RIVER WATCH

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have announced the latest round of funding for Delaware Watershed Conservation Fund projects. Federal funding will provide $12.5 million for thirty new or continuing conservation and restoration grants. Another $16.8 million in matching contributions from grantees will increase the total conservation funding to nearly $30 million.

Among the beneficiaries is the Sourland Conservancy, which received $95,300 and has matching funds of $104,100, to undertake ecological restoration and floodwater remediation on a 16.5-acre hillside that includes the 1.25-mile Lambertville Nature Trail. The conservancy will be “planting native woody and herbaceous species, managing invasive plants, and protecting regrowth from deer browse.”

”Other grantees include Social Enterprise Institute USA, which received $235,100, and with an additional $248,300 in matching funds will assess stream habitat and restore six sites in state parks, including Tyler State Park in Newtown to “enhance habitat for river herring, brook trout, and golden-winged warbler through use of native plantings, placement of woody debris, bank stabilization, and culvert replacements.”

“All projects supported by the fund can be seen to have positive ripple effects across the watershed,” says Bridget Macdonald, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, “because they focus on advancing one or more of the program’s strategic goals: reducing flooding and runoff; restoring fish and wildlife habitats; improving water quality and management; and enhancing safe recreational opportunities and access to the watershed’s resources.”

Construction projects on the Lumberville Aqueduct and the High Falls Creek Culvert along the Delaware Canal in Bucks County have been completed—nearly five years after both were badly damaged during Tropical Storm Ida in September 2021. The 9.1-mile trail from Lumberville to the Uhlerstown-Frenchtown Bridge and the affected swath of the towpath—just north of Trails End Lane in Upper Black Eddy— are both open once again to foot and bicycle traffic.

Because the canal is a National Historic Landmark and the storm was declared a national emergency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Park Service were involved in the four-year reconstruction planning and approval process, says Michael Ginder, executive director of Friends of the Delaware Canal. Ginder says an additional delay occurred after original timbers were discovered under the south end of the Lumberville Aqueduct abutment, requiring a redesign to incorporate them.

The Lumberville Aqueduct reopened in October 2025 and High Falls Creek Culvert reopened last February. Both projects were completed using state and federal funds, Ginder says, and were designed to help manage water from future storms of Ida’s size. He says the Lumberville project cost nearly $3.8 million to complete and the High Falls project nearly $2.8 million. “The new culvert was designed to manage four times the amount of water,” Ginder says. The new aqueduct is a fifty-foot concrete span without a center pier to help prevent debris buildup.

The 2026 Delaware River creel survey, aimed at better understanding the state of the recreational fishery in the Delaware River Basin, is now under way.

The survey, conducted via both in-person interviews and aerial counts of people fishing on the river, is designed to measure trends in angler use, harvest rates, angler effort, catch rates, size and composition of catch, and demographics, says Jake Bransky, the Delaware River Basin Commission’s senior aquatic biologist. The survey area extends from Hancock, New York, the head of the 330-mile main stem of the river, to south of Wilmington, Delaware, and includes sixteen popular fishing locations in Bucks, Hunterdon, and Mercer counties. The survey is expected to be completed by July 7.

The survey focuses on American shad, river herring, and striped bass, but information on catfish, bass, and trout is being collected as well. “Currently, for example, the American shad population in the Delaware River is considered to be depleted and subject to recreational possession limit of two fish,” Bransky says.

Survey results will be issued in a 2027 report, which will inform the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s fishery management plans.