Re:  “Can there be too much of a good thing?”

 Surely the cold water from the Pepacton Reservoir has changed the nature of the East Branch of the Delaware. It destroyed a natural river, really, and replaced it with an abnormally cold, cold water stream.  I would add a thought as to what may have reduced the insect life in the stream, based on my personal experience with the upper Beaverkill.

 When I was growing up alongside the Beaverkill many years ago, the stream was teeming with both insect life and a variety of fish (brook and brown trout—BIG browns, suckers, smallmouth bass, eels, etc.)  At that time, there were half a dozen streamside dairy farms, a streamside slaughterhouse and a primary sewage treatment (little, if any treatment) plant, all of which contributed to “fertilizing” the stream.  

Today, things are different:  farms/slaughterhouses and sewage treatment facilities are gone.  And so are the insects and the healthy fish population.  My grandson and I fished the Beaverkill in Rockland in the summer and saw damn few trout (no biggies) or other fish, and little evidence of insect life.

Hmmm. Could the fertile waters of the Beaverkill have become sterile? Something to ponder on.

Lloyd Barnhart
West Sand Lake, NY