Equipment Operator Graves restoring trout habitat. Some fluids in the excavator needed to be swithced over to biodegradable fluids due to working location.

Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge engineering equipment operator Jeff Graves assisted the Service's Cortland field office with highly sensitive habitat restoration for brook and brown trout. White creek, a tributary to the Batten Kill, is a high quality trout stream. After flooding 8 years ago, the creek was channelized with removal of gravel and woody debris. Equipment operator Graves assisted with installing 4 Newbury weirs, a cross vane and 2 J hooks as well as root wads and other woody debris.

Restoration permits for the project required that some equipment fluids be changed to biodegradable fluids. This is the first time that the Northeast region has allowed this type of work to a prime trout stream while working "in the wet" (having no pumps). Additionally, the work required much oversight, involving New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the regional permits administrator, deputy administrator, an attorney, regional fisheries manager, a fisheries biologist, two technicians, Washington County Soil and Water Conservation District and the Village of Salem Highway Superintendent and Mayor.

The project is under the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program and specific information on this partnership project should be directed to the New York Field Office, Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program.