Fish Ladder Tour in the Watershed

VISITING FISH LADDERS

By Kirstie Jones

To see a map of the dams and fish ladders we toured click on this link.

Having just started interning at the NSRWA this past week, I was lucky enough to be able to accompany NSRWA staff as they met with fisheries biologists at several fish ladders in the area this past Tuesday. On this blustery but sunny fall morning we visited sites at Herring Brook in Pembroke, Veteran’s Park next to 139 in Marshfield, Chandler’s Pond, and two at the First Herring Brook Scituate Water Treatment Plant.

First Photo - New fish ladder Glover Mill Pond Dam on the Herring Brook, Pembroke

At our first site we met up with biologists from the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game to examine a fish ladder that had been recently constructed in conjunction with a new dam in Herring Brook. Unlike the makeshift wood ladder that had originally been in place next to the old dam, this new Alaskan Steeppass ladder has much greater potential to aid fish passage during the herring spring migration. The dam, which creates a pond that serves a cranberry bog upstream, needed partial repairs and the fish ladder was completely rebuilt during the repair process. Prior to this project the dam was completely impassable for migrating fish and volunteers helped physically net the fish and transport them to trucks where they were driven upstream.

Second Photo: Sara Grady and Kirstie Jones from the NSRWA, Brad Chase, Ed Clarke and Louis from Division of Marine Fisheries, Phil Costello Contractor at the newly installed fish ladder and repaired dam at the Gorham Mill Pond in Pembroke on the Herring Brook.

As we saw on this trip, fish ladders are essential for giving fish a migratory route over most dams. There is resistance to removing dams, which would be an easier and environmentally-preferable solution, due to aesthetic, economic, and historical reasons. At the second site we visited, Veteran’s Memorial Park Dam on the South River, we learned that during the wedding season, (May - July), wooden boards in the dam are put in to raise the level of the pond for aesthetic purposes. This causes all the river’s flow to be directed down the fish ladder, making it impossible for fish to pass. The NSRWA, the Marshfield Conservation Agent, and the state fisheries biologists discussed recommendations for the park keepers to remove the boards for a certain period of time during the spring to allow the fish to pass and to stop flows out of a secondary pipe that exits the pond to avoid distracting the fish from heading for the ladder.

Third Photo: South River Veteran's park fish ladder and dam

At our next site upstream of the Veteran’s Park dam on the South River we visited the Chandler’s Pond Dam. No fish ladder currently exists, but during this meeting the possibility was discussed of constructing a new fish ladder in conjunction with a new bridge that is being planned on the site. The state biologists pointed out that from an engineering standpoint it would not be too difficult to incorporate these two projects so hopefully a new bridge for humans and a new ladder for fish will be the result of this project.

Fourth Photo: Dam at Chandler pond - not a likely candidate for fish passage!

Fifth Photo: Spillway at Chandler Pond - Potential site for fish ladder

Our final stop was in my hometown of Scituate on the First Herring Brook which is part of the town’s water supply. During our visit to the water treatment plant and the Old Oaken Pond Dam I learned a lot about how town water is managed and how this can affect fish. Because the water levels have to be kept at a certain height in the reservoir, this often prevents the fish ladder from functioning at the levels it needs for the fish to migrate. However, with the cooperation of the Scituate Water Department it looks as if previous problems have been resolved and this spring the dam and ladder will be managed so as to let fish pass. During the summer we still need to work on conserving or finding new water to have enough water in the late summer and fall for the fish to migrate back out of the system.

Sixth Photo: First Herring Brook Old Oaken Bucket fish ladder and spillway
At the second Scituate fish ladder that we visited there is a lot more work to be done. This old ladder that accompanies the dam at Scituate’s larger reservoir on the First Herring Brook has some structural problems such as steep steps as well as debris blockage. Plans were made for local water department employees to work with state fisheries representatives to clear this debris to see if it is possible to return the ladder to some functioning capacity.

Seventh Photo: Reservoir First Herring Brook fish ladder

After trips to all these sites, I am far more aware of the many issues that surround dams and fish migration. I believe that many people, myself included, pass the man made ponds and reservoirs in this area and simply think of how beautiful they look, but we must also be aware of the repercussions our dams have on the fish that have been using these rivers and streams long before we were around to alter them for our convenience.

"What is a Watershed Association?" (Interning)

As an intern at NSRWA, I have been asked this question a lot in the last couple months. Trying to explain what I do is not always easy, seeing as I have a lot of different things on the agenda in a given day. I usually just say "Oh, its about the environment." or "We do stuff with rivers and water." You, lucky readers, get to know what it actually means. So here we go;

In the mornings, I go to Scituate and get to spend a lovely bit of time doing stream observations. This involved going to two stream locations and reading gauges, taking some other measurements (temperature and dissolved oxygen) and generally commenting on the habitat I see. "Is there water flowing?", "Is there vegetation?" and the like. I have been startled by a large bird flying out from under the bridge at Old Oaken Bucket and have found a poor fish thrashing about on the rocks mid-stream trying to find water again, to name a few of the not-so-common events.

The observations I do will help with the First Herring Brook Restoration Project, which is aimed at allowing Herring to return to these areas in which they once thrived through efforts to restore the habitat. This involves working with the Scituate Water Department and trying to restore consistent, more natural flows in the streams controlled by the water system. (http://www.nsrwa.org/Page.109.html)

I also get to do Greenscapes activities, which are really fun! I was able to go into 5th grade classrooms at the start of the summer with the Water All Around program (http://www.nsrwa.org/Page.137.html) and teach kids about pollution in watersheds-where it comes from, how it gets into the water, and what we can do to help prevent it. The kids were very cute and had a lot to contribute. The parent volunteers also learned a lot from the different stations we set up and the kids got to go on field trips as part of the program.

Now that its the summer, I have been going to farmers markets all around the South Shore promoting Greenscapes (http://www.greenscapes.org/). This past weekend I went to the Pembroke Farmer's Market where I got to sip on some homemade iced tea and see a belly dancer perform while handing out information on how to save water and keep a healthy, beautiful lawn over the summer! I met some interesting people and got to share information on native plants, lawn mowing tips, and more ways to help your lawn survive.

Those times when I'm in the office, I am working on data that relate to water conservation. I work on figuring out where all the water a town pumps is going, who is using it, and when people use the most water. The watering ban put into effect this summer in Scituate is part of my focus, and I am doing analyses to see if it has had an impact on reducing the towns water use. Number crunching is never a thrilling task, but knowing that the information I am working with will be used to inform future policy is really exciting.

So, there you have it! A little bit of ecology, a little bit of outreach, some statistics, some teaching, and a whole lot of Watershed fun- that is what it means to intern at the Watershed Association.

Shellfish, Herring and Clean Up Day Oh MY!

To say we have been busy would be an understatement! In face instead of writing this blog entry I should be doing some accounting for the NSRWA but alas I don't like do accounting. SO let me catch you blog readers up on the latest goings on around here....

South River Shellfish Beds Opened for the First time in 20 Years!

April 15th 2011 the Mass Division of Marine Fisheries officially declared the South River's water quality clean enough to shellfish in - which means it is clean enough to eat! The last time these shellfish beds were open to the public was 20 years ago. It has taken two decades of work to clean the river up to reach this milestone. Years of advocating for sewers, upgraded septic systems, better stormwater management have finally paid off. We aren't finished yet - they shellfish beds are open until May 30th - we want them open for the whole season. And only a section of the river nearest the mouth has been opened. The remaining pollution is largely stormwater but also some residual septic system problems in the Kent Park area of Marshfield. We won't stop until it is clean and open year round. To find out more about the South River shellfish beds that have been recently opened visit our website.

Herring Brigade on the Herring River in Pembroke

We called upon our volunteers to help the herring and they responded in force! Approximately 35 volunteers have now moved over 10,000 herring past a broken fish ladder on the Herring Brook in Pembroke. The fish ladder broke originally in 2006 when a downstream dam blew out in heavy rains. The downstream dam was not rebuilt as it was not needed any longer and would have been quite expensive - like $500,000 to rebuild. The Herring Brook reformed itself where that pond was but it left the fish ladder upstream too far above the elevation of the new water level. The Division of Marine Fisheries made a temporary repair to the ladder which lasted until two years ago when more heavy rains destroyed the temporary fish ladder. Meanwhile from 2006 on the state was searching for the $250,000 it will need to fix not only the fish ladder but repair the dam that the fish ladder will sit on. Thankfully there was funding from habitat mitigation for damages due to the installation of the Hub gasline in Boston Harbor. We are not sure if we are happy or sad about that. Anyway it seems like a pretty unsustainable way to run the fishery. The volunteers helped this year class of fish to be able to spawn this year. Here is a video of this amazing feat of nature (and the helpful hands of our volunteers).

Clean Up Day This Saturday - April 30th 10 am - 12 noon

This is our 24th year hosting this annual rite of spring - cleanning up the areas around the rivers before the boating season is really underway. We need your help - and your pick up truck if you got one! Please visit our website and pick a station closest to your home. We will supply you with bags and take away the trash. You then can join us for a great cookout - sponsored by Whole Foods - at the Driftway park in Scituate. You also will have one last chance to buy a kayak raffle ticket before we draw the winner!

Cleaner Water for Shellfishing - Prospects Brighten for Opening South River Shellfish Beds

The ability to harvest shellfish locally is a clear measure of the health of our rivers and their water quality. It also happens to be a great New England family tradition. Getting out your waders and clam rake, searching for clam holes, getting all mucky and then enjoying the fruits of your labors is one of the greatest pleasures of living on the coast and a great way to introduce your kids to the importance of keeping our water clean.

Both the North and South Rivers have extensive shellfish beds near the mouth of the rivers but due to degraded water quality they were closed to recreational harvest in 1988. In 1995 the North River shellfish beds were re-opened after a campaign led by the NSRWA to clean up water quality. That campaign led to water quality improvements which allowed for limited opening of the shellfish beds in the winter months, when bacteria are not as likely to reproduce as quickly. Since then water quality in the North River has improved such that we now have the shellfish beds open for recreational harvest from December 1 – June 30 as long as water quality results continue to come back clean.

Ultimately, our goal is have the shellfish beds open year-round (only the truly hard core want to shellfish in the winter!). Over the last decade and a half the NSRWA with the towns of Marshfield and Scituate have worked on improving water quality through increased stormwater treatment, upgrading septic systems to comply with Title V and most importantly in Marshfield…extending the sewer system to properties along the South River from Old Colony Lane to the intersection of Rtes 139 and 3A. The passage of the extension the sewer in Marshfield in 2000 and its subsequent completion in December 2004 has led to significant decreases in bacterial counts in the waters of the South River. For the past several years the Division of Marine Fisheries has been taking samples in the South River and I am pleased to report on a recent email exchange with the state Division of Marine Fisheries regarding the South River Shellfish beds.

The very good news is that if we are successful in keeping bacterial counts within acceptable limits–still an important “if”!–the Division has confirmed to me its intention to open the shellfish beds on a seasonal basis next year. The Division’s area biologist speaks for all of us in saying to me that “I think there is a good resource there that the people of Scituate and Marshfield should be able to enjoy.”

But problems remain, and for the shellfish beds to be reopened year round further improvements are necessary. This year, the Town received federal stimulus funding to track down where some of the remaining bacteria in the river might be coming from, and then use that data to find the best places in town to control runoff.

The NSRWA and Mass. Bays program were in charge of sampling and the funding allowed us to hire 4 interns to help us trace the remaining bacteria sources this past summer. As we expected, the places with high wet weather bacteria counts were generally in the downtown area due to the high impervious surface coverage. There is also less flushing from the tides in that part of the river. We saw high counts in the area near Willow Street and the pipe that comes out just upstream of the Willow Street Bridge. Among other locations, we also found high bacteria in the stream that runs next to the Dairy Queen, which receives runoff from a very large area of downtown to the west including much of the Webster Street shopping area. The next step in the project is for the NSRWA and the Town to decide where and how to control these newly identified sources of pollution. Preliminary designs are being developed by engineers to control the runoff from these areas and will be presented to the public in the spring of 2011. After that we hope to apply for more funding to assist the town of Marshfield to construct the designs.

The good news for now is that as of December 1, 2010 until June 30, 2011 unless notified otherwise you can recreationally harvest shellfish from the North River (with a permit from Scituate or Marshfield). We hope that the testing this spring and winter shows good water quality results and that the South River clam flats will also be open soon for you and your children to enjoy and have some clam chowder for lunch!

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The North and South Rivers Watershed Association is a non-profit organization that focuses on the preservation, restoration, maintenance and conservation of the North and South Rivers and their watersheds. For membership information, contact NSRWA at (781) 659-8168 or visit www.nsrwa.org

Samantha Woods, Executive Director

Hot Spots and Low Flows

NSRWA Summer Sampling Finds Bacterial Hot Spots and Low Flows

The North & South Rivers Watershed Association concluded their 14^th year of River Watch Sampling, a volunteer driven water quality monitoring program at the end of the summer. Trained volunteers take water samples and readings of temperature, salinity, conductivity, and dissolved oxygen at ten sites along the North & South Rivers and the Scituate waste treatment plant. The results of the sampling provide the NSRWA with long-term baseline information on the health of our rivers’ water quality and encourages new groups of volunteers to become citizen scientists. This summer we had sixteen volunteers, ranging from high school students to retirees, help to gather this incredibly valuable information. In this era of budget cuts, for the most part local groups like the NSRWA are the only entity monitoring the health of our rivers!

Bacteria in our rivers

The results this year, not surprisingly, indicated low bacteria most likely due to the lack of rain and thus no storm runoff pollution. The NSRWA continues to see persistently high bacteria counts at the Willow St Bridge site on the South River in Marshfield and at the Washington Street Bridge site in Hanover/Pembroke on the North River. To provide more insight as to the origin of these persistent higher bacterial counts at Willow Street, the NSRWA, in partnership with the Town of Marshfield and the Massachusetts Bays program and with federal grant funding conducted in-depth sampling on the South River over the summer. We hope to have a presentation of those results at a workshop over the winter in Marshfield along with potential solutions for reducing those sources of pollution. In Hanover, the NSRWA has begun talks with the DPW on what the potential sources of contamination at the Washington St. Bridge could be and if there is any potential funding to further investigate it. One theory is that wildlife may be contributing, due to the large wetland system just upstream where the Indian Head and Herring Brook meet to form the headwaters of the North River.

Streams run dry

In addition to our annual water quality sampling, volunteers continued to monitor streamflows in the First and Third Herring Brooks. This summer was a particularly dry one and both brooks experienced many no-flow days. Both of these brooks feed municipal water supplies and both have several dams on them. Dammed parts of the First Herring Brook provide water to Scituate and groundwater wells near the Third Herring Brook provide water to Norwell and Hanover. Conservationists are becoming increasingly concerned that the doubling of water use in the summer and dams that are not managed to allow flow downstream during these low flow periods is resulting in dry streambeds.

The chart below is data collected from this summer on the First Herring Brook in Scituate between the upstream reservoir and the Old Oaken Bucket Pond. As you can see the flow ranges from 0 cubic feet per second (cfs) to over 5 cfs. The extremes in flow are caused by how the reservoir is managed. The town of Scituate holds water in the upper reservoir, thus streamflow goes to zero, then shuttles water from the reservoir to the Old Oaken Bucket pond via the brook to replenish the supply. The NSRWA is working with the town to identify a way to have more natural releases that would allow some water in the stream at all times and accommodate the town’s water needs. Clearly, summertime water conservation would help Scituate to have more flexibility in managing the brook to sustain a minimum level of stream health.

The bacteria sampling program runs through early June through late August. Our streamflow measuring program is year-round. We are enabled to conduct the bacteria sampling because of a generous anonymous donor every year. If you are interested in volunteering please let us know. We are always looking for a fresh group of citizen scientists to lend a hand.

A good explanation of why it's important to save water

Over the past few years, the NSRWA has gotten more deeply involved in issues of water quantity in our watershed communities. Between our work in the First Herring Brook trying to balance municipal and ecological water demand, to the 5th grade watershed education program, to the current Greenscapes Water Use Challege, we're trying to get the word out that saving water is important to our local streams and rivers.

The staff here are occasionally asked why it's important to save water. After all, once the water gets used, doesn't it end up back in the water cycle somehow, either by evaporating or soaking back into the ground? The key here is balance. In many cases, water is getting used in excess quantities a) at times of year when there is not as much water available (i.e. summer) b) in ways that do not replenish groundwater and surface water supplies.

This recent article from Slate does a great job of explaining why it's important to save water and reduce certain types of usage. After you read it, think about how you can reduce your own water usage, and keep an eye out for the NSRWA's various initiatives regarding water conservation.

New England Coast *Invaded* By Scientists!

I just got back from an 8-day trip surveying docks and rocky intertidal sites in Rhode Island (5 sites), Massachusetts (9 sites), New Hampshire (3 sites), and Maine (3 sites) for marine invasive species. The typical field day started at 7:30am and ended around 3:30pm, during which we visited 3 docks (or 1 intertidal site and 2 docks) and collected specimens. Then we brought the specimens back to the lab and sorted through them until about 8:30pm or so. Long, but fun days. My job in the field was to take water quality measurements (dissolved oxygen, salinity, and temperature) and later in the trip I also helped a fellow scientist, Niels, with amphipod and isopod collection. (Both are the "shrimpies" that you see swimming around in the water with you, often hanging onto algae. Amphipods are compressed side-side [laterally] and isopods are compressed top-bottom [dorso-ventrally].) In the lab, my job was to identify polychaete worms. By the end I had ID'ed 15 different (native) species in 9 different families! There weren't any newsworthy invasive finds on this trip, which is a good thing.

UPDATE (August 19)! There was a newsworthy find, apparently. I spoke too soon. A European shrimp, the "Rock Pool Prawn" (Palaemon elegans) was found in Salem. This species is a predator of small crustaceans in its native habitat back in England. Although the impacts here aren't known, its presence could result in a depletion of the local herbivorous invertebrate population, which would then result in an overgrowth of algae.

What follows are some photos from the trip. As you will see, the long days were worth it, because we did get to go to some really beautiful places. If you're interested in looking for marine invasives right here at home (in our own beautiful places) I conduct surveys in July and August around the South Shore - join me! (They're not nearly as intense, I assure you.)

My typical dock setup, with two water quality meters, a bucket with a Secchi disk to measure water clarity, and my trusty backpack (w/ trusty sunscreen)

Fort Adams State Park, Newport, RI (looking away from the fort and towards the bridge)

Popes Island Marina, New Bedford, MA - Not our cleanest site, but it looks pretty here!

Everyone busy on the docks at Mass Maritime Academy, Buzzards Bay, MA (we later got to see the training ship "Kennedy" come back to port after time in dry dock!)

The lab at Brown University where we worked for three nights (and scientists like Jim Carlton, in the foreground)

Brewers Marine, Plymouth, MA (the only South Shore site!)

Rowe's Wharf, Boston, MA

Rocky shore, Rye, NH

UNH Coastal Marine Lab, Newcastle, NH - there were lots of herring swimming around here, being attacked by stripers from below and terns from above

My station in the Harris lab at UNH, complete with three identification keys and a dissecting scope

Samples are brought back in big plastic bags (often with smaller "Whirlpak" bags inside) which are kept in coolers until we're ready to go through them

Winter Island, Salem, MA (and a lot of slippery rockweed)

Dyer Cove, Cape Elizabeth, ME

We ate at this clam shack at our last site in South Freeport, ME - a tasty conclusion to the week