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| July/August 2016
For six years running, Wetland Studies and Solutions, Inc. (WSSI), a Davey
company, has sponsored a fishing derby for children living among more than
9 miles of restored streams in Virginia.
WSSI celebrated its 6th Annual Kids Fishing Derby in March in Reston, Virginia,
where WSSI employees turned what had become little more than heavily eroded
drainage ditches into beautifully restored streams.
WSSI has been restoring streams with three separate watersheds in Reston,
home to nearly 60,000 residents, since 2003. The streams had become degraded
in large part due to uncontrolled storm water run-off, which led to the community's
lakes filling in with accumulated sediment – further eroding the community's
water quality.
Scott Petrey, senior associate engineer with WSSI, said the work has become
one of the largest stream restoration projects in the region. The fishing derby,
started in 2011, has become a welcome benefit.
"It's unique to any of our projects," Petrey said. "Kids love it. We love seeing
people enjoy the streams that we've restored. You don't get to see that on
every project."
Each spring, WSSI pays for and arranges delivery of over 400 trout from a private
hatchery. Volunteers from WSSI, Reston Association, Virginia Department of
Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF) and Northern Virginia Trout Unlimited (NVTU)
register participants, hand out rods and nets, help fish and even filet the catches
for the participants to take home for dinner that evening.
"It's a great event that we love being a part of and look forward to every year,"
Petrey said.
RESTORED STREAMS SPAWN FISHING DERBY
A total 276 children, plus their parents,
attended the 2016 fishing derby in March.
Children and their parents get a chance to
fish for trout in streams restored by Wetland
Studies and Solutions (WSSI), a Davey
company, in Reston, Virginia.
WSSI helped restore more than 9 miles of stream in Reston, Virginia.
WSSI sponsors an annual kids' trout fishing derby in the restored streams.
MY DAVEY
