The Mohawk River Basin Program
• 3,460 square mile watershed • Includes all or parts of 14 counties • 172 municipalities. Madison Albany Montgomery Delaware Oneida Fulton Greene Otsego Saratoga Hamilton Schenectady Herkimer Schoharie Lewis
Where it all began... • 2009 New York Ocean and Great Lake Ecosystem Council Report • How best to manage natural resources and human activities • Ecosystem-Based Management Approach to Watershed Planning • 2011 Mohawk River Basin Program created Our Waters, Our Communities, Our Future
• Shared vision • 50,000 foot perspective • Overarching goals and objectives • Targeted actions
Challenges, Goals and Progress
Mohawk Program who??? • Changing perceptions • Creating a Sense of Place • Forming partnerships
M AKING CONNECTIONS AND FORMING PARTNERSHIPS • Union College • Annual Mohawk Watershed Symposium • Schoharie River Center • Environmental Study Teams • HRECOS • New stations at Utica (Ilion), Lock 8 (Glenville) and Rexford • United States Geological Survey (USGS) • Ice Jam Cam • Prattsville Flood Inundation Mapping • Fish Assemblages in the Mohawk River
• SUNY ESF • Status of Blueback Herring in the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers • American Eel Survey work (with DEC and USGS) • Mohawk River Watershed Coalition • Representatives of the 14 Soil and Water Conservation Districts within the watershed • Mohawk River Watershed Management Plan • The Environmental Clearinghouse (ECOS) • Water Assessments by Volunteer Evaluators (WAVE)
G RANT F UNDING FOR P ROJECTS 2012 – Mohawk River Basin Program Mini-Grants • Conservation easement to preserve ~120 acres of active working farmland in the Town of Glenville • Schoharie County Recreation Map http://www.schohariecounty-ny.gov/CountyWebSite/2013RecMap.pdf • ECOS: Along the Bike Trail Guides http://www.ecosny.org/ecos-publications • Trail connection – Mohawk Landings Park (Town of Colonie) • Waterfront Development Feasibility Study (Aqueduct Park, Niskayuna) • Schoharie River Center – Environmental Study Team
Research Foundation for SUNY Cobleskill • Community Science Water Quality Monitoring to Support Data Collection, Student Engagement and Public Outreach ▪ Water sampling blitzes throughout the Mohawk River and its major tributaries ▪ Samples to be analyzed and mapped ▪ Looking for trends of chronic contamination ▪ K-12 STEM Educators from Middleburgh High School and Madison Oneida BOCES New Visions Program in Utica
Onondaga Environmental Institute, Inc. • Lessons for the Mohawk River: Youth Engagement and Environmental Stewardship • Youth engagement through classroom lessons and field activities • Targeting students in New York Mills and Oriskany school districts • Activities will increase environmental awareness and stewardship, leading to increased knowledge and understanding of the Mohawk River watershed
Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site Kiosk • Partnership with USGS and NYS OPRHP @ Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site • First phase of a 2 phase project completed, 2 nd phase in progress
Oneida County Soil and Water Conservation District • Washington Mills Sewer Line Protection and Streambank Stabilization ▪ Stabilization of existing sanitary sewer line in the Sauquoit Creek ▪ Restore natural function and improve habitat ▪ Remove barriers to fish passage; install riffle to accommodate fish passage in low water
Flood Inundation Mapping – Prattsville, NY http://wimcloud.usgs.gov/apps/FIM/FloodInundationMapper.html
Mohawk River Flooding • 2014 - 13 state-of-the-art flood studies in high priority watersheds ▪ 4 - Oneida County ▪ 8 – Herkimer ▪ 1 – Montgomery • 2017 - Schoharie Creek – initiated by County SWCD • Restoration/mitigation plans reduce risk and improve resiliency
Sauquoit Creek
Fulmer Creek
P ROGRESS R EPORT https://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/58571.html
W HERE DO GO FROM HERE ? DO WE WE GO
The Mohawk Program is growing!! Andrea Conine, PhD – Research Scientist, NYSDEC Michaela Schnore – Research Support Specialist, SUNY ESF This past summer we added an intern, Courtney Nichols, from SUNY ESF
Updating the Action Agenda • Water Quality • Fisheries, Habitats and Recreation • Flooding and Resiliency • Stewardship
Water Quality Protect Source Water Improve water quality to reduce risks to human health Improve recreational opportunities Reduce Point and Non-Point Source Pollution
Fisheries, Habitats and Recreation • Enhance aquatic and riparian habitats • Reduce the influx of invasive species • Understand, manage and improve Mohawk River fisheries
Develop strategies to mitigate the impacts of invasive species
Mohawk River TMDL development (Total Maximum Daily Load – Maximum amount of a pollutant that can occur in a waterbody) • Enhanced monitoring of bacteria, nutrients and chlorophyll • Project started in 2015, monitoring first phase commenced in 2016 • Goal: Development of a TMDL for main- stem Mohawk from Utica to Cohoes
LENS: Load Estimator of Nutrient Sources • Tool that helps to prioritize watersheds for clean water plans • Calculates estimates of annual nutrient load from a watershed • Requires a geospatial analysis to generate inputs into the tool
Input: square-meters of each land cover class
LENS summary tab Combines outputs from each page Quantifies estimated percent contribution of each phosphorus load source
Compiled results Output is a table with each watershed as a separate row ▪ Percent of each land use type ▪ Estimated percent contribution of each phosphorus source
Recommendations Monitor: Forested: Schoharie Creek at Burtonsville & West Canada Creek at Wilmurt Agricultural: Ninemile Creek & Sauquoit Creek Developed: Lisha Kill & Nail Creek Install temporary stream gages: Historical Lisha Kill gage Nail Creek Ninemile Creek
Mohawk Source Water Monitoring Project • Purpose: Characterize how nutrients and algae interact and influence the potential formation of disinfection by-products • Study will take place on main-stem Mohawk between Pattersonville and Cohoes • One reference site on the Hudson River in Waterford
Main-Stem Mohawk Flood and Ice Jam Study
Thank You Katherine Czajkowski – Mohawk Watershed Coordinator 518-402-8251 katherine.czajkowski@dec.ny.gov
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