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Deconstruct rock dams so brook trout can migrate and spawn!

Brook trout are on the move so it’s time to deconstruct the rock dams that were built this summer!

Volunteers removing a hand-built rock dam to improve fish passage. Cassandra Anderson, Mid-Columbia Fisheries Enhancement Group

Between September and October, brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) seek out suitable spawning habitat. On their migration they encounter numerous potential barriers: dams, perched culverts, and even the small, gleefully hand built rock dams that accompanied summer fun and swimming in streams.

Esopus Creek brook trout. E. Ostapczuk.

People often build small rock dams to create or deepen swimming holes in streams, and sometimes just for fun. These small dams are made of rocks that were moved by the stream, so the stream will likely deconstruct the dam itself during the next high flow.

Hand-built rock dams on Woodland Creek in Phoenicia. Tim Koch, Ashokan Watershed Stream Management Program.

However, the next high flow might not come before the “brookies” start migrating, looking for spawning sites.  

It’s been a hot and dry summer, a stressful one for cold water trout species. Let’s give them a hand by deconstructing any rock dams that remain in streams!

Written by:
Tim Koch
Published on:
September 20, 2022

Categories: UncategorizedTags: aop, Ashokan Watershed, brook trout, dams, esopus, phoenicia, woodland creek

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Ashokan Watershed Stream Management Program

PO Box 667
3130 State Route 28
Shokan, NY 12481
845 688 3047
845 688 3130 (fax)

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