The Amazing Return of Mystic Herring
An Urban Ecological Restoration story
In the past few years, something remarkable has happened. The population of river herring that spawn in the Mystic River has more than tripled.
This is the story of what made this population recovery possible.
River Herring
Dams
The Experiment
The Population Recovery
What's Next
Goal 14 of the UN’s seventeen ambitious Sustainable Development Goals calls on us to “ conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development.”
For ocean-going river herring—and other important species that use both salt and freshwater habitats like salmon and American eel —conservation means opening up inland freshwater resources that we have historically cut off with dams.
Sustainable development in our urban setting means removing dams and allowing the natural world to thrive alongside and even through our cities.
The great news from this densely urbanized watershed is that this is possible. We can imagine a future of flourishing in sustainable cities while life flourishes in the ocean.
