Housatonic valley association - in partnership with rennia engineering design, trout unlimited, and troutscapes river restoration - is seeking funding from the eastern brook trout joint venture in…

Housatonic valley association - in partnership with rennia engineering design, trout unlimited, and troutscapes river restoration - is seeking funding from the eastern brook trout joint venture in an urgent effort to restore approximately 1400 of degraded streambank along lower wells brook in dover, NY. Wells brook currently supports eastern brook trout (EBT) and given its consistently cold water has the capacity to provide high-quality habitat as the climate continues to warm. Commercial development and clearing of riparian vegetation have created stream instability and degraded EBT habitat quality along lower wells brook.HVA has been conducting monitoring and restoration activities in the wells brook watershed since 2013, focused primarily on the reaches adjacent to and below commercial areas in dover plains. This effort has brought together stakeholders in the dover community to assess water quality and habitat conditions, restore riparian vegetation in areas where banks are still stable, and develop projects aimed at mitigating stormwater runoff, reconnecting floodplains to the channel and enhancing in-stream habitat. In 2015, HVA and partners completed an assessment of lower wells brook that details threats and management strategies for reaches from NYS RTE 22 to the confluence of wells brook and the ten mile river. This assessment identifies loss of native riparian vegetation, directly connected impervious cover, floodplain encroachment and stream instability as significant threats to aquatic species.HVA and partners have continued monitoring conditions since this initial assessment. Research indicates that lower wells brook currently supports EBT, despite localized water quality impacts. We also suspect that wells brook is an important thermal refuge for fish from the mainstem ten mile river. A temperature logger placed in the ten mile river just upstream of the wells brook confluence in 2019 recorded an average july temperature (22.85C) that would put the ten mile in the warm stream thermal class. That same summer, average overall summer temperatures and the maximum daily high temperature indicate that the ten mile was in the higher end of the cool transitional thermal class. Wells brook seems to be less variable in temperature than the ten mile and is reliably colder in the summer months. This project was identified as a high-priority action in the ten mile river watershed management plan by the ten mile river collaborative. Stormwater retrofit projects associated with commercial areas upstream of the project site were also identified as priority actions. Since the completion of the ten mile river management plan in 2021, HVA has secured funding for permitting and construction from the USDA natural resource conservation service regional conservation partnership program and the iroquois gas transmission company. These funds will allow HVA, trout unlimited, rennia engineering design and trout scapes river restoration to secure necessary permits from NYS DEC and town of dover, and complete channel reconstruction, instream habitat and riparian buffer restoration planned for this site.funding from ebtjv will provide crucial support for monitoring, maintenance and adaptive management of this project. Ebtjv funds will be used to ensure that riparian plantings become established and self-sustaining to track performance of in-stream structures in high water to record changes in stream geomorphology and aquatic habitat arising from the project and document changes in fish and macroinvertebrate populations along the project reach.