Carlls River Project
 

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Volunteers needed for Carlls River Clean-up

Clean-up scheduled for Saturday, March 24, 2007 at 9 am.

See Jeff Plackis at any meeting for more details
or email him at [email protected] .

DIRECTIONS TO CARLLS RIVER  CLEANUP  Saturday, March 24, 2007  @ 9:00am SOUTHERN STATE PKWY TO EXIT 37S.  HEAD SOUTH ON BELMONT AVE.  HALF LEFT TURN ONTO HUBBARDS PATH.   TAKE HUBBARDS PATH SOUTH GOING UNDER SUNRISE HWY AND CONTINUE TO OLD FARMINGDALE ROAD.  BEAR LEFT ONTO OLD FARMINGDALE ROAD AND PROCEED TO LIVINGSTONE AVENUE.  TURN RIGHT ONTO LIVINGSTONE AVENUE  AND PROCEED SOUTH TO PARK AVENUE.  LEFT ONTO PARK AVENUE  AND PROCEED EAST TO PARKING LOT ON NORTH SIDE OF STREET.

Carlls River Habitat Improvement – A History

by Jeff Plackis

The Long Island Chapter of Trout Unlimited has begun a habitat improvement/stream restoration project on the Carlls River in Babylon, NY. The chapter's Stream Improvement Committee, after much analysis and discussion considered the Carlls River as the best choice for restoration because it has many characteristics - flow, canopy, size, water source, natural springs, protection & accessibility - needed for a trout stream within our area. LITU's goal is to improve the Carlls from a suburban put-and-take trout stream to a cold-water fishery that will sustain holdover trout during the summer, as well as the winter, support spawning of wild trout, possibly native brookies, and most optimistically, re-establish anadromous salmonoid runs to this south shore stream. From the tidal section south of Montauk Highway upstream, the river can be divided into 3 distinct sections: Argyle Lake to Southards Pond, Southards Pond to Belmont Lake & Southards Pond to Elda Lake and the headwaters above Belmont Lake, which may provide potential spawning habitat. LITU plans to evaluate each section individually over the next 7-10 years. At present, the section between Argyle Lake and Southards Pond (Section A) is under evaluation and an initial broad assessment & survey has commenced.

LITU held a problem solving session and workshop on March 16th, 2002. Several members of the chapter, as well as, members from Art Flick TU, LI Flyrodders and Idle Hour Flyfishers and representatives of NYSDEC, NYS Parks and USGS participated in the hands-on workshop. With the guidance of John Braico, NYSCTU Resource Management VP, a visual assessment and basic stream/reach "classification" of Section A was conducted. A follow-up analysis was performed the subsequent weekend to gather additional data. LITU has also begun a temperature study on this section. With assistance from NYSDEC, on April 21st, 2002 four (4) temperature data loggers were deployed on the stream to record temperatures every - hour for the entire summer. This data will be retrieved in the fall to determine what temperatures the stream in this lower section is experiencing.

Plans are to continue the temperature study in this section for at least two additional years and expand the study next year to include the upstream sections. In addition, a macro-invertebrate survey and electro-shocking study, in conjunction with NYSDEC, is being planned for late summer/early fall. The first major work project will be an early summer clean up of the Carlls River, scheduled for Saturday, June 22, 2002. After many years of neglect, the stream corridor has accumulated quite a bit of trash. An additional clean up is scheduled for October and will take place prior to the DEC Fall trout stocking date.

These are just the first steps. The chapter's highest priority is to conduct broad visual assessments on each section of the Carlls River - targeting the strengths/weaknesses & addressable problems - identifying both good and bad segments. Additional assessment and surveys at specific sites of interest would be performed, with the findings being utilized as a guide for future stream restoration on the Carlls. LITU has already documented problems at a number of locations in Section A; stream bank instability & erosion, streambed siltation, inadequate depth & excessive channel widening and unsatisfactory in-stream habitat features/structures being just a few. These problems can be mitigated. However, over the coming months, a detailed assessment and survey of these individual "problem reaches" needs to be carried out prior to any restoration and improvements taking place.

Recent activities and photos

On November 24, 2003, Peter Dubno was fishing at the gauging station just below Southards Pond and caught and released a brown trout.

The Long Island Chapter of Trout Unlimited continues to monitor the Carlls River through first-hand observations and the use of temperature gauges. The information gathered from the 2003 season has been gathered and is in the hands of the NYS D.E.C. for analysis.

The DEC also monitors the river and conducts electro-shocking surveys to verify the existence of trout in the system. Below are some pictures from the 2003 electro-shocking, which verified the existence of trout in the river below Southards Pond. In the photos are LITU's Sol Harz and John Fischer, NYS D.E.C.'s Greg Kozlowski, Chart Guthrie & Fred Henson and Norm Soule from the Cold Spring Fish Hatchery.