THE STREAMER NEWSLETTER

Streamer: Summer 2000

In the days when Native American fish weirs were the only obstructions in the Charles, the river flowed unrestricted into a tidal estuary with Atlantic seawater pulsing back and forth with the daily tides. Each year, adult Atlantic salmon migrated from Quebec into freshwater rivers across New England, entering the Charles, Merrimack, Westfield and Connecticut river basins.

Although Atlantic salmon no longer migrate into the Charles River, the lower Charles River does support several anadromous fish runs. (Anadromous fish enter freshwater from the sea to spawn.) Some migratory species include American shad, American eel, blueback herring and alewife. In the last several months, thousands of adult blueback herring and alewife (collectively known as river herring) have begun their migratory obstacle course. Traveling in schools, river herring have entered the locks of the New Charles River Dam, hoping to migrate as far upstream as possible to reproduce and lay hundreds of thousands of eggs.

Hopes of traveling far are faint. Unlike in Native American times when the river was free-flowing, the lower basin of the Charles River today contains a series of dams which have created man-made barriers to natural fish migration and passage. The engineering solution was to create a series of fish ladders at these dams to allow passage upstream. Unfortunately, a number of the existing fish ladder facilities on the Lower Charles River are now impassable. Some of the problems include broken wooden baffles, damaged gates and trash racks, and an accumulation of river debris.

In its continuing effort to restore the river ecology, the Charles River Watershed Team of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs has received $50,000 in state funding from its Watershed Initiative for the "Lower Charles River Fishway Restoration Project". This project will repair and upgrade non-functional fish ladders on six dams from Watertown Dam upstream to Cordingly Dam in Wellesley.

The objectives of this fishway restoration project will be to:

• re-open nine river miles of critical fish migration and spawning habitat for river herring;
• create a sustained fishway passage maintenance plan;
• install new interpretive fishway signage for the public;
• examine possible breaching of the Watertown Dam and Bleachery Dam in Waltham to restore riverine habitats and improve fish movement and passage.

During the next several months, the Watershed Team will be working in tandem with the Metropolitan District Commission, MA Division of Marine Fisheries, Fisheries & Wildlife (Rivers Restore Program), CRWA, and Stream Teams to move this project forward.

The Charles River supports one of the largest river herring runs in Massachusetts Bay and is being used as a donor population for restoration efforts in the Neponset and Ipswich Rivers. The spawning run of anadromous fish has been part of our natural history for hundreds of years and continues as a popular springtime feature in coastal Massachusetts. The repair of the fish ladders is vital to restoring fish migration routes and maintaining a healthy river ecosystem.