Lead Organization(s): Ipswich River Watershed Association
Project Contact:
Neil Shea, Restoration Program Director, IRWA
nshea@ipswichriver.org
About the Project
Watershed(s): Ipswich
Municipalities: Topsfield, Boxford, Ipswich
Project Partners: Trout Unlimited Nor’East, Trout Unlimited National, Sea Run Brook Trout Coalition, MA DMF, Town of Topsfield, Town of Ipswich, Town of Boxford
Funders: National Fish and Wildlife Foundation New England Forest and Rivers Fund; Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs- Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Program
The Howlett Brook Watershed Restoration project utilizes a watershed approach to barrier mitigation. This project seeks to assess and improve fish passage in Howlett Brook, a tributary to the Ipswich River in northeastern Massachusetts, by prioritizing and removing barriers to passage for eastern brook trout and river herring. With additional funding from EEA’s Municipal Vulnerability Program, this project will complete 30% design plans and cost estimates for 18 barriers, assess the status of eastern brook trout populations, remove two high priority barriers and open 8 miles of stream and 68 acres of historic pond spawning habitat for river herring.
The Howlett Brook Watershed Restoration project is a new approach to restoration. The focus on an entire sub-watershed comes from something both conservationists, and anyone who loves to fish, know well: If you restore healthy native fish populations, everything else comes along with it. Happy fish need healthy rivers and streams. To increase public awareness and support of the project, Ipswich River collaborated with Fort Point Theatre Channel on the Ocean of Rivers event series.
IRWA is currently working with the Town of Boxford on an MVP project to design and permit 3 culvert upgrades along Pye Brook, a Howlett tributary). Implementation of these designs will improve flood resiliency in Boxford as well as allow full terrestrial and aquatic passage for the first time.