Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Dam removal floods Hudson river tributary with herring
TROY, N.Y. — A few days after a long-abandoned industrial dam was removed from the mouth of a Hudson River tributary this spring, hundreds of river herring swarmed up into the shallow waters to spawn for the first time in 85 years.
The removal of the rusted steel dam on the Wynants Kill near Albany was the first of what ecologists hope will be many barriers removed in Hudson tributaries to restore spawning habitat for herring and other ocean-going species that have been devastated by habitat loss, pollution and overfishing.
The project is part of a larger movement that has dismantled almost 250 dams across the country since 2012, according to the conservation group American Rivers.
“There are more than 1,500 dams in the Hudson estuary watershed, most of them no longer in use,” said Frances Dunwell, coordinator of the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Hudson River Estuary Program. “One of the key items on our to-do list by 2020 is to remove as many of these barriers as possible.”
The estuary, which extends 150 miles north from the Atlantic Ocean, is an important breeding ground for several species of herring including American shad and alewife. In Colonial times, Hudson tributary streams flashed silver with herring during spring spawning runs. Dams built during the Industrial Revolution caused herring populations to crash along the Atlantic coast from South Carolina to Maine, and pollution and overfishing in more recent years made things worse.
Herring, especially American shad, are not only highly valued commercial and sport fish, but also are an integral part of the aquatic food chain. In the Atlantic, many species of fish, bird and mammal rely on herring as their primary food source. Striped bass recreational fishing, a major business in the Hudson estuary, uses river herring as baitfish.
In 2013, when the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission required the 15 states it covers to submit plans for restoring historical spawning and nursery habitat, dams and climate change were cited as the largest threats.