This year there has been a lot of talk about the benefit of the multi-agency Connecticut River Atlantic Salmon Restoration Program. The discussions have focused almost solely on the mistaken notion that low numbers of salmon returns are the only test of the success or failure of the program. For the Connecticut River Watershed Council (CRWC), the number of salmon returning is not the only issue. The main criterion that the program should be judged on is the Connecticut River’s capacity to support a range of aquatic life. The health of the river is the bigger and more important issue.
Just 60 years ago, the Connecticut River was called “the best-landscaped sewer in New England.” The river did not support a thriving diversity of aquatic life. Since the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1974, the river has taken on a renewed life and major direct discharge sources of pollution have been reduced significantly. But problems still abound in our watershed.
Whether the issue is dams fracturing our waterways, pollution flowing into our rivers or erosion from cleared river banks, there is no single approach to the restoration of the Connecticut River. To CRWC, the benefits of the Connecticut River Atlantic Salmon Restoration Program include the increased knowledge to address ongoing problems; the growing populations of other anadromous fish; the infrastructure of hatcheries, fishways, labs and expert personnel; and the interstate, intergovernmental and international cooperation focused on the Connecticut River. These are vital contributions to the wellbeing of our watershed and its related coastal ecosystem.
Number counts of Atlantic salmon don’t tell the restoration story of the Connecticut River, or even the story of anadromous fish coming back to the river. If the fish numbers are important to some people, then we should look at all of the anadromous fish coming into the river, not just salmon.
Take, for example, the fact that in 2011, 244,000 American shad passed over the first dam upstream from Long Island Sound in Holyoke, or better yet, the 19,000 sea lampreys. While sea lampreys are perhaps most wrongly disrespected fish in our watershed, they add important nutrients back to the headwater areas of the river when they return to their natal river to spawn and die.
While shad and lamprey are not the namesakes of the Connecticut River Atlantic Salmon Restoration Program, they—along with many other fish—benefit from it and would likely be in worse shape if this program ceased to exist. The Connecticut River Watershed Council asks all of us to understand the important role the Atlantic Salmon Restoration Program plays in a healthy Connecticut River, and to stay the course on restoring the river and Atlantic salmon.
