KINGSTON TWP. — As members of the Nanticoke Conservation Club worked in unison assembling 2-inch strips of hemlock boards into fish habitat structures, they were being watched.
For the last 15 years, the club has been meeting each July at Frances Slocum State Park to build porcupine cribs — pyramid-shaped wooden structures — and deposit them at the bottom of the lake to provide habitat for aquatic life.
It’s become an annual tradition for the club, which partners with the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission on the project, and on July 11 they built 20 porcupine cribs for the lake.
As club members popped nails into boards and methodically assembled several structures in unison, PFBC executive director Tim Schaeffer watched in amazement.
Schaeffer drove from Harrisburg earlier in the day to see the unique partnership between his agency and the Nanticoke club in action.
“Their dedication is impressive,” he said. “We wouldn’t be able to do a project like this without the club, and it’s a partnership that’s never been stronger.”
After the structures were assembled on the boat launch, a loader provided by the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources lifted them onto a PFBC boat. Concrete blocks fastened inside each structure allowed them to sink to the bottom at various points throughout the lake.
And it doesn’t take long for the benefits to surface.
“Panfish and smaller fish love the cover these structures provide, and when they congregate there it also attracts larger predatory fish, like bass and musky,” said Ben Page, a biologist with the PFBC.
Small fish are attracted to the narrow openings in the cribs, Page said, and they are part of an entire food chain that quickly forms around each structure. That’s why the cribs are intentionally placed in areas of the lake that are devoid of any cover.
“It’s basically a mud flat on the bottom. After these wood structures go in, a layer of algae will soon grow over it. That brings macroinvertebrates, which attracts minnows and then young bass and panfish, followed by the larger predator fish,” Page said. “It’s similar to the food chain you see develop around a beaver hut in a pond.”
In addition to the cribs, Page also cut several trees around the edge of the lake, allowing them to fall into the water and create additional habitat. The trees provide instant cover, he said, as fish seek refuge in the submerged leaves and branches. In several years, the branches decompose and a log remains, which is often used by turtles to bask in the sun.
The cribs, however, have a long lifespan as long as they are submerged. Page said structures deposited in other lakes as far back as 1988 have yet to decompose.
As an added benefit, the location of each structure is marked on a map, which the PFBC makes available to anglers on its website.
Schaeffer said the locations are hotspots for anglers, and making the locations available is part of the agency’s mission.
“We work on behalf of the anglers, and it’s their license dollars that fund projects like this,” he said. “It’s important to make it accessible to them.”
And for the members of the Nanticoke Conservation Club, it was important that the top PFBC official stopped by to see their dedication firsthand. To date, the club has built and deposited more than 100 fish habitat structures in the lake, and they plan on doing more next summer.
“It meant a lot to us that (Schaeffer) came here to witness what we do and see the benefits it provides to the lake,” said club member Joe Rutchauskas. “The fishing has improved and anglers are coming out here specifically targeting the cribs. We’re helping the fishery and fishing itself, and that’s why we do this work.”
– This story appeared in The Citizens’ Voice on July 28, 2019.
