Background

Location of Ed Bill's Pond      Lyme, Connecticut

Ed Bill's Pond riverine migratory corridor was the first project to receive funding from the newly established Connecticut Corporate Wetlands Restoration Program (CWRP). The kick-off meeting for CWRP was June 2000. The CWRP wanted to demonstrate that it could make a difference to aquatic habitat restoration in Connecticut through the funding of it's first project prior to it's second outreach meeting on October 31, 2000. Connecticut DEP, a Coastal America partner and leader in the state in the field of habitat restoration, reviewed potential projects and discovered that the Ed Bill's Pond project was being advertised for construction and that the construction bids exceeded the original project estimates. CWRP provided a $24,880.00 grant to the Connecticut River Watershed Council, the lead partner for implementing this project. This grant was made possible through donations provided by the US Environmental Protection Agency and Boehringer-Ingleheim, the first Corporate partner to donate funds into the CT CWRP account.

View of Ed Bill's Pond Dam on the right and the       fishway in the background passing under a local road.

A small dam at Ed Bill's Pond on the Eight-Mile River in the town of Lyme, like hundreds of other dams in Connecticut, prevents migratory fish from swimming upstream to spawn. The funds provided by a variety of partners (see list below) including the CWRP donation resulted in the construction of a fishway at Ed Bill’s Pond Dam in November 2000. This fishway will allow species such as Atlantic salmon, American shad and blueback herring to complete their migration from Long Island Sound to freshwater streams where they will complete their reproductive cycle.

The Connecticut River Watershed Council worked with many partners to see this project through to completion: Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge, Lyme Land Conservation Trust, the Town of Lyme, the dam owner and Connecticut DEP. The Land Trust provides the community presence and works directly with the landowner. The Land Trust will own the fishway and a right-of-way easement to operate and maintain it.

View of fish passage from      downstream, showing sections      of Alaskan steeppass.

Funding for the project was provided by the following:
• Natural Resources Conservation Service
• Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection
• Fish America Foundation
• US Environmental Protection Agency
• Pfizer Corporation
• US Fish & Wildlife Service - Silvio O. Conte Fish & Wildlife Refuge and the Southern New England-New York Bight Coastal Ecosystem Program
• Jacobson & Associates
• June Maynard (dam owner)
• Richard Gates, Surveyor
• Connecticut Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership

Project Benefits
This project will complete the restoration of spawning access in the Eightmile River drainage basin. According to the CT DEP Fisheries Division, 4 miles of riverine spawning habitat will be opened to migratory fish. These reestablishment of self-sustaining populations of anadromous fishes to upstream spawning habitats will have widespread ecological benefits to freshwater and marine ecosystems.

CWRP Brochure

Migrating, spawning and juvenile fish will improve the forage base for predators across several taxa: birds such as osprey, bald eagle, herons and egrets; mammals such as otter, mink and raccoon and; fishes such as trout, pickerel and bass. Furthermore, spent fish and eggs improve the biomass available to the benthic invertebrate community and other smaller fishes that represent important links in aquatic food chains. Lastly, migratory fishes play an important role in the reproduction and colonization of habitats by freshwater mussels.

Another important benefit accrues from the public outreach potential of this site. The dam and fishway are directly adjacent to Salem Road in Lyme. This presents opportunities for outreach on the importance of restoring migratory fish, the effectiveness of conservation partnerships and how the fishway fits into broader efforts to restore and protect fish and wildlife in Connecticut.