By Colleen Gundlach

Norfolk has a very environmentally aware population. From the Norfolk Land Trust to the Conservation Commission, people here know the importance of taking care of what they have been given. One of the townís most knowledgeable residents in the realm of protecting waterways and the fish that inhabit them, is biologist Edward Machowski.

As a member of the State’s Inland Fisheries Division, Machowski is intimately acquainted with most every stream, brook and pond in Norfolk, and beyond. He has coordinated and participated in species restoration projects with Atlantic Salmon and Rainbow Smelt, and manages Northern Pike populations statewide.

What began as a fascination with nature as a child, when he and his best friend/dog would spend every waking moment in the woods and on water, developed into a lifetime career of studying and protecting fish and preserving their habitats. Machowski credits his interest in biology to the late Walter Landgraf, who was his science teacher at Northwestern Regional. Seeing Machowskiís aptitude and passion for environmental sciences, Landgraf introduced him to a biologist who was well-respected in the field of fisheries. Machowski spent untold hours studying with him in the woods and waterways around Colebrook and Norfolk, especially Sandy Brook, during his high school years.

Machowski began college at the Orono campus of the University of Maine. But when it proved to be too urbane for his taste, he transferred to the smaller, more intimate campus at Presque Isle. ìThe moose there outnumbered the students,î he says. Machowski later transferred to Colorado State University and spent three years pursuing a degree in Fisheries Biology and Management. While still in school, Machowski worked for the Colorado Division of Wildlife conducting angler surveys on high mountain lakes to evaluate catch rates and the growth of two different strains of Rainbow Trout. This experience along with numerous summer positions with Connecticutís Inland Fisheries Division led him to a job with the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) within six months of his return to Connecticut.

Over his career at DEEP, Machowski has performed a statewide stream inventory to document resident stream fish populations and measure in-stream and riparian habitats; he runs the Cold Water Lakes and Stream Monitoring programs, and is the lead biologist on the Stateís Northern Pike Management Project.

Recently Machowski and his fellow biologists spent a whole day attempting to restore the smelt population on West Hill Pond in New Hartford. “Many factors influence survival, including predators, environmental conditions, pollution and politics,” Machowski cautions. “We should know in three to four years if the restoration effort is successful.”

Machowski expresses a great respect for his fellow biologists at the DEEP. “If something needs to be done, we find a way to do it,” he says. But, budget cuts and time constraints have changed the way they work. “The work is sociological as well as biological,” he says. “We still study the ecology of the systems, but not to the level we used to be able to do. We don’t have as much time to research a single project. We need to have a full understanding and respect of all the user groups, not just of anglers. Twelve to fourteen-hour work days are not uncommon, particularly in the spring.”

In Norfolk, Machowski has studied the fish population in many of the town streams and managed brook trout in some, monitored thermal impacts and checked for pollution sources. In addition, he will be spearheading a stream crossing inventory which will begin this coming summer in northwest Connecticut and will include all the stream crossings (including culverts) in Norfolk. “This work will be critical in the coming years to evaluate the overall health of stream habitats,” he says. The water in Norfolk is truly unique because it forms the headwaters and feeds four different watersheds. “If we mess things up here, we will mess things up in a big way downstream,” Machowski says. “It is a feather in Norfolk’s cap that the lowest grade stream in town is the upper Blackberry River, which is a grade B. Every other stream in town is a class AA or better.”

Norfolk’s high-quality streams and rivers, partially a result of human intervention, are protecting the waterways of towns downstream. The prevalence of large tracts of open land in Norfolk contributes to a low percentage of impervious surfaces in the watershed area. “Once you get another roofline, another driveway, parking lot or road, the overall percentage of impervious surface increases,” Machowski says, “Once the percentage exceeds 10 percent in a watershed area, the fish population changes and sensitive species like Brook Trout and Slimy Sculpin begin to disappear. That is a big sign of trouble brewing.’ Fortunately, Norfolk does not have that problem.

Machowski believes that people in Norfolk are generally very careful with their natural resources and are genuinely interested in the environment and human influences on it. “People here are not just armchair environmentalists. They really work hard to protect the land and waters in town. It is a pretty sweet situation.”

Photo by Bruce Frisch.