Protecting and Restoring the Beautiful Winter 2017 Black River, One Project at a Time restoring our Poor’s Island Projects continue to be beautiful Black advanced by River diverse watershed. By stakeholders being proactive, in the Black stakeholders in River the Black River watershed, watershed have Black River Village achieving Fulton Chain of Lakes. Photo by Emily Sheridan sustained goals set forth important water in various plans including the Black and natural resources that River Watershed Management Plan, contributes to the quality of life for Black River Nine Element (9E) Plan, North Country residents. As the year Blueway Trail Plan, and North comes to a close, we can celebrate Country Regional Economic these successes and continue looking Development Council Strategic to the future of the Black River and Plan. Each stakeholder effort is how it will be used and enjoyed for commendable and helps achieve generations to come. broader goals of protecting and Three Communities Upgrade Wastewater Treatment Facilities Funding for the City be compliant with state of Watertown, Port and federal water quality Leyden and Village of regulations. The funding Carthage to upgrade provided by NYS their wastewater Environmental Facilities treatment facilities in Corporation will ease the 2017 advances economic burden to local important water residents for making quality targets necessary improvements. identified in the Black The 9EPlan can be used River 9E Plan for to prioritize and leverage reducing phosphorus, funding for additional nitrogen, and sediment loading water quality improvement projects, within the watershed, while also and is available at: http:// allowing these communities to www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/103264.html Inside this issue: Joint Land Use Study 5 Wastewater treatment upgrades 1 Town of Wilna Crown Cleaners 5 Great Lakes workgroups 2 Black River trail exentension and stewardship 6 Great Lakes culvert assessment pilot project 2 Jefferson County Stormwater Coalition 6 Partnering to manage invasive species 3 Black River conference 7 Tug Hill Tomorrow Land Trust 3 Lewis County updates 7,8 Black River Initiative Annual Black River Trash bash 4 Riverfest 8 Water quality monitoring 4 1 Great Lakes Action Agenda Northeast Sub Basin Workgroup Northeast sub basin work Eastern Great Lakes watershed group meetings were held in coordinator by emailing May and December of 2017. [email protected]. NY’s Northeast Great Lakes sub basin encompasses the St. The DEC Great Lakes Program Lawrence and Black River works with NY Sea Grant to watersheds. The work group administer a small grants continues to develop strategic program that provides seed plans and implement actions funding to implement or within NY’s Great Lakes coordinate projects that apply an Action Agenda. These actions EBM approach. The program apply an ecosystem based typically requests proposals in the spring and more management (EBM) approach to achieve water information is available at: http:// quality, natural resource, sustainability, www.nyseagrant.org/glsmallgrants resiliency, recreation and energy goals within the St. Lawrence and Black River watersheds. The Great Lakes Research Consortium, coordinated The actions identified within this newsletter, by DEC and the SUNY College of Environmental such as green infrastructure, agricultural best Science and Forestry, also provides small grants for management practices, and improved research projects that seek to apply an EBM wastewater management exemplify an EBM approach and inform decision making and approach within the watershed. For more management actions with science. For more information and to get involved visit: http:// information, visit: http://www.esf.edu/glrc/ www.dec.ny.gov/lands/91881.html or contact the Great Lakes Culvert Assessment Pilot Project Many culverts currently in place were designed state of practice, NYSDEC provided training op- with the sole objective of moving water beneath portunities to build capacity of Soil and Water a road. Little consideration was given to ecosys- Conservation District staff in 18 counties to as- tem process such as natural hydrology, sediment sess culverts and produce data within priority sub transport, fish and wildlife passage, or the watersheds using protocols developed by the movement of woody debris. Also, culvert designs North Atlantic Aquatic Connectivity Collaborative did not consider increased precipitation caused (NAACC). ThePhoto data taken is by publiclyEmily Sheridan available in April 2014 and can by climate change, and the effects of resulting be used to inform local municipalities and trans- flooding on infrastructure and riverine systems. portation departments about priority culvert en- With hundreds of thousands of road stream hancement projects. The data can also be used to crossings in NYS, it is unlikely all culvert issues leverage funding from multiple sources, such as can be corrected without efforts to identify and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Great Lakes prioritize problematic Restoration Initiative, and sites. The Great Lakes cul- DEC Water Quality Im- vert assessment pilot pro- provement Program. In the ject, supported by Black River watershed, NYSDEC and the NYS Sugar river culvert Lewis County has used the Dept. of Agriculture and assessment. Red capacity funding to assess Markets, seeks to identify indicates severe road stream crossings and severe barriers to aquatic barriers identified. identified severe barriers in life movement and flood- the Sugar River watershed. ing risk, using standard- For more information and ized protocols to assess to view the database, visit: culverts. To advance the www.streamcontinuity.org 2 Black River Initiative Annual Black River Trash Bash In the eighth year of the Black River Trash Bash, an annual event to promote stewardship of the Black River, a record 74 participants from seven locations collected 500 pounds of trash and recyclables from the shore of the Black River. The seven groups across three counties were Lyons Falls Alive, the Adirondack Communities Advisory League, the Lewis County and Jefferson County Water Quality Coordinating Committees, the American Society of Civil Engineers Stu- dent Club (SUNY Poly), Jefferson Community College and the Haderondah 4H Club (Old Forge). In addition, two people from the Ocean Conservancy participated with the Haderon- Students from Jefferson Community College dah 4H Club and several students from South Lewis School helped clean up trash in October of 2017. participated with Lyons Falls Alive. There were a few notable items of local concern reported this year. The Lewis County Water Quality Coordinating Committee reported a potentially dangerous meth lab to the authorities during their event. The Haderondah 4H Club was very concerned about the 150 balloons found at Arrowhead Park;, as balloons have been shown to pollute, kill animals, cause power outages, and waste helium. The data collected has been compiled and sent to the American Littoral Society (ALS), who collects da- ta from all over New York State to be included in the Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal To join us in cleaning up next September, contact Jennifer Harvill at: [email protected]. Rotating Intensive Basin Studies Sampled Black River Watershed in 2017 This year, DEC’s Rotating Intensive Basin Studies (RIBS) Program acitivites included water quality sampling in the Black River watershed. The program is coordinated with local Water Assessments by Volunteer Evaluators (WAVE) citizen scientists who were trained to help screen where there were potential water quality issues. RIBS staff also asked stakeholders to share locations where water quality improvement efforts have been underway, and sampling at these locations will evaluate their success. Sampling results from DEC professional monitoring as well as citizen science data, and Professional Evaluators of Rivers and Streams data will be used to inform statewide management actions, update NY’s Priority Waterbodies List and the List of Impaired Waters, and inform DEC’s Water Quality Improvement Program funding. To learn more about DEC’s water quality monitoring programs, visit: http://www.dec.ny.gov/ chemical/8459.html Elizabeth Mosher conducts water quality sampling on Twitchell creek. Photo credit NYSDEC. 3 Black River Initiative Partnering to Manage Invasive Species The St. Lawrence– priority conservation areas. Eastern Lake Ontario To learn more about invasive Partnership for species and SLELO PRISM Regional Invasive visit www.sleloinvasvies.org. Species Management is a collaboration Ongoing activities in the among diverse Black River watershed organizations that is include engaging volunteers hosted by The Nature and stakeholders to monitor Conservancy in for invasive species, such as cooperation with the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid, NYSDEC to manage Emerald Ash Borer, and invasive species that Giant Hogweed. You can get threaten our natural involved by joining the resources and water SLELO PRISM Invasive quality. The Partners at the recent SLELO PRISM meeting. Photo Species Volunteer Surveillance partnership maintains credit– The Nature Conservancy Network http:// seven strategic goals: www.sleloinvasives.org/invasive Prevention, Early Detection helping to prevent their -species-volunteer-surveillance- & Rapid Response, Invasive introduction to and spread from network or contact the SLELO Species Control, Education & the SLELO region. There are PRISM Education & Outreach Outreach, Cooperation, many aquatic and terrestrial