Small Sponsor, Big Results: Local Club
Takes on Childs River Restoration
SNEP
Falmouth Rod & Gun Club—a 75-year-old club with a maximum of 300 members—is spearheading an
impressive effort to restore and enhance the upper Childs River, Prior industrial and agricultural use
has polluted and choked off the river's flow. Adam now separates the river's upper reaches from
Waquoit Bay and a failed fish ladder prevents migratory passage. Both will be removed when the club
begins construction to restore habitat, the aim for which is full rehabilitation of the river to a cold-
water fishery.
Brook trout, American eel, and river herring are expected to return to the Childs River, but these
swimmers won't be the only ones to benefit from the coming changes. Visitors will be able to hike,
hunt, and view the Farley and Garner Bog areas along the river via footpaths converted from dirt roads,
and the club is planning walking tours of the restoration site. Based on the success of nearby
restorations like Tidmarsh Farm and the Coonamasset River, the group anticipates that the improved
water flow will also alleviate flooding concerns for communities in the watershed and raise the water
quality in estuaries downstream.
This restoration follows the club's successful work rehabilitating the lower part of the Childs. Both
projects were inspired by concern for the watershed and the wil
that call it home, and club members agreed a restoration
was far preferable to shouldering the liability for maintaining
the infrastructure on club property.
For this project, the club has managed a team of
collaborators, funders, contractors, and permitting agencies.
They have secured leases, titles, and conservation
restrictions to adjacent parcels, including to the
Farley Cranberry Bog, which has grown over with upland
species and will be converted to a wetland.
The full scope of work includes removal of a dam and a culvert
replacement, digging a modified stream channel, and removing
the remnants of cranberry farming activities like water control structur
several feet of sand, and ditches. Woody material and native plants will help populate the newly
exposed peat soil. The club is also prepared with a monitoring plan to measure the project's impact.
SNEP began funding this work in 2018, when the club was beginning the process of closing on property
acquisitions and laying out initial designs. Some materials have already been delivered and monitoring
has begun. Permitting is ongoing and the club expects to put construction contracts out to bid soon.
Pending final funding, the project will break ground this spring or summer.
Project leader Gary Anderson can be reached by phone (508-540-1283) or email
(huntergal@comcast.net).
Photo Credit: Falmouth Rod arid Gun Club
Southeast New England Program
www.epa.gov/snecwrp

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