Page 10. MAINE COASTAL NEWS December 2014
Waterfront News Two Fish Passage Projects Completed in Penobscot Watershed
BRUNSWICK—Just before the big rains in October, the Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) completed two fi sh passage projects in the Penobscot watershed and one in the East Machias watershed as part of its ongo- ing Maine Headwaters Project. These proj- ects will directly benefi t Atlantic salmon, alewives, blueback herring, eels, and brook trout. Together, they open up full access to 10,000 acres of ponds and lakes and recon- nect over 100 miles of streams previously blocked by impassable dams.
In the Penobscot watershed, a Denil
fi shway was completed below Pushaw Lake in the Town of Hudson. This project was begun in 2012, but high water prevented its completion until this fall. In September, an Alaskan Steeppass fi shway was installed below a Town of Carmel bridge on Soudab- scook Stream. This marked the culmination of 15 years of work in this watershed by ASF. On the East Machias, a failed, old
wooden fi shway was replaced by a modern concrete Denil fi shway below Crawford and Pocomoonshine lakes. This was a joint proj- ect with the Downeast Salmon Federation (DSF), a local ASF affi liate that is working to restore salmon in all the Downeast rivers. DSF provided local community outreach and project coordination. “With the Penobscot River Restoration Project moving closer to full implemen- tation, efforts to improve fi sh passage on tributaries like Pushaw Stream and Souad- ab scook Stream take on even more mean- ing,” said Pat Keliher, Commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR). “The work of groups like the ASF is important to help DMR meet its goals for restoring sea-run fi sheries in Maine.” ASF’s Maine Headwaters Project is focused on reconnecting key spawning trib-
utaries to the large rivers and Gulf of Maine. There is both a tremendous need and oppor- tunity to focus on these clogged tributaries. Of the estimated 2,000 dams in the State of Maine, over 90 percent are located in tribu- tary streams where critical spawning habitat for migratory fi sh is found. Many of these dams no longer serve their original purpose, have no fi shways and are often a liability for their owner. Many others are outlet dams on ponds and lakes that also lack any type of fi sh passage and are owned by lake associations with few fi nancial resources.
“The best chance we have to restore At- lantic salmon in Maine is to focus on restor- ing the full native assemblage of migratory fi sh with which they evolved and depend on for food and protection,” said Andrew Goode, ASF’s Vice President of US Pro- grams. “These three projects will provide access to long lost spawning grounds for salmon and river herring such as alewives.” ASF’s approach is to work collabora- tively with willing dam owners to craft a solution that fi ts their needs while allowing for restoration of Atlantic salmon and other migratory fi sh. This work often begins with community outreach and education and is followed by conceptual and fi nal engineer- ing designs, permitting, construction and post-project monitoring. The funds come from a combination of public and private grants as well as in-kind assistance. Over the past decade, ASF’s Maine Headwaters Project has completed 20 fi sh passage projects restoring access to 18,500 acres of lakes and ponds and almost 400 river miles. As a result, this past spring, 170,000 alewives returned to Blackman Stream in the Penobscot watershed through a fi shway constructed at the Leonard’s Mills Dam in 2009.
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Partnerships with state and federal re- source agencies have been critical to the suc- cess of ASF’s Maine Headwaters Project. Restoring alewives and blueback herring to the Penobscot and Downeast watersheds is a key goal of the state and federal fi sheries agencies. Migratory fi sh play an important role in the river’s ecology as they travel to and from the sea, bringing in nutrients and in many cases taking out excess phosphorous from Maine’s lakes and ponds.
Engineers with the United States Fish
and Wildlife Service have been instrumental in developing conceptual designs for fi sh- ways. “The United States Fish and Wildlife Service has been a partner in ASF’s work for the past 15 years and we were excited to provide technical assistance and funding to help make these projects possible,” said Laury Zacari with the Service’s Maine Field Offi ce.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric PMM Receives Grant for "National Fisherman" Collection
SEARSPORT – Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport, Maine has been awarded a $56,333 grant by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to support the preservation and digitization of their National Fisherman Collection of 25,000 photographs. Penobscot Marine Museum is one of three institutions in Maine receiving funds from the IMLS Museums for America program in 2014. The National Fisherman Collection was donated to Penobscot Marine Museum by Diversifi ed Communications of Portland, Maine in 2012 and provides unequalled documentation of American commercial fi shing from the 1920s into the 1990s. National Fisherman magazine is the U.S. commercial fi shing industry’s publication of record, making this the largest collection of twentieth century photographs in the fi eld. When completed, this National Fisherman preservation project will provide the only publically available online record of the history of modern fi sheries. “This collection documents the deple- tion of marine resources and the techno- logical changes our nation’s commercial fi shery underwent after World War II,” said
Liz Lodge, Executive Director of Penobscot Marine Museum, “and it provides a wealth of information to a large international audience of academic, governmental, and cultural content users.” Many of the 25,000 images in the collection include captions, annotations, photographers’ credits, and references to magazine articles, making it both a visual and written documentation of the American fi shing industry. The museum will use the grant funds to catalog, archivally house, digitize, and provide public visual access to the collection on their website. The IMLS grant provides partial funding for this National Fisherman project.
“Our grants are highly competitive. The Institute of Museum and Library Services enlists hundreds of library and museum professionals throughout the United States to review grant applications and make recommendations on projects most worthy of funding,” said IMLS Director Susan H. Hildreth. “Receiving a grant from IMLS is signifi cant achievement, and we congratu- late Penobscot Marine Museum for being among the 2014 IMLS museum grantees.” IMLS museum grants support a wide variety of projects that create learning experiences, strengthen communities, care for collections and provide broad public access. A complete list of museum recipients is available on the IMLS website at
www.imls.gov/2014Mu- seumList. For information about IMLS museum grant programs, see:
www.imls. gov/applicants/
available_grants.aspx.
Administration (NOAA) Community Hab- itat Restoration Center has also provided funding for fi sh passage projects and tech- nical assistance. “The NOAA Restoration Center was pleased to be a part of all three projects, including providing significant funding for construction” said Matt Bernier, a civil engineer with NOAA Fisheries, who helped oversee the fi shway designs. “Alewives, as a member of the larger community of sea run fi sh, are critically important to various life stages of Atlantic salmon and other fi sh and wildlife in rivers such as the Penobscot and East Machias.”
The National Fish and Wildlife Foun- dation, as well as groups such as The Na- ture Conservancy in Maine and the Maine Natural Resource Conservation Program, also provided signifi cant funding to these projects.
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