Delaware school children will likely have more opportunities to learn about the wonders of the Brandywine Creek in the near future but the fish that migrated up the picturesque waterway before it was dammed in colonial times are unlikely to have their passage eased any time soon.
Those were the conclusions of a three-day kayak trip in mid-September down the creek from the area where American shad and other migratory fish have spawned to a boat ramp in downtown Wilmington via 10 dams that still stand in their way more than 200 years after they were built.
While there’s no early prospect that most of the dams will be demolished or modified to facilitate fish passage, hopes are high that schools will soon benefit from $1 million in federal funding to pay for educational programs that will open students’ eyes to the natural life of the creek and its surroundings.
A federal official told kayakers and representatives of environmental groups that “exploratory” funding of $250,000 to $500,000 for environmental education on the Brandywine has been identified by the National Atmospheric and Aeronautical Administration. The money would be in addition to the $1 million for education in the Delaware Bay area that is in the federal budget for fiscal 2025, and awaits Senate approval.
“Because of the work you all have done to advance the environmental literacy program in the Delaware Bay, there’s value in that, and that value is fully recognized,” said Bart Merrick, a coordinator for NOAA, at a reception for environmental groups including The Nature Conservancy and the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary at Thompson’s Bridge in Brandywine Creek State Park on Sept. 13.
“We hope that this exploratory money will help the partners that are assembled here and other places in the Delaware Bay watershed develop capacity so that when that funding comes online fully – hopefully just in a year or so – you will be able to build on the groundwork that has already been laid. We’re talking about young people having access to places like the Brandywine, to build a relationship with the river and each other,” Merrick said.
Advocates for more experiential education on the Brandywine argue that exposing young people to nature near their communities allows them to discover flora and fauna that they might not have suspected, and will help build public support for environmental protection.
Those advocates include Upstream Alliance, a nonprofit that led the Brandywine expedition, which is believed to be the first organized kayak trip down the whole 26-mile length of the creek’s traditional shad migration. The route has been largely blocked to migrating fish since the dams were built by early settlers in the 18th century to provide power for grain mills.
The nonprofit’s president, Don Baugh, said the expected funding will come from B-WET, an environmental education program that promotes place-based experiential learning for K-12 students, and related professional development for teachers.
Baugh said he’s confident the full funding will be approved and will enable Upstream Alliance and its partners to run multi-day courses for teachers, provide classroom sessions and student experiences on the water, and conduct follow-up restoration projects.
“Upstream Alliance’s role would be to transform the three-day kayak trip we just operated into a summer professional development experience for teachers,” said Baugh, who in 2022 led a trip for teenagers to the source of the Cooper River, a long-neglected waterway in the heart of Camden, NJ. “Teachers will have their own experiences, a better understanding of the river’s ecosystem, participation in student activities led by partner organizations, and develop ideas for classroom integration.”
The expected B-WET funding was included in the federal budget by Sen. Chris Coons, whose brother, Steve, received an award from the environmentalists at the Sept. 13 event.
The latest kayak trip took up to 20 paddlers down about 26 miles of the creek, starting at ChesLen Preserve in Pennsylvania, and moving into Delaware past the Brandywine Museum of Art, the Hagley Museum, and Brandywine Park to the 7th Street Boat Ramp in Wilmington.
Kayakers floated past the creek’s thickly wooded banks where green herons skulked, belted kingfishers flew away with their distinctive rattling call, and ospreys soared overhead. On the trip’s second day – the first for this reporter – the only real challenge was the shallow water that often scraped the kayak bottoms, sometimes requiring the paddler to get out and push the kayak to a deeper area. Only once did the party have to get out of their kayaks and drag them over rocks beside a partially breached dam before relaunching in flat water on the other side.
But the expedition’s final day became far more challenging, requiring paddlers to pull their kayaks over boulders beside several dams, and then in several places to navigate white-water rapids where the current was accelerated by the water pouring over the lip of a dam just upstream.
All but one of the Brandywine’s 11 Delaware dams survive in various forms; some have been partially breached by age and weather, and one is scheduled for demolition in November, but at least six are being defended by their owners or nearby residents, and now seem likely to remain standing, albeit with possible modifications that allow migrating fish to swim upstream.
The one dam that has been removed so far is the most southerly, Dam 1, which was demolished in 2019, allowing shad – in a victory for naturalists -- to move upstream as far as Dam 2 near Brandywine Park. That dam won’t be removed because it feeds drinking water to the City of Wilmington, so conservationists hope to build a “rock ramp” to allow fish to get upstream of the dam. Experts say rock ramps allow 50-80 percent of migrating fish to swim past the dams.
The biggest obstacle to the long-running campaign to remove the creek’s dams is the Hagley Museum and Library where the DuPont family built gunpower mills starting in the early 19th century, using the four dams on its property to generate the waterpower that drove its machinery.
Hagley won’t remove any of its dams but says it’s open to discussing ways of building rock ramps or other infrastructure that would allow shad and other migratory fish to move past the dams to their upstream spawning grounds.
“We’re absolutely open for having someone come study the dams to talk with us about what would be a way to get the fish up and over,” said Jill MacKenzie, Hagley’s executive director, in a creek-side interview during the kayak trip. “We are a member of this community, and we want what’s best for the community and the river health.”
Hagley’s opposition to dam removal is based on its conviction that the structures tell an important story about the early history of the United States, MacKenzie said. But in a demonstration of the dams’ enduring power, one is already providing hydroelectricity that’s used to charge a shuttle vehicle for visitors, and she hopes the power-generating potential of two other dams can also be harnessed.
MacKenzie hopes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will study how to help fish migrate past the dams, and she’s waiting for a decision on whether the agency will do that.
Stephen Rochette, a spokesman for the Corps’ Philadelphia office, confirmed the agency has developed a proposal to study “aquatic ecosystem restoration through addressing dams on the Brandywine” but is awaiting approval and funding before proceeding.
Dr. Jerry Kauffman, director of the University of Delaware’s Water Resources Center, and a long-time advocate for the removal of damaged or deteriorating dams on the Brandywine and other Delaware creeks, said he supports the installation of rock ramps or other devices to aid fish passage on dams that are historically significant or structurally intact.
Allowing shad and other migratory fish to return to their upstream spawning grounds would help those waterways revert to their pre-colonial nature, said Kauffman, who participated in the kayak trip.
“There is a movement in the United States to restore rivers back to the condition that existed with the Lenape people before the Europeans arrived in the New World and began constructing mill dams for hydropower during the colonial era and the industrial revolution between the 17th and 19th centuries,” Kauffman said.
Resisting the removal or repair of damaged structures such as Dams 4 and 5 heightens the risk that they will give way during the next major storm – such as Hurricane Irene in September 2021 – and flood downstream areas with huge quantities of water, Kauffman said.
The evolving approach to dam removal is shared by the Brandywine River Restoration Trust, a nonprofit that used to be called Brandywine Shad 2020 when it was focused on removing dams.
It changed its name when it accepted that dam removal could not be achieved in the time it first allotted, and it took on the broader mandate of promoting restoration, education, and recreation on the creek, said Jim Shanahan, its executive director.
“Our goal is still to remove the dams but we recognize that it’s not necessarily possible. Whoever owns the dam controls whatever happens to the dam."Executive director of the Brandywine River Restoration Trust Jim Shanahan believes in an evolving approach to the dam removal.
“Our goal is still to remove the dams but we recognize that it’s not necessarily possible,” he said. “Whoever owns the dam controls whatever happens to the dam. This is America; you can’t go in there, especially an NGO, and tell them: ‘We’re going to take out your dam.’”
The homeowners association for Brandywine Falls, an apartment complex that opposes any removal of the adjacent Dam 5, did not respond to a request for comment.
For Justin Collela, manager of the Northbrook Canoe Company, an outfitter that runs kayak and canoe trips on the west branch of the Brandywine, said the creek is increasingly popular regardless of whether paddlers have to clamber over dams.
“It doesn’t matter what’s happened in your life; once you get out on the water, you are in a whole different place,” he said during the kayak trip. “There’s a peacefulness and tranquility; it’s a view of the watershed that you can’t get from any other spot. There’s something that’s slow, calming and centering.”
And he doubted whether there’s any need to remove the one dam on the part of the creek where he runs his trips. “Even the Lenape had fishing dams on the creek; it’s an interesting piece of history, and I don’t think anyone really minds it. It’s been there for 200 years; if it’s there and it’s working, why mess with it?” he said.
