by Tom Cleveland
Under the wings of whirling ospreys, the Town of Branford gathered to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Supply Ponds Fish Ladder on Saturday, April 25th. Schools of 10” fish called alewives were swimming cheek-to-cheek and then up the fish ladder to lay their eggs into the Supply Ponds and on through the Queach Brook watershed up to Lindsley Lake and even Cedar Lake just as they have done for over 10,000 years.
Alewives and their cousins, blueback herring, are anadromous fish, that is, they spawn in fresh water but spend their adult lives in the ocean. They are critical food – everything eats them! Bluefish, striped bass, whales, sharks, seals, cormorants, ospreys, racoons, and even black bears! Before Europeans created dams on all the streams and rivers, these fish brought tons of food back to coastal forests, so much so that we can still detect ocean isotopes from their bodies within a quarter mile of most watercourses. Towns like Branford have built 65 fish ladders throughout Connecticut to restore fish back to 10-15% of their ancestral spawning grounds – there are still 4,000 dams in the State, many of which block spawning herring.
Over 100 people including many kids, young families, and longtime Branford Land Trust members, showed up to welcome the river herring back to Branford. All celebrated with live acoustic music, face painting, alewife crafts from BLT and the Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center and information tables from Save the Sound, Branford Historical Society, an aquatic insect display from the Xerxes Society, a fish tank, a kid’s binocular station and a display of fish-eating bird skulls. We had short speeches from Josh Brooks, First Selectman, Steve Gephard, DEEP fishway emeritus and Kevin Job, his worthy DEEP successor and passionate fisheries advocate. Jane Bouley, Branford Town Historian emeritus spoke about the history of the Supply Ponds. The spirit of the day was captured by poet Steve Mentz, and Courtney Cucinotta, a North Branford indigenous leader. All inspired us to see Branford and the world with new eyes.
The Branford Land Trust built the fish ladder in 2005 on the Supply Ponds owned by the Town of Branford. In a great show of trust, the Town gave the land trust permission to raise $203,000, hire Nathan L. Jacobson Associates as the specialist engineers and Pinder Construction as the contractor. Both firms had expertise working on water projects and fishways. Steve Gephard, the then fisheries biologist at DEEP, and an internationally known fishway expert, advised the land trust throughout the 3 years that it took to organize the money, permits and talent needed.
Then, it took only 3 months to actually build the fish ladder! Rich Pinder, Jr. and a helper sawed into the dam to cast the concrete exit structure and leveled a bed onto which the fishway sections would sit. The Stony Creek Quarry delivered over 200 tons of stone soon after the welded aluminum sections came down from Newcastle, ME. A big excavator laid the flat granite slabs on top of the berm into which the fishway sections were locked, creating a walkable surface that let the public experience the fishway up close. Four 10 ton blocks were laid across the Queach Brook upstream of the fishway entrance to guide the herring into the fishway entrance.
In the last two years, herring have returned in great numbers; 23,000 in 2025 and over 11,000 so far in 2026 – more than returned in all years prior. This is because big commercial trawlers were prohibited from fishing where our herring congregate off of Cape Cod and Long Island for the last two years. Sadly, regulators plan to allow these trawlers back in 2026 and 2027 unless we get changes made to the regulations.
If you wish to stay abreast of fish ladder news (and to lobby for herring!), contact Tom Cleveland at tom.clevelandjr@gmail.com.
Fish Ladder
Tom Cleveland
On the occasion of the opening of the Branford Supply Pond Fish Ladder, 2006
Alewives may be running, swimming, schooling –
Pushing on with light and grace,
Towards evening circles soon, in water warm,
They make their nest.
Then rise in floods of tiny silver,
And sweep to marsh and on to ocean
Where forever and four years,
They swell and flash till so full grown
Again to Branford, home they come!
Fish and Ladders:
A Sonnet
Steve Mentz
What fish of ladders know is not certain –
We think of water, of flows and pressure,
Of worlds chill and wet, an iron curtain
Between you and me and water’s treasure.
And ladders? Machines against gravity,
Steps upon discrete steps. Fish have no feet,
Walk no walks, feel no wet depravity
Nor sloshy finprints dampen no concrete.
To ascend! Up, up, past water and air
From sea through stream they splash and jack-knif’d swim
As if progressing slowly up a stair
Into freshwater bubbles like a hymn.
Shall we ladder ourselves entwin’d with fish?
Repairing this world is our fondest wish.