Diz at Osage Trails February 1999
Tiley Pratt Fishway
SAFEGUARDING DIZ’S LEGACY
In the early 1600s the Connecticut River teemed with fish. In the spring anadromous
species moved up the river to spawn in freshwater. According to reports from that time,
migrating fish in springtime were so plentiful that a person could walk across the river
on the backs of fish swimming upstream. The reports also said Atlantic sturgeon in
Connecticut rivers were plentiful, some growing up to 12 feet long and weighing 800
pounds. By the 1960s, dam building, land use practices, over-fishing, and water pollution
severely reduced fish populations and some species became extinct in the river and its
tributaries, including in Falls River.
The disappearance of fish diminished wildlife up and down the food chain. Herbivorous
beavers, which were abundant in Connecticut in the early 1600s, became completely
extinct by the mid 1800s due to unrestrained trapping and the high demand for beaver
pelts in Europe.
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