2012 QRWA CL&P and YGS Speaker Series – March and April

The Quinnipiac River Watershed Association (QRWA) recently presented its first two Speaker Series talks courtesy of Connecticut Light & Power and Yankee Gas Services $2,500 Community Investment grant.  These monthly talks will cover a wide variety of topics, from animals to the environment, with a CT focus and a theme of water being critical to life within the watershed. 

On Wednesday, March 7th the QRWA was pleased to host Scott Williams, PhD from the Department of Forestry and Horticulture at the Connecticut Agriculture Experiment Station in New Haven.  Scott’s talk, “White Tailed Deer and Invasive Plants”, explained the relationship between overabundant deer, the spread of invasive plants and the correlation of those invasive plants to the deer ticks that carry Lyme disease. 

Overabundant white-tailed deer cause more harm than most people know, not only in increased traffic accidents and damage caused by run-ins with deer, but to property and plant damage of home and business owners.  Scott discussed that in addition to these more obvious results was his theory that over abundance of deer is an increased health risk. 

Scott’s research involves the use of deer poop as a means to transferring invasive plant seeds to increase the spread of these harmful plants.  Deer eat a variety of plants, leaves, seeds, berries and nuts; and as the food sources get scare in the deep days of winter, they resort to whatever may be available. 

We know that birds are known for the spread of seeds, but deer do a for more better job since they defecate up to 25 times a day as they travel throughout their territory that covers a range of a square mile.  Scott collected deer scat and then planted the droppings to see what would germinate.  The results were amazing with many invasive plants germinating from the deer droppings. 

Scott is pursuing the theory that one of these invasive plants, the Japanese Barberry, plays a surprising role in the spread of Lyme disease.  Because the plant grows wild, with little stop its growth, it becomes a prime habitat for deer mice.  These mice use the safety of this low growing shrub and multiply rapidly.  The deer mice are carriers of the spirochete that causes Lyme disease. 

The plant also provides a habitat for the ticks, which accumulate near the edges of the plants to seek a host, in our case, human or canine, to feed and thereby infect the host with the spirochete or slender spirally undulating bacteria.  Lyme disease is the body’s reaction to the spirochete. 

Record-Journal’s Woods n’ Water columnist and life-long hunter and fisherman, Mike Roberts found Scott’s talk to be “absolutely amazing.”  And if Mike Roberts learned something new about deer, then that’s saying something. 

Mike was also on hand to hear about the impending opening of the Wallace Dam Fishway when Steve Gephard, a fisheries biologist with the CT DEEP’s Inland Fisheries, was the CL&P and YGS April Speaker on Tuesday, April 10. 

He gave an overview of the history of dams in Connecticut, which were installed during the industrial revolution and helped provide the power for many factories along the rivers.  But the environmental damage that resulted, primarily in the decline of migratory fish, is only recently begun to heal. 

Since the fish can’t get over the dams, they can go only so far upstream and thereby limits their ability to spawn.  Additionally, many of the fish that come upstream to spawn are food for many other species.  If a food source becomes scare or is eliminated, then those that feed off that fish tend to relocate to other areas or decline as well. 

Steve spoke passionately about the increased effort to restore migratory fish to the Quinnipiac River.  The Wallace Dam is the latest endeavor to bring fish like the shad, river herring, sea lampreys and American eel back up to where they once migrated and spawned freely. 

The dam allows these fish to swim through a specially design channel that mimics the fast rushing water for traversing the waterway to the north from New Haven Harbor.  The Fishway in Wallingford is equipped with a viewing window for the scientists to see the passing fish and to also capture them on camera.  This will enable them to determine how many and what types of fish are passing through the Fishway. 

Prior to the Fishway being installed, members of the QRWA held their annual ‘fish rodeo’, in which they physically transferred the migrating fish in buckets up and over the dam.  This was an arduous and labor intensive but very rewarding task.  This interim measure was essentially in maintaining the migratory habits of the various fish along the Quinnipiac River. 

Steve, along with many others, is looking forward to the official opening of the Wallace Dam Fishway on Saturday, April 21, at 11 am.  With the Fishway now open migratory fish such as the American shad, Atlantic salmon, river herring, sea lamprey and American eel, can move further north to spawn in larger numbers than they have been able to in many, many years.  It is poetic justice that it also happens to be opening day for fishing here in Connecticut.  For more information please visit www.qrwa.org.

 The QRWA has made a long term to this ten-year project by pledging keep the Fishway clean and free of debris.  If you are interested in being part of this continual effort, please contact the QRWA at 203-237-2237 and leave a message. 

As part of the CL&P YGS Community Investment Grant, each speaker suggests a book for the QRWA library.  Scott Williams recommended The Science of Overabundance: Deer Ecology and Population Management, by McShea, Underwood, and Rappolle, and Steve Gephard suggested The Founding Fish by John McPhee.  Each book has a book plate with the respective presenter and date on the inside front cover. 

The QRWA CL&P YGS Speaker Series helps people understand the balance between people and nature.  If there is a disruption somewhere in the system it usually has some kind of negative effect.  But sometimes that may not be known for quite a while.  In the meantime, the QRWA is the only organization dedicated solely to the restoration and enjoyment of the Quinnipiac River and its watershed.  The continued health of the watershed environment is our focus. 

The CL&P YGS Speaker Series are usually offered on the second Tuesday of each month, from 7 – 9 pm at the QRWA headquarters, 540 Oregon Road.  Please refer to our website, www.qrwa.org for specific event details.