Doing the Good Work

Q

Can you share a little about your role at TNC Maine? What does it mean to be a watershed restoration specialist? 

A The short version: I work with private landowners, towns, businesses, Tribal nations and other community members to upgrade outdated infrastructure that is blocking our waterways. This work is a win-win for both people and nature, supporting infrastructure resilience and global biodiversity.

The slightly longer version: Let’s start with defining the term “watershed.” That’s an area of land that drains rainwater or snow into one location. Wherever you are right now, you’re in a watershed. Watersheds nest like those Russian dolls, so we can talk about really small watersheds, like the very headwaters of a tiny stream, or really big watersheds, such as the Gulf of Maine, that contain and are made up of many smaller watersheds coming together. Restoring a watershed of any size means making multiple strategic improvements, like culvert upgrades and dam removals, to improve habitat for wildlife and to reduce flood risks for communities. 

Q

What do you mean by "flood risk"?

A

“Flood risk” essentially means water backing up and inundating things we care about. That includes threats to road infrastructure that can wash out in high flows—we’ve seen a lot of this across Maine over the last few years. These blowouts are dangerous, very costly to fix, disrupt transportation and emergency services and put all sorts of toxic road materials in our streams. Fortunately, we have the tools to address this challenge. Thanks to a 13-year field work research project conducted by colleagues at TNC and other partner organizations, Maine has one of the country’s—and the world’s—most comprehensive databases of road-stream crossings. My colleagues and I use this database to look at the big picture for a whole watershed and figure out where we can implement strategic projects that have the biggest impact on solving problems for people and nature. 

Q

What’s a favorite project you worked on recently? 

A Last fall, after years of planning and preparation, we finally finished upgrading the Lakeview Road culvert in Brownville, Maine. This crossing is in the Piscataquis River watershed, which offers some of the best habitat on the entire East Coast for endangered Atlantic salmon. The previous culvert was too small for the amount of water that needed to flow through it, meaning that many kinds of fish and other aquatic critters couldn’t get through to the habitat above and that it flooded regularly, so the town had to make expensive repairs to the road every year. Now that we’ve upgraded the crossing, it’s large enough to allow spring meltwater, storm floods, and debris—like fallen trees—to pass under without damaging the road above. Fish can swim easily up along the natural riverbed, and there are shelves on each side for terrestrial wildlife like mink, foxes and turtles. 

Q 

Can you set the scene a little? What is Brownville like and why does this road matter. 

A Brownville is a typical rural Maine town with a population of about 1,100. It’s in Piscataquis County, with a strong historical connection to the forest products industry and continent-spanning railroads. A lot of folks pass through town on the way to the Katahdin Ironworks Road and the 100-Mile Wilderness section of the Appalachian Trail.

Lakeview Road is the only way into Brownville’s Lakeview community that can accommodate large vehicles like ambulances, fire trucks, and propane trucks. There are some year-round residents and many seasonal camps. Before this upgrade the old culvert flooded every summer in recent memory, cutting the community off from essential services. 

Q

Why did this project in Brownville rise to the top of the priority list? 

A

From TNC’s perspective, it offered a big win for nature and the community at a manageable cost. Working with partners, we analyzed almost all the road-stream crossings in the watershed to find out which ones were causing problems for wildlife. We saw that this one would open up eight miles of stream habitat in a fairly cost-effective way, offering good bang for our buck, while also resolving the hazard it was causing for people in the area.

Another critical aspect of this project is community buy-in. Community leaders were very motivated to fix this crossing. Every summer when the old culvert flooded, the water washed away tons of gravel. The town was using the equivalent of $5,000 to $30,000 of new gravel every year, which is a big line item in the budget for a small municipality. Between the costs and the impact on public safety, fixing this culvert was a priority for town officials. 

Q

What partners are involved in a project like this? And what was TNC’s role in particular?

A

Like almost every river restoration initiative, this was a team effort! We worked closely with expert staff at the town, NOAA (the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration), and DMR (the Maine Department of Marine Resources); and collaborated with USDA-NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) and USFWS (US Fish and Wildlife Service). We hired a Maine-based engineering firm to design the new bridge, and the Town contracted a local firm for the construction. Without everyone bringing their expertise and unique skills to the project, we would never have been able to get it done.

A big part of my role is to coordinate funding for restoration projects. The price tag for this new bridge came out to $1.5 million in total—way out of reach for the town to do on its own. But since the project would benefit endangered Atlantic salmon, federal funding from NOAA was available to cover most of the project costs.

Another part of my role was conducting construction oversight. There are, rightly, a lot of rules around in-the-water construction to ensure projects don’t harm wildlife or pollute the waterway. I spent many days out in the field making sure all those rules were followed. It was a busy construction site with dump trucks, excavators, a loader, and a temporary bridge for passing traffic, so there was a lot to keep track of. 

Q

Any favorite moments in the field? 

A

One of the most fun parts of the process was getting fish out of the stretch of river we were building the new bridge on, so the construction process wouldn’t harm them. DMR biologists installed block nets above and below the construction site and then came through with electrofishing gear to “zap” the fish, stunning them temporarily. We then scooped them into buckets, counted them, and released them downstream.

Electrofishing day was very fun for the construction crew, too. They’re not used to seeing what’s in the river that way. They stopped their work and gathered around the buckets to see all the fish we found. It’s surprising how much you find in a stretch of river that looks like just water from above. We ended up with five buckets of fish, including some eels!

Q

Is this an unusual project? Or are there projects like this all over Maine?

A

There are folks doing this all over the state! Other nonprofits like Atlantic Salmon Federation, Trout Unlimited, and Downeast Salmon Federation lead many of these projects. TNC and USDA-NRCS have a program that supports private landowners, think timber companies, in this work. The Maine Department of Transportation also has funds available for towns working to upgrade culverts. TNC has developed an online tool, the Culvert Flood Risk Explorer, to help communities understand flood risks and plan needed upgrades.

This is a relatively small project compared to other multiyear efforts we have underway—like our stream-connectivity program for private landowners, supporting restoration on the Skutik River, removing the Mayo Mill Dam in Dover Foxcroft, and restoring the Kennebec. It’s an exciting time for river restoration in Maine!