Jan. 1--In the town where ducks walk on fishes ... they're tryin' to put bread outta business," sings Brooklyn-based musician Tim Fite on "Bread in the Water," a song he wrote about Pymatuning Spillway.

In that song, written and performed exclusively for a recent airing of National Public Radio's "All Things Considered," Fite goes on to ask a question that hits home: "With no bread in the water ... could we be dead in the water?"

Yes, it seems that Crawford County's top story of 2008 (as voted upon by readers of The Meadville Tribune) has become the fish tale being told across the nation.

Area businesspeople, residents and thousands of tourists from around the country weren't the only ones not happy about the Pennsylvania Bureau of State Parks plan to plug up the decades-old tradition of feeding bread to the fish at the spillway.

The policy, which was to become effective at the start of this new year, would have left visitors with one choice for feeding the fish -- state-approved meal pellets. But change was affected after state legislators, reacting to the public outcry, cast their lines into the water.

In September, hundreds of area residents met with lawmakers and park officials, prompting the bread-feeding ban to be postponed for one year as the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources reviews the plan.

The bread-feeding is not just a longheld tradition, but a key Pennsylvania tourist attraction that's important to the livelihoods of many

Pymatuning-area businesspeople. Known nationwide as the place where "ducks walk on the fishes' backs," the spillway has been featured in various publications and is one of the most-visited attractions in the state, with roughly 300,000 visitors or more each year.

But the problem, park officials and environmental experts have said, is that visitors have been tossing a little bit of everything to the fish, including cupcakes, bagels, doughnuts, buns and other items, some of which are not good for fish. Litter is also an issue.

During the proposal's review period, the county's state legislators have said they'll work with DCNR and other state agencies to come up with possible ways to manage the problem while maintaining the fish-feeding tradition.

The spillway, which dates back to the 1930s, was closed for renovations in 2006 and reopened in 2007 after a $2.6 million upgrade was completed.

Also at Pymatuning State Park, plans for a $1.2 million habitat improvement and rehabilitation project on the southeast side of the 2.5-mile causeway are now under way.

LEARN MORE

To read all of The Meadville Tribune's 2008 coverage on the proposed bread-feeding ban at Pymatuning Spillway, visit www.meadvilletribune.com and type in the search word "spillway."

To hear National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" coverage and listen to Tim Fite's "Bread in the Water," visit www.npr.org.

HOW YOU VOTED

Hundreds of Meadville Tribune readers visited our Web site or sent in ballots to choose the top stories of 2008. Voting was tabulated on a 1 through 15 scoring scale, with each first-place vote earning 15 points, second place getting 14, etc., down to 1 point for a 15th-place selection. Here is how it added up:

1. Pymatuning Spillway fish-feeding 681

2. Local/national economic meltdown 663

3. Stryker troops deploy to Mid-East 657

4. Pennsylvania smoking ban passes 630

5. Conneaut Lake Park news 599

6. Killer Kysor escapes/is caught 598

7. Energy costs go up sharply 567

8. MMC Oncology Center opens 547

9. Presidential election; Obama wins 545

10. I-79 bridges fixed/I-80 toll plan 514

11. Meadville Mall to get upgrade 476

12. Crawford Central school fix-ups 471

13. Area peace rallies turn ugly 464

14. Allegheny presidents/progress 372

15. Lisa Miceli court proceedings 345

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