstateartweekend.org