A BIOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE GENESEE RIVER 



SYSTEM 



Introduction 



By Emaieline ^Iooke, 

 hivesfigafor in Fish (Uilfure, in (luinjc of Survey 



Authorization of Survey. — In April, 1926, the Legislature 

 appropriated from the conservation fund the sum of $15,000 for 

 use by the Conservation Department to initiate its program of 

 biological surveys. As defined in the enacting clause the purposes 

 of such surveys are "to determine the most i)ractical methods of 

 increasing fish production/' In pursuance of this provision the 

 first investigation undertaken deals with the pressing problem of 

 formulating a stocking policy based on information of the con- 

 dition of the streams receiving the millions of fish propagated 

 annually in the hatcheries of the State. 



Area Covered. — The first stream system selected for study is 

 the Genesee. This river system is typical of those included almost 

 wholly within an agricultural area, with tributary headwaters 

 rising for the most part in open and ex})osed hill country, easily 

 accessible and subjected to intensive fishing. IMor cover, it is a 

 stream system in which both power and regulatory projects are 

 contemplated in the immediate future, circumstances which 

 project problems related to a stocking policy best studied in the 

 period preceding the construction of dams and the flowage of 

 lands. 



The county unit frequently chosen for- survey study has not 

 been selected because it seemed more advantageous to enlarge con- 

 siderably the area of operation by concentrating upon the more 

 unified problems of a stream system. With the work as now 

 completed the survey s})reads over i)arts of eight counties and 

 comprises a "full length" study of all the streams in the Genesee 

 watershed from the headwaters at the Pennsylvania State line to 

 Lake Ontario, a stream length of about 3,100 miles, including the 

 main stream and tributaries besides ponds and lakes in the system 

 aggregating about 172 square miles. The survey covered the 

 period of three months, from June 15 to September 15. 



Development of a Stocking Policy. — According to the records 

 of the Department the number of fry and fingerlings distributed 

 from the State hatcheries to the Genesee river system totals for 

 the nine-year period,* 1917-1925, approximately 40,000,000 young 



*Appendix II. 



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