I drove across the nation once this summer, so I decided to fly east for “round two.” I am always amazed at how fast one can get from Bozeman to Washington D.C. It is a small country when you travel at several hundred miles per hour!

While the flight was quick, it took me ten hours to drive from D.C. to Connecticut. The traffic in Northern New Jersey was horrendous. I got a dose of what it is like to be an east coast commuter. Yuck.

I finally made it to Lakeville, CT, a vacation hamlet for city folks who are sick of their commutes. Kirt Mayland, the director of TU’s Eastern Water Project, grew up in this southern bastion of New England. After a stint in New York City, Kirt returned to Lakeville where he works out of his small but charming home, surrounded by hardwood forest. Kirt specializes in water law and his knowledge has been invaluable to TU’s cause in New England.

I always assumed that water law was almost entirely a western issue. There is a lot more water and a lot less demand for irrigation in the east. This assumption is incorrect and it is becoming less true every day.

Increased development is catching up with the amount of available fresh water. Heavy withdrawal from underground aquifers is affecting the quantity of surface water. Small streams are drying up. These streams are important habitat for amphibians, insects, and fish. They provide the cold water that trout depend on.

Archaic dams and water diversions also leave streams dry. Some utility companies stubbornly refuse to adopt the best available technology, exacerbating the impacts of water withdrawal.

Of course, more water provides more habitat for fish and other creatures. But healthy water flows are also important to mitigate the impacts of chemicals and excess nutrient loads. As they say, “dilution is the solution to water pollution.” The negative effects of golf courses, roads, and malfunctioning septic tanks are more pronounced when water flows are low.

Of course, folks need roads and septic tanks and they like their putting greens and lush lawns. With a little imagination, forethought, and commitment, we can conserve enough water to take care of both trout and people.

This is the crux of Kirt’s job. Kirt works with policymakers and utility companies to enact legislation that keeps water in the streams and provides realistic water conservation goals.

Rather than simply setting a minimum base flow, TU advocates restoring the natural hydrograph. Seasonal variations in flow are a crucial, but often overlooked, component of stream health.

Healthy streams mean more trout. And anglers aren’t the only ones who should care about more trout. Sensitive native species such as brook trout are important indicators of high water quality and an intact ecosystem. Even those people who think trout are just “icky, slimy fish” should be glad that their kids’ drinking water is pure.

Kirt and the other TUers working on New England water law have been highly successful. They have pushed legislation in Connecticut, Vermont, Maine, and Massachusetts.

I’d rather bang my head against the wall than deal with politics all day, so I am particularly impressed by Kirt’s successes! We all benefit when hard working folks like Kirt are using the political system to improve the future for our streams.

This is just the first of many blog entries about the Northeast, so “stay TUned.” Tomorrow I’ll write about searching for an undocumented population of native brook trout in a small Connecticut stream as well as fishing on the Housatonic River.