Clean, healthy waterways are vital to our day-to-day lives. They help ensure safe drinking water, suitable habitat for fish and other wildlife, and recreational opportunities that make Maine a special place to live, work, and visit. NRCM is working hard to protect and restore Maine’s lakes, rivers, and streams, now and for generations to come.
But Maine's waterways face huge challenges. For decades, paper companies and other mills along Maine's rivers have treated these great waterways as their own private dumping grounds. The pollution they discharge prevents our native fish from thriving and impairs the quality of life for the people who live in those communities.
Pollution is one issue, dams are another. Dams continue to choke waterways across the state. While some dams are strategically located to minimize damage to fisheries and generate significant amounts of renewable electricity, other dams are obsolete or destroy fisheries resources that are worth far more than the small amount of power they generate.
One such dam was the Edwards Dam. NRCM’s work with coalition partners to remove the Edwards Dam from the Kennebec has become a national model for success. Now, NRCM and our partners in the Penobscot River Restoration Trust are working to restore this vital watershed for the wildlife and people of Maine.
NRCM has served as the voice of Maine people by advocating for clean and healthy waterways. Find out more about the issues we work on and how you can get involved to ensure clean and healthy waters for Maine.
Brook Trout Make Maine World-class Fishing Destination
The wild and native fish are a vital natural resource that provide an economic boost to the state. By Deirdre Fleming, Staff Writer Portland Press Herald news story Robert and Teresa Proctor of Atlanta have fished in New Zealand, Alaska, Chile, Belize and the Amazon. But every summer they travel to Libby Camps in Aroostook Read More
It’s Not about Killing Jobs: Aroostook Residents Really Don’t Want Weak Mining Rules
By Shelly Mountain and Alice Bolstridge, Special to the BDN Bangor Daily News op-ed Representatives for mining interests continue to lobby the Maine Legislature to weaken mining regulations that would allow Canadian-owned Irving Corp. to mine Bald Mountain in Aroostook County. In his March 9 radio address, Gov. Paul LePage implies that the residents of Read More
Brunswick Joins List of Towns that Ban Styrofoam Packaging
By Beth Brogan, BDN Staff Bangor Daily News news story BRUNSWICK, Maine — The Brunswick Town Council voted unanimously Monday evening to ban polystyrene foam, or Styrofoam, food containers beginning in October. The vote followed a public hearing before a standing-room-only crowd at which 16 people spoke, all but one in support of the ban, Read More
Study Finds Gulf of Maine Warming Faster Than Thought
By Sean Horgan, The Daily News of Newburyport Portland Press Herald news story The news just keeps getting worse for cold-temperature fish such as cod in the ever-warming waters of the Gulf of Maine. A new study, conducted by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researchers and appearing in the Journal of Geophysical Research — Oceans, Read More
50 Years Ago, We Had Foresight to Protect Allagash Wilderness Waterway
By Tim Caverly Bangor Daily News op-ed Anyone who studies the history of our national parks and wild and scenic rivers will discover the controversy that stormed over the efforts to protect our special areas. While thousands appreciate the opportunity to recharge in the outdoors, there are a few people who argue for development to Read More
Shellfish Can’t Keep Up with Shifting Ocean Chemistry
by Colin Woodard, Staff Writer Portland Press Herald news story In seawater tanks in a refrigerated room at the Darling Marine Center, the baby mussels are thriving. Two months ago they were near-invisible larvae, swimming around in the tanks. Now tens of thousands of the tiny mollusks, each just a few millimeters long, have attached Read More
Gulf of Maine’s Cold-craving Marine Species Forced to Retreat to Deeper Waters
by Colin Woodard, staff writer Portland Press Herald news story For 178 years, dams stood across the Penobscot River here, obstructing salmon and other river-run fish from reaching the watershed’s vast spawning grounds, which extend all the way to the Quebec border. Now, two years after the dam’s removal, the salmon’s proponents fear the fish Read More
Two Years After Dams’ Removal, Penobscot River Flourishes
Alewives, shad and even whitewater paddlers have returned as the largest river restoration endeavor in U.S. history starts to yield results. By Kevin Miller, Staff Writer Portland Press Herald news story VEAZIE — For nearly four decades, Barbara Wilson could watch from her deck as the waters of the Penobscot River cascaded over the 30-foot Read More
Surry Celebration: Alewife Restoration Project Nears Completion
By John Holyoke, BDN Staff Bangor Daily News news story SURRY, Maine — About six years ago, a group of concerned town residents started paying attention to a problem that had been years in the making. Patten Stream, which runs through the center of Surry and empties into Patten Bay, was full of fish. And Read More
Banner photo: Allagash Wilderness Waterway by Sam Horine
