The Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission is restoring lakes and dams in Wayne County which once filled canals to float coal out to larger rivers en route to big cities.
"I'm just gonna sum it up and I'm just gonna put it out there: hot damn this is a beautiful day for Wayne County," said state Rep. Jonathan Fritz.
Fritz along with other elected officials and the commission celebrated refilling Lower Woods Pond in Lebanon Township on Friday. The 90-acre pond has three dams and is set to be refilled by the Fourth of July.
The commission also is updating Belmont Lake this summer. Miller Pond and White Oak Pond are expected to be finished by 2025. The dams were part of the Delaware & Hudson Canal System. Lower Woods was built in the 1840s.
"I think at a lot of points people thought that these lakes were just going to be dead, and they weren't going to come back," said Tim Schaeffer, executive director of the PA Fish & Boat Commission (PFBC), which manages the waterways.
Fish & Boat manages about 50 dams across the commonwealth; around 30 need $150 million total in upgrades. The funding to fix the dams began during Governor Ed Rendell’s administration.
All four bodies of water will provide more opportunities to fish and recreate in the county. The high-hazard dams also help prevent flooding.
The commission first rehabbed the 90-acre Lower Woods Pond in the 1960s. But dam regulations have changed. The work cost $2.6 million and is 90% complete. The commission is working on the boat launch and adding new docks.
State Sen. Lisa Baker said it would have been devastating to lose the waterways.
“We know that assets like Lower Woods are going to help us bring more people here who want to live and work and play in Northeastern Pennsylvania," she said.
The elected officials also turned a valve to let more water into the lake and gently dumped gold buckets with 20,000 golden shiners into the water.
The shiners will help repopulate the lake’s fish community.
“We are looking to return this to what it was, a quality fishery," said Daryl Pierce, PFBC Area Fisheries Manager. "Fishes that we eventually envision being here would be largemouth bass, black crappie, yellow perch, blue gills and eventually we hope to get it back into the walleye program."
Lower Woods Pond will be open to kayaks, canoes and boats with electric trolling motors. No gas engines or swimming are allowed.
