**Brief description of projects funded with Gulf of Maine Coastal
Program's support this year that benefit fish and wildlife in Maine's
rivers and streams:**

-   **Fish passage projects:** Conduct site evaluation, develop fish
    passage recommendations and plans, and submit required permits in
    order to implement the following projects that will provide up and
    downstream fish passage:

-   **Sewall Creek-Lower Kennebec River** (Sagadahoc Co.)**:** Passage
    for native alewives, sea lamprey, rainbow smelt, brook trout and
    American eel to 48-acre Sewall Pond.

-   **Seven Mile Stream-Webber Pond searun fish passage** (Kennebec
    Co.): Passage for native alewives, sea lamprey, American eel and
    white sucker. Webber Pond is located upstream of the Edwards Dam
    (removed from the mainstem Kennebec River in 2000) and at the bottom
    of the chain of three large lakes and two smaller ponds. Installing
    a fishway would remove the final obstacle in restoring fish passage
    and re- open fish access to 10 miles of river and 2,524 acres of
    lake habitat.

-   **Flanders Stream searun fish passage** (Hancock Co.): Passage for
    native alewife, blueback herring, American eel, sea lamprey and
    brook trout along three miles of Flanders Stream and 537-acre
    Flanders Pond.

-   **Corundel Bog-East Branch Sebasticook R. searun fish passage**
    (Penobscot Co.): Passage for alewives, sea lamprey, American eel,
    brook trout and white sucker to reopen 1.6 river miles and 225 acres
    of lake habitat.

-   **Patten Stream and Pond searun fish passage** (Hancock Co.):
    Passage for alewives, sea lamprey, American eel and brook trout to
    reopen 2.9 miles of Patten Stream and 1,102-acre Patten Pond.

-   **Togus Stream and Pond searun fish passage** (Kennebec Co.):
    Passage to seven miles of Togus Stream and 648-acre Togus Pond for
    alewives, sea lamprey, American eel, brook trout, and Atlantic
    salmon.

-   **Pennamaquan River searun fish passage** (Washington Co.): Passage
    to more than 1,700 acres of spawning and rearing habitat for
    alewives and Atlantic salmon.

-   **Dennys River searun fish passage** (Washington Co.): Passage for
    native alewife into 6,700-acre Meddybemps Lake.

-   **Downeast Culvert Removals** (Washington Co.): Remove three
    culverts on downeast streams that restrict passage for Atlantic
    salmon and brook trout.

-   **Bond Brook Fish Passage Project** (Kennebec Co.): Replace an
    undersized culvert with a bottomless arch culvert and control
    on-site erosion on Bond Brook (Kennebec River watershed) to re-open
    upstream habitat for brook trout and Atlantic salmon.

-   **Downeast Fish Passage Project** -- This project will provide funds
    for Project SHARE staff to conduct outreach, planning, on-site
    management and monitoring associated with removing multiple barriers
    to fish passage in downeast Atlantic Salmon rivers.

-   **Fields Pond Fish Passage Project** -- Fish passage for diadromous
    fish to 662 acre pond.

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-   **Mid Penobscot Barrier Inventory and Assessment**: Inventory
    road-stream crossings (approximately 1,300 are known), dams and
    natural obstructions in the 2,500-acre mid-Penobscot River watershed
    (including the subwatersheds of the Piscataquis and Passadumkeag
    Rivers and the mainstem Penobscot between Veazie and the confluence
    with the Mattawamkeag River). Once compiled, this inventory data
    will enable partners to target high priority restoration sites.
    Partners hope that this newly developed assessment protocol will be
    expanded for statewide use.

-   **Loaner Bridge Program** -- In order to limit the construction of
    future barriers to diadromous fish, provide funds to Maine Forest
    Service to purchase a third temporary bridge, offer educational
    workshops with hands-on training re: proper installation and use of
    loaner bridge, and manage distribution of bridges to timber
    companies. Loaner bridges are used temporarily to cross streams
    during forest harvest operations. Once harvest operations are
    completed, loaner bridges are removed for re-use elsewhere, leaving
    the natural stream corridor intact. Loaner bridges will be used 5-10
    times annually and have an expected lifetime of 15 years, thereby
    eliminating the need for installation of hundreds of culverts. (Last
    year, our funds were used to purchase the first two loaner bridges).

-   **Penobscot River Restoration Project** -- Provide additional funds
    to conduct planning and outreach associated with this ambitious
    landscape-scale program that promises to restore free searun fish
    passage to 500 river miles in the Penobscot River watershed.

-   **Sheepscot River Habitat Protection Project** -- Provide funds for
    Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association staff to complete land
    transactions, and to support land acquisition costs for projects
    that protect Atlantic salmon habitat.

-   **Narraguagus River Habitat Protection Project** -- Provide land
    acquisition funds for riverside lands that protect Atlantic salmon
    habitat.

-   **Atlantic Salmon Outreach and Education** -- Provide funds to: 1)
    educate the public about habitat protection, salmon recovery, public
    access to the river and watershed, and specific habitat protection,
    restoration and assessment projects, 2) recruit volunteers to
    implement on-the-ground projects, engage in stewardship activities,
    and assist in managing projects identified in watershed management
    plans, 3) build relationships with municipal, township, and county
    ordinance officers, planning boards, and local landowners.

-   **Restore Instream Habitat Diversity:** Maine's rivers have
    experienced dramatic changes over the last 300 years. One of the
    most sweeping changes is the loss of the logs and branches that
    would have fallen into rivers and streams. Logjams create pools,
    retain gravel, provide habitat and food for small creatures at the
    base of the food chain, offer shelter from predators, create diverse
    riverine currents, increase water depths, and provide calm waters
    during high flow events. This project will add fallen trees to Maine
    salmon waters to increase juvenile Atlantic salmon populations,
    increase or improve rearing habitat, and restore natural habitat
    diversity to streams.

-   **St. Croix Diadromous Fish Population Assessment** (Washington Co.)
    Continue providing funds to the St. Croix International Waterway
    Commission to document the precipitous decline in the St. Croix
    alewife population since the State of Maine closed the fishway. In
    1981, a fishway was installed at the head-of-tide Milltown Dam, and
    native alewife runs grew to 2.59 million in 1988. After the
    controversial decision to close the fishway was implemented, the
    alewife population plummeted to a low of 900 fish in 2001.
    Currently, the fishway remains closed. Our funding is critical to
    document the near-extirpation of native alewives in the St. Croix,
    and provide compelling evidence needed to re-open the fishway.

-   **Highland Lake fish passage assessment** (Cumberland Co.) In 2006,
    a fishway was rehabilitated and modified, and a downstream stream
    channel was restored to provide passage for alewives upstream into
    640-acre Highland Lake and downstream into the Presumpscot River and
    the Gulf of Maine. Funds will be used to install an electronic fish
    counter and hire two student interns to collect environmental data,
    count and observe behavior of migrating alewives near the dam and at
    other downstream road crossings, maintain the fish counter and
    adjust fishway flows.