This is a long slog to get from an idea to having folks in the water taking stones down so for the local community I mean this they're so invested in this and it's absolutely it's absolutely great to see people like that so excited about you know restoring the stream and it's you know kind of it just reflects it like with the nature of the community this is Sucker Brook it's a cold water fishery we have at yield street we have a culvert that we're replacing then we have another Culvert that we're replacing here at the Keyes's Parker Conservation Area and then we have a dam the dam removal that you're here for today and we're doing the dam removal and then Upstream we'll do the Culvert replacement in Keyes's Parker and then in the spring we're looking forward to replacing the Culvert at Heald Street you know if we can restore it to a stream a cold flowing natural flowing stream it's just so much healthier restoring streams to their natural conditions is so so important and that's why we do this work working with our partners. So many of the 25,000 culverts and small bridges in Massachusetts are reaching the end of their service lifespan at the same time that they're getting impacted by climate change. Climate change is bringing more intense rain events and more concentrated rain events which results in failures of these structures many of the current structures are undersized to existing flows and especially future flows our program is working with municipalities to upgrade these Crossings to facilitate not only fish and wildlife passage but to also be more resilient to climate change. So the Heald Street Culvert replacement project is one of the projects that we funded through our Municipal grant program the existing structure is a 36 inch wide corrugated metal pipe that is severely degraded. The existing structure is going to be replaced with a 16 foot span so it'll have a natural bottom that allows the movement of Fish and Wildlife and will also protect the utilities that run along the corridor when the town of pepper looked at the Heald Street Culvert we realized we had a problem ahead of us we have a culvert that's failing and we realized it had water sewer gas lines in it if it collapses it could be catastrophic so we actually didn't know where to go because there's so much involved there's so much cost there's so much understanding what needs to be done the only way to do it we actually we realized oh this Massachusetts division of ecological restoration they have a culvert replacement program and we received so much leadership from DER and the funding to step us through field data collection the engineering the analyzes the permitting but every step of the process, if we didn't have DER behind us we really wouldn't know which direction to go. The division of ecological restoration works on protecting and restoring waterways throughout Massachusetts for the benefit of people and the environment. We do that in a variety of ways we work on cranberry bog restoration, Dam removals, Culvert Replacements, and Wetland and floodplain restoration. So the dam removal project is the furthest project Downstream on sucker Brook. By removing the dam they're opening up Habitat to other reaches in the Upstream Watershed where there's additional barriers that are encountered. The town of Pepperell has been actively working on removing those barriers. The town of Pepperell is working with the division of ecological Restorations and the squanatissit chapter of trout unlimited as well as we have other partners here as well we have the members of the Nashoba conservation trust which is the local land trust and even the national River Watershed Association which is our local Watershed group and I can't emphasize enough how important our partners are we don't get these projects done without partners and having the support both Financial engineering all kinds of support technical support from division of ecological Restorations is the only way we can make these projects happen. So my name is Jason carmignani, I'm the Aquatic ecologist for the natural heritage and endangered species program and that's under the Massachusetts division of fisheries and wildlife. Part of the project is doing the habitat management for rare and endangered species and so there's actually two State listed muscle species immediately Downstream of the dam about 100 meters that we're going to be impacted by the dam removal. DER had to come to us and we already knew these mussels were here and in order to do the dam removal they had you know we helped them write a management plan and then help help them implement the plan. Taking this dam out creates a waterway that should have been there 100 years ago naturally. TU fills in the cracks of other organizations we sort of are the eyes and ears the river keepers of the nissotissit which the sucker Brook flows into so we see changes, we think see things that need to be done so we can see it and then we can bring it up to the agencies and then pull them together. Your restoring habitats, increasing species resilience, encouraging you know native species to thrive-- these are the things that that you know should be valued when trying to manage manage habitats, restoring ecosystems. Within a year we'll have filled in you'll have a natural Stream flow and then grasses and bushes and trees will just-- I mean mother nature is aggressive when it comes to restoring itself and in a year you won't recognize it, in five you'll never know a dam was there. So it's very healthy not just for the brook trout-- they're sort of the canary in the coal mine-- but for the wood Turtles, for the mussels, and everything else that lives below the surface or walks along the stream beds. So it's a very exciting time you've seen a rebirth of a stream you've got to be here to see it.
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