Newton, Massachusetts, eDNA Metabarcoding Stream Surveys: Laundry Brook...
Laundry Brook where it goes under busy Walnut Street just downstream of Bullough’s Pond…
Working under a grant from Newton Conservators, the Massachusetts chapter of NFC recently undertook an eDNA metabarcoding survey on Laundry Brook. Like other Newton streams, Laundry Brook has been moved, straightened, dug down, dredged, buried, dammed, and impounded.
A rare daylighted, albeit dug down, straightened, and walled in, section of Laundry Brook at Gay Street…
Laundry Brook begins at the confluence of Hammond Brook and Cold Spring Brook at Newton City Hall. The two streams enter the upper end of an impounded area consisting of three ponds, or lobes. After leaving City Hall via a small buried culvert and dam, Laundry Brook flows under Commonwealth Avenue and into a second impounded area known as Bullough’s Pond.
A high percentage of Laundry Brook is buried. After going underground at Gay Street roughly 3,000’ downstream of Bullough’s Pond, Laundry Brook doesn’t resurface until just short of the Mass Turnpike, roughly 3,500’ downstream. After briefly surfacing at the turnpike, Laundry Brook flows underground for almost a mile before daylighting again just upstream of the Charles River.
A fish-blocking sloped cement slab on Laundry Brook just upstream of its termination at the Charles River…
“Laundry Brook has the highest fish biodiversity we have confirmed to date in Newton. This is especially true in the
vicinity of Bullough’s Pond...”
As we expected, Laundry Brook has a higher level of fish biodiversity than the other streams we have surveyed in Newton. It also has a higher biomass of fish This is due to the presence of Bullough’s Pond, one of the larger impoundments in Newton.
American eels appear to be using the entire Laundry Brook, as well as most of its two primary upstream tributaries: Hammond Brook and Cold Spring Brook. Detection rates were high at all three test sites, and the highest we have have seen in Newton at two sites.