ESSEX, Conn., — November 4, 2013 — The Tiley-Pratt dam on the Falls River – three quarters of a mile up from the Connecticut River – is just three feet high. But the old industrial structure presents an insurmountable obstacle to migrating fish returning each spring from the ocean to spawn upstream.
"In season, [alewife and blueback herring] are congregating at the base of the dam," said Sally Harold, director of migratory fish projects for The Nature Conservancy in Connecticut. "The fish are unable to clear this barrier."
This will soon change, thanks to a federal grant to support fish passage and "connectivity" with Long Island Sound. The $85,000 grant, awarded by the Long Island Sound Futures Fund, a partnership of The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the Environmental Protection Agency, will fund construction of two fishways in Connecticut; one on the Tiley-Pratt dam on the Falls River, and the other on the Coleytown dam on the Aspetuck River in Westport, along with a fish passage study on Beaver Brook in Oyster Bay, Long Island.