Bread and Cheese Brook

Brook trout depend on cold water to live. Unfortunately, when land is cleared for development, such brooks lose tree cover that keeps them cool in the warmer months.

Westport has six of the nine “cold-water streams” on the South Coast of Massachusetts and Cape Cod that currently are breeding grounds for a remarkable species of brook trout.

The Coalition has been committed to preserving land around cold water streams and brooks in Westport and further north in Fall River to ensure the best possible conditions for fish that have endured many threats to their survival. This was something that the Westport Fishermen’s Association had focused on before merging with the Coalition in 2018.

The Coalition has recently protected a 49.2-acre forested property located adjacent to residential development between Route 6 and I-195 along Bread and Cheese Brook. This area may not be as scenic as other preserved land abutting tributaries, but it is important to the ecosystem.

About half of the purchase price was funded by a Conservation Partnership Grant from the State of Massachusetts; the other half came through funding by a private foundation.

The presence of these unique species of fish in the cold-water streams of Westport has important implications for any future activities affecting the Westport River and its tributary streams.

The Coalition has protected more than 400 acres of land around local Westport tributaries, including Lyons Brook, Angeline, and Snell Creek. The Coalition continues to engage landowners in these corridors. This work is paired with culvert modernization along these bodies of water to ensure uninhibited flow.

These acres contribute to a growing corridor of conserved land along the brook and will benefit water quality in the downstream waters (East Branch Westport River Estuary).