Fish ladder repair, Parker River. Photo by Russell Gordon
February 1998: With grant money from both 8T&B and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Charles Eicher of the Essex County Sportsmen's Association (ECSA) coordinated a successful volunteer effort last September to make fish ladder repairs at two locations on the Parker River. The ECSA has since 1995 been designated as “stewards” of the Parker River under the Fishway Stewardship Program of the Division of Marine Fisheries and EOEA's Riverways Program.
Last September, Charlie worked closely with both Division of Marine Fisheries and Town of Newbury officials to prepare sites at the Central Street and Larkin Road fishways in Byfield. The grant monies provided funding to purchase materials and rent equipment. A successful recruiting effort brought roughly 30 volunteers over two days to repair and/or replace crumbling concrete pools and baffles. This volunteer-powered project has since inspired community action at both the public and private levels.
The Parker River, which runs through both Georgetown and Newbury, has long supported a spawning run of alewives. Mature alewives return each spring to the Parker in an effort to reach their spawning grounds in Pentucket Pond, Georgetown. To successfully reach this site, alewives must negotiate six dams via old fishways in need of repair. Under Charlie's guidance, work completed in the past few years by ECSA volunteers has played a big part in saving the Parker River alewife run from collapse.
For more information about ECSA and efforts to repair fishways, contact Charlie Eicher at: 978/462-2694.
Note: Charlie was recently nominated for the Division of Marine Fisheries' David L. Belding Award for his work to enhance the fisheries resources of the Parker River. Congratulations, Charlie!
