The Lowell Parks & Conservation Trust is pleased to be the recipient of a 3Mgives grant in support of our herring restoration program.  We met with employees of the Billerica 3M plant out on the Concord River for the check presentation.   This grant will support work with to restore a run of herring (also known as alewife) to the Concord River watershed.

Herring have seen a recent increase in numbers that rivals what was seen in the 1980’s.  During the late 1990’s, LP&CT was involved with bringing fish from the Namasket River to the Concord River to re-establish a population here.  With the rising numbers, we brought back a volunteer monitoring program in 2017, which attracted 60 individuals who made nearly 260 observations at the Centennial Island fish ladder on the Concord.  This 3M grant will also support our work to add new technology to the ladder, an underwater camera, to help us count the fish.

“It’s wonderful to have a corporate partner that walks the talk in support of community groups doing conservation work right in their neighborhood on the Concord River, which both Lowell and Billerica value so much,” said Jane Calvin, LP&CT executive director.