Applicability and Management Objectives. The overall management goal of the Habitat Protection Program (HPP) is to protect the cold water fishery while maintaining aquatic community diversity, structure, and function through improved ecological flow releases. A series of four categorical protection levels for describing cold water ecosystem management objectives for waters downstream of the City Delaware Basin Reservoirs was developed by New York and Pennsylvania fishery managers and is shown on Plate 1. These protection levels apply in non-drought years and are defined as follows: Excellent: Excellent year-round cold water aquatic habitat protection. Summer water temperatures are routinely 68ºF or less and only very rarely exceed a daily maximum of 75ºF. Excellent protection level applies to the West Branch Delaware River from Cannonsville Reservoir to the junction with the East Branch Delaware River, the East Branch Delaware River from Pepacton Reservoir to the hamlet of East Branch, N.Y., and Neversink River from Neversink Reservoir to Bridgeville, N.Y. Good: River section provides cold water aquatic habitat and thermal protection and maintains opportunities for a cold water fishery. Summer water temperatures will occasionally exceed a daily maximum of 75ºF for short periods and water temperatures greater than 68ºF occur more frequently than with the Excellent protection level. Elevated temperatures will occasionally be an issue. Good protection level applies to the Delaware River main stem from the junction of the West and East Branches to Lordville, N.Y. and the Neversink River from Bridgeville, N.Y. to the mouth of Eden Brook near Oakland Valley, N.Y. Moderate: River sections will experience adequate flow and some thermal protection for cold water species. Seasonal opportunities for a cold water fishery will occur, but thermal benefits will diminish. Moderate protection level applies to the East Branch Delaware River from East Branch, N.Y. to the mouth of Corn Creek near Peas Eddy, N.Y., the Neversink River from the mouth of Eden Brook near Oakland Valley, N.Y. to the Xxxxxxxx/Orange County, N.Y. boundary, and the Delaware River main stem from Lordville, N.Y. to Hankins, N.Y. Minimal: River sections with this designation will experience adequate flow, but only limited thermal protection. The quality of the fishery will be generally seasonal and will vary from year to year. Flows should be adequate to allow trout to reach cold water refugia and to protect dwarf wedgemussel populations in the...
