By Leslie Morris
Buffalo, NY – Cattaraugus Creek, which forms the boundary between southern Erie County and Cattaraugus County, is the best fishing stream in western New York. The creek has substantial populations of brook, brown and rainbow trout, both stocked and native. In the fall, the steelhead and salmon enter Cattaraugus Creek where the creek flows into Lake Erie at the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation. The fish swim upstream past Gowanda to Springville. Springville is near where route 219 crosses from Erie to Cattaraugus County, where the Springville Dam blocks the fish from swimming farther upstream.
When the dam at Springville is removed, the salmon and trout from Lake Erie will be able to migrate all the way to Arcade, Java Lake, the Yorkshire and Delevan areas of Wyoming County, Clear Creek, Lime Lake and other feeder streams.
All over the United States, state agencies and the Corps of Engineers are removing dams to improve fishing and restore streams to their natural flow and habitat. It is time for the Buffalo Corps of Engineers and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to accept their responsibility for stream reconstruction.
On Sunday December 26, 2004, "The Buffalo News" ran a long article about the removal of the Cuddebackville Dam on the Neversink River in the Catskills, one of the finest trout streams in New York State, to improve the fishing and restore the environment to its natural state. The Corps of Engineers spent $2,000,000 remove that dam.
Here, in Western New York, we have a similar situation. The dam in Springville was built about the same time, in the 1920s, and for the same reason, to produce electricity, as the Cuddebackville Dam. Neither had produced electricity for 50 years.
If we are going to invest $60,000,000 into bringing sportsmen to western New York, let's have them stop for a few days to fish. We could celebrate both the opening of the Bass Pro store and the removal of the Springville Dam. Although the spectacle of blowing up the Springville Dam is appealing, using construction equipment would suffice.
Removing the Springville Dam would improve the environment and the fishing and restore a noble stream to its original flow.
Leslie R. Morris is a sportsman who lives in Lancaster and fishes Cattaraugus Creek extensively.