Howlett Brook Fishway Construction Underway

TOPSFIELD, MA – – Construction on the Howlett Brook Dam fishway Jul 20, 2023 upgrades have begun and will be completed by early August. A weir-pool fishway had previously existed at this site but was completely destroyed during the Mother’s Day Flood in 2006. The dam has been without fish passage for both migrating and resident fish since then. The new weir-pool fishway will provide upstream and downstream passage for priority species such as river herring and dovetail with the larger Howlett Brook Restoration Project.
The Howlett Brook Dam is located in the Town of Topsfield on Howlett Brook, near its confluence with the Ipswich River, approximately 1.5 miles upstream from the Willowdale Dam. Howlett Brook is a major tributary to the Ipswich River, containing more than 25 miles of stream and a watershed spanning 6,925 acres. The dam site features a 2.2 acre impoundment and was originally a grist and saw mill and has always been privately owned. The late Jonathan Peabody owned the historic Donaldson Mill dam constructed initially in 1705 and most recently reconditioned in 1983.
The complete renovation to this fishway couldn’t be possible without the generosity of current dam owners, Mickey and Lynda Berkowitz, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who funded the project.
“NOAA has worked with the Ipswich River Watershed Association and other partners to restore migratory fish populations in the Ipswich River watershed for more than a decade. We are excited to see this work underway at the Howlett Brook Dam, which will help improve access to important habitat for alewife,” said Carrie Selberg Robinson, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Office of Habitat Conservation and project funders.
“This is a major step forward in improving fish passage in the Ipswich River watershed. A functional fishway at this dam opens up critical spawning and rearing habitat for river herring, which have been on the decline for quite some time here,” said Neil Shea, Restoration Program Director, Ipswich River Watershed Association (IRWA).