By Hayleigh Gowans
Staff Writer
Local conservationists recently installed a fish passage stone crib structure below a three-foot-high stone dam structure off the west end of Tarbell Road near Route 298 in DeWitt. The crib will allow for the easier migration of different fish species to lay eggs in the area despite the dam.
The project was one of three that were aimed to improve the fish habitats in streams that connect to Onondaga Lake, said Les Monostory, vice president of the Central New York Chapter of the Izaak Walton League, the organization that did the work. The other two projects were habitat improvement work at Beartrap Creek in the town of Salina and Baltimore Brook, a tributary of Nine Mile Creek, in Marcellus, all of which are tributaries of Onondaga Lake.
Over the past six years, the Izaak Walton League has been working on projects that improve Onondaga Lake tributary habitats through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI), of which the Ley Creek project was one.
In the past, Ley Creek had a healthy fish population but development of roads, buildings and dams caused the population to reduce, said Monostory. About 330 tons of stone fill were laid on Oct. 10 to provide a graded passage for upstream migration of fish from Onondaga Lake through its Ley Creek tributary.
“We’re trying to bring back a species and make it easier for them to survive and reproduce,” said Monostory. “There’s been a lot of efforts underway in Lake Ontario and the Finger Lakes … Due to pollution and dam building, migrations that existed have been hindered.”
The project in DeWitt was done in conjunction with the Town of DeWitt, which received a grant from the New York Department of Conservation and the Onondaga Environmental Institute. The original grant from the GLRI totaled $118,000, said Monostory, and the project in DeWitt cost approximately $30,000.
According to its website, the Central New York Chapter of the Izaak Walton League was formed in 1989 by, “conservationists, anglers, hunters and nature lovers to conserve, maintain, protect and restore Central New York’s soil, air, woodlands, waters and wildlife.” To learn more, go to sites.google.com/site/centralnewyork/about-us.
To learn more about the Great Lakes Restorative Initiative, go to glri.us.
