Three hundred years ago, the Connecticut River was a wild, untamed source of life.
For millennia, the river supported huge populations of fish, as was most evident during annual salmon spawning runs up the river. Whereas 40,000 Atlantic Salmon — the largest run in New England — then swam up the Connecticut each year, today only a remnant population survives. The fish have been victims of overfishing, damming, nuclear power plants, agricultural runoff and industrial pollution.
Connecticut Valley EF!ers decided to work on an action to bring the ecology of the Connecticut River to the attention of all New Englanders, and to dramatize the almost forgotten, historic salmon runs up the river. Dressed as salmon, a group of EF!ers will paddle up the river, from the Long Island Sound up through Connecticut and Massachusetts, along the Vermont border and into northern New Hampshire.
