The state’s top environmental officer is assuring that a vital walleye spawning area in St. Lawrence County will be protected from poachers.

State Sen. Patty Ritchie pressed DEC Commissioner Joe Martens at a joint Senate-Assembly public hearing Tuesday about the walleye spawning run in the St. Lawrence County town of Rossie.

Last year, Ritchie was alerted by sportsmen that the state DEC, in a break with a longstanding annual tradition, had pulled its intensive patrols at the scene of the sensitive spawning area, and brought those concerns to the attention of Commissioner Martens.

Martens told Ritchie the agency plans to restore its patrols to safeguard the vulnerable spot, and reassured he senator the department would re-establish the patrols this year.

The Rossie spawn is critical to the ecosystem of the Oswegatchie River, Black Lake and Indian River water systems, Ritchie said.

“Hundreds of sportsmen, conservationists and environmental officers spent decades rebuilding the walleye population in a model of local and state, public and private cooperation to insure that future generations could enjoy this world class natural resource,” Ritchie said at the hearing, held to discuss Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s budget proposals.

“I am very pleased that DEC’s top official says that he is looking at ways to protect one of the North Country’s environmental treasures,” Ritchie said.

The walleye spawn usually occurs each April, and draws tourists from across upstate New York to the Rossie site, where mature fish are plainly visible—and vulnerable to poaching—as they navigate the shoals and shallows leading to their traditional spawning area.