Thanks to Prudy Burt, the SRBTC was invited to speak at the West Tisbury Library about the possibility of restoring a sea-run brook trout stream on Martha’s Vineyard. The town of West Tisbury is currently engaged in a discussion about whether to dredge the Mill Pond in the center of town, or to remove the dam and allow the Mill Brook to flow unimpeded down to Tisbury Great Pond.

So, on January 28, 2012, SRBTC’s Mike Hopper and Geof Day spent most of the day looking over various native brook trout streams as identified by MA DFW’s southeast district fisheries manager Steve Hurley as noted in the “Survey finds hidden fish treasures in Martha’s Vineyard streams” published by Nelson Seligman in September, 2011 in the Martha’s Vineyard Times. After our short field survey, SRBTC presented to over 50 people crowded into the meeting room of the library. Michael shared SRBTC’s experiences on stream restoration projects at Red Brook in Wareham and the Quashnet River in Falmouth, and how lessons learned on those projects could be relevant to Mill Brook/Mill Pond.

Martha’s Vineyard TV was there to videotape SRBTC’s presentation which is presented here in the following YouTube video links.

Please enjoy watching them.

Section 1 – Mill Pond / Mill Brook Restoration – Intro by Prudy and beginning of discussion of sea-run brook trout restoration work

Section 2 – Mill Pond / Mill Brook Restoration – History of Red Brook sea-run brook trout stream restoration

Section 3 – Mill Pond / Mill Brook Restoration – Questions and answers – Includes great statement from “TU Lifer” David Thompson talking about having caught “bright” sea run brook trout salters in in Tisbury Great Pond and Chimark Pond, both coastal great ponds, thereby identifying that native sea-run brook trout are indeed present on Martha’s Vineyard along with the other diadromous fish such as white perch.

Section 4 – Mill Pond / Mill Brook Restoration – more Q & A

Section 5 – Mill Pond / Mill Brook Restoration – Wrap up.

Leading up to, and as a result of, this presentation, there has been an excellent series of letters to the editor by various members of the community, some of which we will list here.

“Stream restoration on Martha’s Vineyard” – (November 6, 2010) Presentation by Beth Lambert, river restoration coordinator for the Massachusetts Division of Ecological Restoration

“Another Approach to the Mill Pond Dam” (January 28, 2012)

Thanks go to the Prudy Burt and the West Tisbury Library for hosting this event.

Videotape (C) Thomas Mayhew Productions, 2012