Making Fish Data More Accessible
Submitted by hat3 on Tue, 10/23/2018 - 11:45
As a fisheries biologist with the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department (NHFG), I often get asked questions about the fish species that live in the state. It might be a student working on a school project or someone from a conservation organization working on a watershed management plan. University researchers, environmental regulators, anglers, land trusts, and conservation commissions have all requested fish data for a variety of reasons since I started with the department in 2004.
This fall I’ve been slowing down a lot to allow squirrels and deer to cross the road. On rainy nights next spring I’ll stop to help frogs and salamanders cross and then come June I’ll help turtles. Animals move. For a variety of reasons. Depending on the species and time of year they may be looking for food, a mate, a place for their young, etc. The path they move along may not always be easy.
As a child, I followed my Mom and Dad into the woods on all sorts of different adventures. I often participated in hobbies that my Dad enjoyed as a way to connect and spend time with him. My Dad taught me about photography, hiking, skiing and canoeing. As he got older, fly-fishing became nearly an obsession for him, and so, as a dutiful daughter, a fly fisherman I became. 
Over the past few months, I have been noticing an abundance of white pine cones in the trees around Carroll county. Rather than producing consistent crops of seeds every year, white pine has good seed years every three to five years, with fewer seeds produced in the intervening years.