Organizations working to Reconnect Blind Bay To Chippewa Bay Project Dream Come True For Hamilton

CHIPPEWA BAY - The restoration project currently taking place to reconnect Blind Bay with Chippewa Bay is a dream come true for Del C. Hamilton.

Mr. Hamilton, a Blind Bay resident, remembers the early 1960s, when, prior to the current Department of Conservation (DEC) guidelines, Chippewa Point Road, located just off county Route 12, was extended across the wetlands at one end of Blind Bay in Hammond.

"This action totally cut off the flow of water from Chippewa Bay into Blind Bay," Mr. Hamilton says. "As the years passed, the lack of current resulted in an invasion of vegetation and silt on both sides of the man-made causeway. Oxygen levels dropped and what once was a flourishing breeding area for bass, Northern pike, muskie and other fish and wildlife was adversely affected."

In a nutshell, cattails had invaded his cherished waters, taking over the habitat and clogging up the water flow.

A native of nearby Alexandria Bay, Mr. Hamilton has a connection to Blind Bay that goes back almost 100 years - his grandparents, Del and Nellie Haas, would travel by boat in October of each year from Alex Bay to Blind Bay, in celebration of their anniversary.

"They would invite family and friends to join them," he reminisces, "and using the family tour boat, 'The Shamrock', to tow their houseboat, 'The Dora', would spend the weekend duck hunting."

Beginning in 1993, Mr. Hamilton started efforts to restore the vital connection between the two bays. By 2008, after five years of gathering old documents and photos, as well as interviewing residents who he says were "old enough to recall what Blind Bay was like in the good old days," he was approached by a pair of neighbors who had recently purchased seasonal homes nearby.

"John Hart, a Rochester businessman with amazing networking abilities, and Frank Menapace, retired Dean of Students at Herkimer College and a former fish biologist, expressed interest in helping make my dream a reality," Mr. Hamilton says.

With that collaboration in place, according to Mr. Hamilton, the Blind Bay project took off.

By Feb. 2009, the group was hosting a meeting with representatives of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife, Ducks Unlimited, and the State University of New York Environmental Science and Forestry agencies.

"We walked them over the ice on Blind Bay and Chippewa Bay to help them better understand the natural flow area that had been cut off for years," Mr. Hamilton says.

As time went on, many local residents got behind the project, Mr. Hamilton explains. "With landowner access agreements and financial donations to purchase the private road that included the causeway that has created the problem," he said of the local push.

This past April, pipes were installed under the causeway by U.S. Fish and Wildlife, Mr. Hamilton says.

"That began an initial attempt at establishing flow between the two bays," he says.

John M. Farrell, director of the SUNY-ESF Thousand Islands Biological Station, who is leading the effort according to Mr. Hamilton, began clearing a roughly 3,000-foot stretch of the river covered by the invasive cattails. Beginning last week, U.S. Fish and Wildlife employee Steve Stroka used an amphibious excavator to clear a path between Chippewa Bay and Blind Bay in Hammond.

The excavator is in the process of clearing channels between the two bays to improve oxygen levels and create a current flowing through Blind Bay again.

Mr. Hamilton says he expects the big machine to be around the area for a couple of weeks.

"This project is a dream come true for all who care about the community and being good stewards of our land and river," Mr. Hamilton says.

Once the channel is cleared of cattails, he added, the biological station will start monitoring the Northern pike and muskellunge population in the following years.

The project is funded by a New York Power Authority Fisheries Enhancement, Mitigation, and Research Fund grant, which is administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Power Authority established the grant program as part of its Federal Energy Regulatory Commission relicensing procedure for the St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt Power Project in Massena.