MRCAC River Restoration Roundtable - lessons learned from other communities
Channel: Town of Camden Maine
Date: 14/02/2024

The Megunticook River Citizens Advisory Committee (MRCAC) hosted representatives from four communities in Maine and New Hampshire to hear about their river restoration journeys. The roundtable featured short presentations on restoration projects on the Exeter River in NH, Long Pond and Somes Pond in Mt Desert, ME, Walton’s Mills Pond in Farmington, ME, and the Bagaduce River in ME. Each panelist discussed their role in their respective projects along with triumphs and tribulations, followed by a Q&A session. 

Panelist info below:

Don Clement (Exeter-Squamscott River Local Advisory Committee) 
Project: Exeter River in Exeter, NH 
Don is a long-standing member of the town of Exeter, NH Conservation Commission as well as the Exeter Squamscott Local Advisory Committee. He also served three terms on the Exeter Selectboard and participated in several projects studying the Exeter-Squamscott River. 
 
Billy Helprin (Somes-Meynell Wildlife Sanctuary) 
Project: Long Pond & Somes Ponds in Mt Desert, ME 
Billy has been the director of the Somes-Meynell Wildlife Sanctuary on Mt. Desert Island (MDI) since 2015. Billy coordinates multiple wildlife research and monitoring projects; provides professional development for teachers and learning experiences for students aimed at increasing interdisciplinary thinking, raising scientific literacy, and connecting people to their local outdoor environments; and manages the lands and waters that comprise the Sanctuary. Prior to working for the Sanctuary, he was Maine Coast Heritage Trust’s MDI Regional Steward and has worked and studied wildlife in Utah, Wyoming, Ohio, Kenya, and Maine. One of the long-term projects of the Sanctuary has been the restoration and management of fish passage in the Somes Pond-Long Pond watershed. Sanctuary staff and volunteers count and sample migrating alewife and offer migration focused education programs with partner organizations to hundreds of students each spring. 
 
Matt Foster (Town of Farmington Parks and Rec) 
Project: Walton’s Mills Pond in Farmington, ME  
Matt Foster is currently the Director of Parks and Recreation for the Town of Farmington, Maine. He has worked in managing public recreational facilities for over thirteen years and was involved with the dam removal/park redesign and construction at Walton’s Mills Pond in Farmington which restored access for adult Atlantic salmon through Sandy River & Temple Stream. He has also served on the board of directors for Maine’s oldest non-profit organization, the Bonney Woods Corporation, for six years and has a passion for municipal government, outdoor recreation, natural resource management, and enjoys fishing, backpacking, mountain biking, skiing, and many other fresh-air activities. 

Ciona Ulbrich (Maine Coast Heritage Trust) 
Project: Bagaduce River in ME 
Ciona is a Senior Project Manager with the land protection staff at MCHT where she works with landowners, towns, land trusts, and state and federal government on a wide variety of conservation and restoration projects. Ciona was one of the point people in the set of projects that restored fish passage to the Bagaduce River. She will talk about some of the many lessons learned from efforts to restore the Bagaduce River in Hancock County.