The Town of Richmond partnered with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Ontario County Soil and Water Conservation District to implement a stream restoration project along Mill Creek within Sandy Bottom Park. This restoration project will significantly reduce sediment inputs, improve aquatic functions, and reduce the potential threats to private residential homes and public infrastructure. By using nature based design structures like toewood and stream rock structure, this project will stabilize eroding banks while providing improved fish habitat.

The goals of this stream restoration project were to enhance stream habitat, reduce concentrations of sediment, detain and slow runoff, and provide stable conveyance of flows through the stream channel. Prior to the construction, the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, USFWS, and Ontario County SWCD spent a morning electroshocking this section of Mill Creek to evaluate the current fish population. They will survey this area again in about a year to evaluate any population changes. Ontario County Highway Department has provided final stabilization by hydroseeding disturbed areas. Be sure to check this out the next time you are at Sandy Bottom Park. It is accessible from the East Lake Road parking lot.