More on Browns River Conservation Effort

The Associated Press featured an interesting story about the Upper Browns River on Monday.

The story is about the project near Westford in Morgan Brook, a feeder stream for the Browns River that was recently named one of 10 rivers to watch by a national group.

Here's a Blog entry I made about this river May 1.

In the AP story, writer Wilson Ring writes:

"Morgan Brook is barely three feet wide and less than a foot deep, but the meandering waterway is still capable of supporting a population of six-inch brook trout."

The story details how the brook is being reclaimed by adding fencing to keep cattle out when it crosses fields, trees are being planted to provide cooling shade, farmers are being paid to keep their cornfields farther from the river banks, and a culvert will be replaced with a bridge to allow the fish passage upstream.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Biologist Christopher Smith said the changes are starting to pay off, but the real benefit is well on down the road.

"Restoration really starts with change in land use," Smith said in the AP article. "This is a project that will play itself out over the next 10 to 15 years."

The effort is a multiagency program with state and federal agencies cooperating with local landowners and conservation groups to make the restoration effort work even though many of the agencies are participating for completely different reasons, according to the article.

One governmental entity may only be interested in clean water, while another wants to ensure the survival of the fish species.

More on the restoration efforts and the program behind it can be found at: www.fishhabitat.org.

This is exactly the kind of interagency cooperation that we need to better protect wildlife and habitat and it's great to see landowners and others eagerly participating.