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Restoring the Penobscot for Fish and People
From the Summer 2006 issue of Maine Legacy

Researcher Stephen Fernandes holds up a shortnose sturgeon.

University of Maine researcher Stephen Fernandes found shortnose stur-
geon in the Penobscot this June--the first confirmed record since 1978.
Learn more about this research. © Christopher Holbrook

To untrained eyes, the run-of-river dams along the Penobscot aren’t particularly imposing. But to an Atlantic salmon, each dam is a Great Wall of China, blocking the route to traditional spawning grounds. Those that do manage to climb the fish ladders emerge battered and exhausted.

 

For shad, rainbow smelt and striped bass, the upstream side of a dam might as well be the dark side of the moon. But that will change. A historic movement is under way to remove two dams and restore sea-run fish to over 500 miles of habitat along the Penobscot and its tributaries.

 

The Nature Conservancy has joined the Penobscot River Restoration Trust (see page three) in an effort to reclaim much of the river’s former glory. The project has already gained national attention as an example of collaborative and innovative conservation. It is “one of the biggest restoration projects on the East Coast,” according to Laura Rose Day, the Trust’s Executive Director.

 

The seeds of the project were sown when PPL Corporation (formerly Pennsylvania Power and Light) purchased a series of dams in Maine in 1999. Discussions with the Penobscot Indian Nation and several environmental groups led to a remarkable announcement four years later, calling for removal of the Penobscot’s lowermost dams (see map page four). By that time, the idea had caught fire and the collaboration had grown to include an astonishingly broad cast of characters: the Penobscot Nation, five environmental nonprofits, four Maine state agencies, and three divisions of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

 

The goal is to remove the Veazie and Great Works Dams and to decommission and bypass the Howland Dam to allow fish passage. The Trust holds an option to buy the three dams from PPL by 2009 for about $25 million. (More funds will be needed for the actual removal of dams and restoration of the river.) In turn, the Trust members agreed to support PPL’s option to increase power generation at six other dams. These increases will allow the company to maintain over 95% of its capacity for renewable energy generation on the river. The first of the capacity increases was approved this May.

 

The Trust, which originally consisted of the Penobscot Indian Nation and five environmental organizations (Atlantic Salmon Federation, Maine Audubon, Trout Unlimited, Natural Resources Council of Maine, and American Rivers), approached The Nature Conservancy  in  2005. Recognizing both the extraordinarily far-reaching conservation values of this landmark effort and the Conservancy’s ability to provide special expertise and resources at the state and national levels, trustees voted this February to join.

 

Conservancy conservation planner Josh Royte, for example, has already taken on a key role on the Trust’s scientific team, which will help ensure that the restoration project maintains its strong scientific footing.

 

“The potential to learn from comparative studies of the river before and after dam removal is really exciting,” says  Royte. “Researchers from around the country will be collecting data about the physical changes in the river, as well as the remarkable recovery we expect to see in populations of fish, birds, mammals and insects.”

 

If previous dam removal projects are any indication, Royte is right to expect remarkable changes on the Penobscot.

 

“After removal of the Edwards Dam in 1999, animal communities along the Kennebec River rebounded more quickly than anyone predicted. People thought it might be five or ten years before we saw much change, but fish began breeding above the dam site the same year it was removed.”

The increases in fish populations were not lost on the osprey, bald eagles and other species that feed on them - nor were fishermen slow in flocking to the river.

 

In addition to allowing 11 species of sea-run fish including alewife, shad, Atlantic salmon, sturgeon, smelt and blueback herring to reach breeding grounds that the dams have made inaccessible, the Penobscot Project is expected to have dramatic cascading effects on human and biological communities along the river.

 

Birds of prey, including osprey and bald eagles should benefit, as should fish-eating mammals such as otters, mink and fishers. The removal of the dams will also bring  increased recreational fishing and paddling opportunities and will return traditionally important species to the waters that the Penobscot Nation calls home.

 

And as Penobscot Nation Chief Jim Sappier points out., others around the country are looking to this creative collaboration as a model.

 

“Tribes, as governmental entities, do not usually enter into agreements with conservation groups, states, the U.S. Government and industry. Tribes throughout the nation are watching this project closely.”

 

The Conservancy has committed significant staff resources to the coalition’s goal of raising public and private funds for the purchase of the dams and for their subsequent removal and bypass. So far, the Trust has raised about a third of the purchase price for the dams.