Bangor Daily News news story PERRY, Maine — The Natural Resources Council of Maine has selected Vera Francis of Perry as the winner of its 2010 People’s Choice Award “for her work protecting Passamaquoddy Bay.” NRCM indicated in a press release announcing the award that the People’s Choice is one of the organization’s environmental awards, Read More
Clean & Free-flowing Waters
Thanks largely to the Clean Water Act, Maine’s great rivers are much cleaner than they were 40 years ago, but we still have a long way to go to restore many of them. NRCM continues to make clean water a high priority. NRCM was founded by a group of Mainers working to protect the Allagash River, which was designated as the nation's first Wild & Scenic River. Today, it is known as the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. In partnership with others, we also opened up part of the Kennebec River with the removal of the Edwards Dam, and we reopened 2,000 miles of habitat in the Penobscot River Watershed for Atlantic salmon and other sea-run fish.
Freeing a River
In Maine, buying dams — and tearing them down — may save Atlantic salmon by Madeline Bodin Nature Conservancy Magazine story Summer 2010 In the chill of a late summer morning, Jan Paul leans over the gunwale of a small boat and submerges a plastic jar into Maine’s Penobscot River. In the stern, Dan Kusnierz Read More
Ten Years After Dam Removal Kennebec River Fish are Jumping Back
by Susan Sharon Maine Public Radio news story For centuries, dams that harnessed water power fueled factories around the Northeast. But the walled barriers prevented migrating fish from reaching their native spawning grounds. Water quality and entire ecosystems changed. Think about a dam on a river you know. Imagine what would happen if that structure Read More
Endangered Species Protections Extended to Atlantic Salmon on Three Major Maine Rivers
by Anne Ravana Maine Public Radio news story The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service today extended endangered species protections to Atlantic salmon in the Penobscot, Kennebec, and Androscoggin rivers and their watersheds. The news has not been well received by some Maine officials. The state’s Department of Read More
Fort Halifax Dam Removed to Open Fish Passage in Sebasticook
On July 17, 2008, after more than 5 years of legal battles, FPL Energy Maine Hydro breached the Fort Halifax Dam in Winslow. Finally, this section of the river will flow freely again and native sea-run fish – striped bass, salmon, sturgeon, and shad – will be able to return to waters they have not seen Read More
Vernal Pools Fuel Maine Woods
by Travis Barrett, Outdoors Writer Kennebec Journal news story WAYNE — In an instant we are all five years old again, tromping our way through ankle-deep muck and sloshing along in the water in rubber boots. Mosquitos are relentless in their pursuit of our flesh, so the only sound to interrupt that of the splashing Read More
Allagash River among America’s Most Endangered Rivers
Wild and Scenic Protections Threatened The people of Maine realized they needed a State policy to save their own wilderness areas. They petitioned their elected representatives to protect the last great wild river in the eastern United States, and the Maine legislature responded by creating the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, so that the people could own Read More
Revitalized River Flows to Healthy Future
by Larry Grard, staff writer Kennebec Journal news story There was a time within many people’s lifetimes when almost no one would have fished the confluence of the Kennebec and Sebasticook rivers in Winslow. Tanneries, factories and mills dumped municipal sewage into the Kennebec and its tributaries, fouling the waters as they flowed through Augusta Read More
Battle of Fort Halifax Drawing to a Close?
Kennebec Journal editorial The end may finally be in sight for the long-running conflicts over the Fort Halifax Dam on the Sebasticook in Winslow. The dam is an integral part of the state and federal government’s plan to restore native, migratory fish such as alewives, shad, sturgeon and atlantic salmon to the upper reaches of Read More
