River Restoration
The Child's River runs from John's Pond in Mashpee and
empties into the Waquoit Bay in Falmouth. It passes
through the middle of the 200+ acres owned by the Falmouth Rod
and Gun Club. The Clubhouse presently sits on a
plateau overlooking the river.
Historically the Child's River has been known mostly as a
herring river, an important commercial enterprise and source of
income for the local economy.
In the early 1900's the river also became known as a world
class Salter Brook Trout river along with other local rivvers
such as the Coonamessett, Quashnet and Mashpee
Rivers. It is believed to have been fished by two
past US Presidents. Over a period of many years the
Child's suffered catastrophic damage to it's ecosystem in
part due to chemicals and water temperature increases from
upstream cranberry bogs, as well as siltation which smothered the
stream bed and prevented trout from spawning. The
lower reaches of the river became choked by overvegitation and
debris causing reduced water flow.
In 1969, the Falmouth Rod and Gun Club installed a fish ladder to
aid herring to pass more easily upstream to spawn. In
1990, the club undertook a major project in cooperation with the
Falmouth Department of Natural Resources. This
project removed over vegitation and debris from the river channel
between the lower pond and the outflow of the river to improve
water flow and the free passage of fish. This project
continues today and is usually done annually in
March.
In 2008, the club committed to the restoration of the lower
reaches of the Child's River as a Salter Brook Trout
river. This effort is undertaken with the
Massachusetts Fish and Wildlife, Massachusetts Riverways and the
Waquoit Bay National Research Reserve. On June 4,
2008 the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist
Steve Hurley and his team moved 19 adult Salter Brook Trout from
the restored Quashnet River to the Child's River.
At that time the implanted a PIT tag (a kind of bar code tag)
into each fish. When released, their size, PIT tag
number and the exact GPS location was recorded for future
reference and tracking purposes. Since being moved to
the Child's river two fish surveys have been conducted to
ascertain that the fish have stayed and adapted to the new
home. The second of these surveys revealed 11 of the
original stocked fish were able to be located with some movement
in the river and very good growth. This is
encouraging news and the group is looking forward to April of
2009 when an electroshocking survey will be
conducted. This will determine if these fish were
able to successfully spawn and may reveal young trout in the
river.
Currently the Falmouth Rod and Gun Club is developing plans to
inprove the fish habitat in the lower reaches of the Child's
so that sometime in the near future it may once again be a world
class trout river.