MA NFC to Restore Wild Native Fish in Laundry Brook in Newton, Massachusetts...
NFC performed 2 Holistic Stream Assessment/Restoration projects on Cold Spring Brook, Cold Spring Park and Newton Cemetery and Arboretum, one of two tributaries that join to form Laundry Brook. We performed a similar but smaller scale assessment of the headwaters of Laundry Brook at Newton City Hall to help better understand the sub-watershed as a whole.
While notably smaller and far less complex than Cold Spring Brook in Cold Spring Park and Newton Cemetery and Arboretum, NFC performed some fish surveys using non-lethal minnow traps in Laundry Brook at Newton City Hall to determine what species were present and at what level of abundance.
Unfortunately, both biodiversity and biomass are extremely low in Laundry Brook at Newton City Hall. NFC was only able to capture 13 fish in almost 900 hours of trapping. Only pumpkinseed sunfish, a species native to the Charles River watershed and abundant upstream were confirmed. And while not our focus, amphibian life seemed oddly low as well.
The lack of fish at City Hall is due to the fact that the ponds had been drained and dredged in early 2024 to address sedimentation which is apparently an ongoing problem as the ponds were also dredged in 2013. These dredging’s result in the near complete loss of fish and other aquatic life. What fish we did find were either upstream of the temporary work dams or drifted down from Cold Spring Brook.
City Hall ponds dredging. (Jennifer Steel)
As part of our recommendations resulting from our stream assessment, NFC proposed a project to repopulate fish in the City Hall ponds. When the ponds were drained, the fish were flushed into Bullough’s Pond roughly 400 feet downstream. NFC believed that we could trap fish from Bullough’s Pond to repopulate the City Hall ponds.
NFC reached out to MassWildlife to see if they would be willing to issue a permit to translocate fish from Bullough’s Pond to the City Hall ponds. Our intention was to use volunteers and minnow traps to collect fish from Bullough’s Pond to be transferred in aerated coolers for release in the City Hall ponds.
Not only did MassWildlife issue NFC a permit to move fish from Bullough’s Pond to the City Hall ponds, but they also offered to send someone out to help when we are ready to do so. In addition they offered to bring a truck with a live well to transport the fish.
Soon after NFC received the permit from MassWildlife, we reached out to Newton Conservation Commission for permission and to see if any additional permits were required. The project proposal received unanimous approval from the commission.
“The interest is really in trying to reestablish a healthy aquatic ecosystem in City Hall ponds. We have worked to manage invasive species around the edges and started dredging to allow a more consistent flow. With the reintroduction of these fish, we will help rebalance the whole ecosystem.”
NFC has a tentative date of Saturday May 9th to execute the fish transfer between Bullough’s Pond and the Newton City Hall ponds weather permitting. Representatives from several organizations and agencies will be in attendance to support the effort.