Closed canal
Covid-19 will impair the navigation season on the Erie Canal and fish migration
The Erie Canal is closed, and when it does fully reopen it will be well past the original opening target date of 15 May. There is a chance that transit through the entire canal system in the Mohawk Watershed will not be possible this season. While this has important implications for boaters and communities along the river, it has less obvious implications for fish and other aquatic organisms that also use the locks for watershed mobility. It appears that the Canal will be opened in sections, but the lower Mohawk may lag the longest.
On 23 April the Canal Corporation posted an announcement that the 2020 navigation season will be impaired due to Covid-19 [1]. That notice stated:
“Due to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, the Canal Corporation has suspended all non-essential construction and maintenance activities, therefore the New York State Canal system will not open for through navigation of the locks on May 15th as previously announced. However, to support the Canal's continued use as a prime recreational waterway, the Canal Corporation is currently evaluating operational options to ensure New Yorkers will have access to the Canal system, if even potentially on a regional basis, this season....” [1]
One important aspect of this announcement was opening “...if even potentially on a regional basis,” which suggests that there is the possibility that some sections (or specific locks) of the canal will not open at all this year. The most recent announcement on 15 May [2] indicates that “regional opening” is now essentially a certainty. There is considerable concern that a slow or regional opening of the Canal will have a negative economic impact. On 24 April, the Erie Canalway suggested in an email to subscribers that the Canal was essential transportation infrastructure and thus should be a priority:
“… we believe that a fully navigable canal system is essential transportation infrastructure. Delays in opening the Canal System or opening the canals on a "regional basis" will have significant negative impacts on the economy and social fabric of upstate communities and will impede a full New York State recovery.”
On 15 May the Canal Corporation announced a phased schedule of potential reopening dates that reflect a complicated matrix that attempts to integrate the timing of regional reopening once COVID-19 metrics have been met and the time needed for maintenance projects to be completed [2]. For the Finger Lakes and Central NY they have set a target date of 4 July. But for the Mohawk and Capital District the opening will be later – if at all. The announcement said, in part:
“...Canal system will open for through navigation of the locks by July 4, 2020, as maintenance and construction projects are set to resume on a regional basis under the “NY Forward Reopening” plan.”
Map showing the sections of the Erie Canal in the Mohawk watershed. Locks shown in red have pending maintenance that needs to be done (date below red locks is projected possible completion date). The Mohawk Valley region is in Phase 1 of re-opening, but the Capital District has not yet met the criteria for re-opening (thus lock repair dates are given as weeks after opening date). Given the target dates, it would appear that E19 and E7 have major work and these two locks may impair transit of the entire system in the Watershed.
Between maintenance issues and NY Forward Reopening plan, the lower Mohawk appears to have the most issues and will likely be closed the longest [4]. It is certainly possible that the canal will only be open on a regional basin this year, which means that transit from the Hudson to the Great Lakes on the Erie Canal may not be possible this year.
Part of the western section of the Erie Canal was “watered” because this section was deemed essential and the water is needed in May for irrigation [5]. This opening allows water to be used for irrigation and agriculture, as it has been in the past. In fact this use will probably be expanded in the future as suggested by the recently released findings and recommendations from the Reimagine the Canal task force [8].
“In the Western Region, existing Canal infrastructure can be adaptively reused to greatly strengthen rural economies. Using Erie Canal water to expand agricultural irrigation will enable farmers to invest in high-value crops, such as apples or other fruits and vegetables, safeguarding these crops against the increasing droughts, which are forecast to accompany climate change.” [8]
Every year a small fraction of boats traveling the Mohawk are transiting from the Hudson to the Great Lakes, and some of these boats are “loopers.” These are boats on a continuous through-going journey (a loop) to the Great Lakes and beyond [6]. The Erie canal is part of the Great Loop, a ~5000-mile journey through interconnected waterways in the Gulf, the coastal Atlantic, the Erie Canal and Great Lakes, and the Mississippi River. The NY segment is the 338-mile section of the Erie Canal between Albany and Buffalo. This is already a challenging year for loopers because the Illinois waterway (the Illinois River) is slated to be closed for repairs from 1 July to 29 October (2020) [7].
What about the fish? The canal serves to connect waterways for boats, but fish and other aquatic organisms also take advantage of this connection. It appears that the connection out of the Mohawk watershed into the Great Lakes will be open, and thus there will be a continued concern of the west to east advance of invasive species, like the Round Goby that I wrote about recently.
The connection of the lower Mohawk to the Hudson is a different story, and this section will be closed to spring biologic activity. One important group of migratory fish are Herring that come up the Hudson and enter the Mohawk through the Waterford Flight (five locks that have a combined lift of 170 ft). Historically, alewives and blueback herring have used the locks to get into the Mohawk - they have been doing this for 100 years. However, this year that migratory route will be impossible because in even the most optimistic opening scenario the start of operation of these locks will occur after spring migration and potential spawning. Recall that river herring are anadromous, which means that they migrate from the sea to fresh waters to spawn.
I talked to Dr. Karin Limburg (SUNY ESF), who studies, among other things, the migration of herring into and out of the Mohawk River. Karin thought that the lack of lock activity was going to stop the Herring this year, and thus the Mohawk may have near zero return. However, she thought that the fish would probably manage partly because dam removal on the upper Hudson has provided new expanded habitat that they didn’t have in recent years.
The only way in. Cohoes Falls in the lower Mohawk is an imposing barrier to fish passage. It is the only way for fish to get in or out of the lower Mohawk now that the Waterford flight is closed (Photo: JI Garver, Feb 2020). Apparently eels can climb this bedrock wall.
Scott Wells of the NYS DEC, who studies fish populations in the Mohawk, noted that it is not just Herring, but many other fish that use the lock system to move about the Hudson-Mohawk watershed, including eels. He noted that the only way in to the Mohawk now is climb up the 90-foot-high Cohoes Falls, a difficult feat that only the American eel (Anguilla rostrata) can handle. This is another good reason this resilient and adaptable fish deserves some respect in the Watershed.
This and other Notes from a Watershed are available at: https://mohawk.substack.com/
Further Reading
[1] Statement by Canal Corporation about delayed opening – 23 April
[2] Statement by Canal Corporation about delayed opening – 15 May
[3] Erie Canalway - National Heritage corridor – Water trail News (May 2020)
[4] Erie Canal, Project list and completion target for 2020
[5] Thomas J. Prohaska, The Buffalo News, Erie Canal to open from Lockport to Finger Lakes by July 4 (15 May 2020).
[6] The Great Loop
[7] Closure of locks on the Illinois River in 2020
[8] Report from the Reimagine the Canals Task Force, released 1/2020