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Crooked River Dam Could Impact Wild Salmon

September 24, 2008 - SEBAGO LAKE -- After traveling the world on an oil tanker for 30 years, Jim Hathaway said he likes Sebago Lake the best, as much for the salmon fishing as anything else.

Hathaway, who lives in Naples, has been fishing for 60 of his 68 years and has been fishing regularly in Sebago Lake since 1998. It’s relaxing, Hathaway said. He enjoys it.

But Sebago's salmon, one of four indigenous landlocked salmon populations in the state, and the only population in southern Maine, could be in danger. If a proposal for a dam on the Crooked River at Scribner’s Mill in Harrison is approved, the salmon's natural passageways and habitat could suffer, according to lake advocates and Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife staff.

Dana Murch, hydro supervisor at the Department of Environmental Protection, is charged with deciding the case. He said the purpose of the project is to restore and operate a water-powered sawmill using original 19th century equipment as part of an educational center and museum.

The application for the dam was first filed in 2003, but Scribner’s Mill Preservation Inc. has been working on the mill preservation project since the early 1980s. Representatives of Scribner’s Mill Preservation Inc. did not return calls for comment.

Having received responses to the last round of comments from the mill preservation group, Murch will soon be ready to make a decision. In doing so, Murch said he will try to balance the benefits of the project, in this case energy generation for the sawmill, with the adverse impacts.

“The two big questions are how will this proposal affect fish passage and how will it affect fish habitat,” Murch said.

Though a passage for fish to cross the dam is part of the proposal, it won’t let all fish through, and flooding the river upstream of the dam will change the habitat, according to regional fisheries biologist for southern Maine Francis Brautigam.

“There are a lot of concerns with this project,” said Brautigam, who filed a review of the Scribner’s Mill dam proposal with the Department of Environmental Protection. Brautigam’s report cited issues with habitat degradation and fish passage. It also stressed the value of the salmon fishery.

“We have a lot of people who come to Maine specifically to fish for landlocked Atlantic salmon,” Brautigam said. “It’s a really valuable fishery in terms of public interest and in terms of unique genetics.

In southern Maine, Brautigam said Sebago Lake constitutes 56 percent of the total acreage of bodies of water that contain salmon. It is the only body of water with a significant wild salmon population, he said.

The proposed fish passage over the dam would likely reduce adult passage by more than 2 percent and juvenile passage by almost 84 percent. It’s important for juveniles to be able to move up and down the river because they spend their first two years in the river, Brautigam said, adding that 65 percent of the available salmon spawning and nursery habitat is upstream of Scribner’s mill.

“Providing passage for all life stages is pretty critical,” Brautigam said.

“At a time when dams are being taken down, they’re proposing to put one back,” said Don Allen, president of the Sebago Lake Anglers' Association, who is against the proposal.

“If you don’t protect them, you’re going to lose that resource,” said Hathaway, a longtime Sebago angler who opposes the dam. “Locally it’s a big thing, as far as the economy goes.”

Hathaway said this summer the fishing hasn’t been as good as the last. He’s not disappointed if he doesn’t catch anything though, it’s still a nice day on the boat.

Early in the morning, said Hathaway, “it’s you and the loons.”

By Julia Davis
jdavis@keepmecurrent.com
Sept. 22, 2008


Lakes: Sebago Lake
Regions: Sebago


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