A Voice from the Eastern Door
A Voice from the Eastern Door
SRMT and MCA Environment Division staff, seasonal technicians and community volunteers for mussel salvage and relocation restoration.
L. cariosa and A. marginata to be hand-planted upstream at a relocation pool in Helena, NY.
Mussels burrow in the sand and filter water through their siphon. This is a replanted mussel, happy as a clam in its new home!
Dr. Erickson explaining details about E. complanata and other mussel features to Ase Tsi Tewaton staff.
Mussel salvaging special ops team getting a morning start on largest exposed sand shoal.
Frantic pathways of stressed mussels from shallow and warming pooled waters leaving mussels exposed high and dry!
Multiple mussel salvage methods were used in both the sand and shallow waters. Mussels burrow in the sand, making them more susceptible to mortality if not recovered quickly enough before water recession.
July 4th community helpers during the early parts of the drawdown!
Moving buckets of mussels.
By Jessica Jock, Program Manager, St. Lawrence River AOC
Environment Division, Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe
There are at least eleven different freshwater mussel species that have been identified to utilize the habitat of the St. Regis River in and adjacent to Akwesasne. Elliptio complanata is the most common and abundant species present with species such as Lampsilis cariosa, Alasmidonta marginata, & Ligumia recta considered NYS Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN). During the week of July 4th-8th, natural summer low flows on the St. Regis River combined with the gradual water drawdown event for the Hogansburg Dam removal created ideal conditions for a successful mussel salvage and relocation operation. Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe (SRMT) Environment Division staff, riverside community members, and volunteers (up to 20 people total) assisted to move 60,057 mussels over four river miles in five days! Mussel salvage and relocation operations included moving mussels into deeper waters or salvaging stranded mussels in warming shallow pools and sand shoals. This salvage effort was to proactively reduce mussel mortalities from receding waters, mussel stranding, and excessive wildlife predation.
Of those 60,057 mussels salvaged, 5,860 were L. cariosa. They were carefully transported and hand planted at an upstream relocation pool in Helena, NY which was identified to be suitable mussel habitat upstream from the impact area. Post placement monitoring of relocated L. cariosa with an underwater camera indicated all mussels were 'happy as a clam' in their new home!
Field surveys, relocation strategies and quality assurance were organized by SRMT's Environment Division St. Lawrence River Area of Concern (AOC) Program Manager, Jessica L. Jock with field crew and quality assurance assistance by Jay Wilkins and volunteer organization by Jessica Raspitha. This work was made possible by a grant awarded in 2016 to SRMT's Environment Division from USEPA's Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI).
The GLRI funding allowed for an earlier (June) detailed mussel survey to identify mussel species and abundance present upstream of the dam. Species identification, aging, sex and length measurements were conducted by local mussel expert Dr. J. Mark Erickson, Professor Emeritus, St. Lawrence University. Dr. Erickson trained SRMT Environment Division and Ase Tsi Tewaton staff to identify mussel species and other anatomical features. Mussels serve an important ecological function to our waters by performing water clarification and nutrient recycling duties in the natural environment. Mussels help keep our waters clean by filtering out particulates, organics and chemicals.
The dam removal activity is a restoration project in itself and will restore uninhibited fish passage for 267 river miles while rehabilitating habitat and features for different river species within the immediate impoundment area. With time, and appreciation of the ebbs and flows of dynamic river processes, the resurgence of the St. Regis River in its natural state in Akwesasne will emerge.
Weekly mussel monitoring by SRMT Environment Division staff will continue throughout dam removal activities at targeted nearshore and sand shoal areas looking for stranded mussels, including at the immediate area surrounding the footprint of the dam.
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