New York

Priority Waters

• Upper Delaware

  In a tailwater system famed for its large, fussy wild brown and rainbow trout, we are reconnecting tributaries to the West Branch and East Branch, opening up spawning habitat to wild trout and reducing risk in flood-prone communities. In the Willowemoc, we are laying the foundation for the recovery of a native brook trout fishery that inspired the earliest American fly anglers in the Catskills.

• Susquehanna Headwaters

  Draining 27,500 square miles, second most east of the Mississippi, the Susquehanna River system starts in New York, snakes through Pennsylvania and Maryland, then flows into the Chesapeake Bay. Up in the headwaters, Trout Unlimited is doing a full study of Wylie Brook, a largely intact native brook trout stronghold, to assess habitat restoration needs.

• Battenkill River

  The Battenkill—namesake to a popular line of reels from Orvis, the company based on the river in Manchester, Vt.—is a wild trout destination that anglers know the world over. But the numbers of wild brookies and browns are not what they once were, and we are working to rebuild fish habitat by adding trees that provide cover, removing obstructions to reconnect stretches, and shoring up eroding stream banks. This is a model “One TU” partnership, with national staff and state and chapter volunteers collaborating to raise funds, plant trees, work on habitat, and conduct spawning surveys.

• Adirondacks / Tug Hill

  America’s first state forest reserve still harbors native Eastern brook trout and still draws anglers. In this national landmark, we are assessing watershed fragmentation on the west slope streams, which drain into Lake Ontario, by surveying 400 culverts on state land. In the Black River watershed, we are reconnecting tributaries by replacing failing culverts.

• Taconic Range

  The Taconic Mountains, east of the Hudson, span the state’s border with Vermont and Massachusetts. Streams here include headwaters to the Hoosic, Kinderhook, and Roeliff Jansen Kill, and we are collecting data about culverts that may present fish passage barriers and meeting with towns to understand their infrastructure concerns.

• Genesee River

  Wiscoy Creek, a scenic, 25-mile tributary of the Genesee River in western New York, is a priority for wild trout recovery. We are assessing road-stream infrastructure that presents barriers to fish passage and laying the groundwork for new collaborations with local communities to replace them.

• Saranac River

  Fresh off the heels of a hard-fought battle that resulted in the removal of the Indian Rapids and Fredenburgh Falls Dams, Trout Unlimited staff, local advocates from the TU Lake Champlain chapter, and U.S. Fish & Wildlife wage on in the Lake Champlain Basin. Barriers to the migration of spawning trout and salmon have been in place for decades, stunting populations of all wild salmonids throughout the Saranac River and its tributaries. These barriers come in all sizes, many of these in form of small pipes (culverts) just a fraction of the size of the Indian Rapids dam. The origin or headwaters of the Saranac is of paramount concern for native brook trout. TU and our partners are working to systematically remove priority undersized culverts to help reduce habitat fragmentation and support community resiliency in the watershed.