Draft:Downeast Salmon Federation

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Downeast Salmon Federation (DSF) is an environmental organization founded in 1982 and headquartered in Washington County, Maine dedicated to "conserv[ing] wild Atlantic salmon, other sea-run fish and their habitats, restor[ing] a viable recreational salmon fishery, and protect[ing] other important river, scenic, recreational, and ecological resources in eastern Maine."

History

Downeast Salmon Federation was established by several local hunting and fishing clubs in 1982 to focus conservation efforts of the Atlantic Salmon in Washington County and Hancock County. In 1989, Dwayne Shaw took over leadership of DSF's land and salmon conservation programs, beginning with a large dam removal project on the Pleasant River. He then spearheaded the renovation efforts of the DSF office and hatchery in Columbia Falls, Maine. In 2000, DSF organized the removal of a major dam on the East Machias River. That same year, "DSF created the Downeast Salmon Federation Land Trust to protect habitat for salmon and other fishes along the five major Downeast rivers." In the last 20 years, they have continued to remove dams that have fallen into disrepair and are active ecological burdens to anadramous fish. Additionally, as of 2021, DSF has now conserved over 6,000 acres of land in Washington and Hancock Counties as part of their Land Trust program.

Peter Gray Parr Project

The Peter Gray Parr Project is a conservation project aimed at bringing back ocean-run wild Atlantic Salmon from the brink of extinction in the Downeast region of Maine, particularly in the 5 historic salmon rivers of the region (the Narraguagus River, Machias River, Dennys River, East Machias River, and the Pleasant River). Named after the late Peter Gray, a British fisheries biologist who orchestrated the reestablishment of the wild Atlantic Salmon on the River Tyne from near extinction, the project operates out of a hatchery in East Machias, Maine where almost one million juvenile salmon are hatched from eggs each season and trained to become 'little athletes' with a far greater chance of adulthood survival than those raised in state-run hatcheries. Gray was instrumental in helping set up the project in Maine and had the East Machias hatchery utilize many of the same practices that he had developed decades earlier in Britain at the Kielder Hatchery. The salmon are hatched into tanks painted black, rather than blue, to more closely mirror their natural river environments, and also face a constant water flow within the tank that increases in velocity as they age to prepare them for swimming against the strong current of a Downeast river after their eventual release. Most notably, the tanks use water that is constantly pumped in from the East Machias river adjacent to the hatchery to condition them to the precise environment they will be inhabiting.

Dam Removal and Habitat Restoration

Since its early history, DSF has focused its efforts on removing dams that are significantly detrimental to fish passage and restoring functional fishways. One of their first projects was the aforementioned removal of the Pleasant River Hydroelectric Company Dam in 1989. The dam completely restricted any Atlantic salmon from being able to swim upstream to breed, causing their population to continually dwindle. DSF facilitated the entire removal process, and built a new hatchery there, the Pleasant River Fish Hatchery. On the Union River, the Leonard Lake Hydropower Dams have caused river herring to be completely unable to complete their migration patterns, as the existing fishways are virtually non-functional. There are currently ongoing talks to enact a 30 year renewal on the dams' land claims, and DSF is fighting to ensure that there will be viable changes made to ensure safe fish passage before this occurs. At the Narraguagus River in Cherryfield, there is an ice dam falling into disrepair that was constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers. "The ice dam currently impedes diadromous fish passage between salt and fresh water, contributing to the decline of the once highly productive salmon fisheries along with American shad, alewives, blueback herring, sea-run brook trout, American eel, sea lamprey, and striped bass." A feasibility study into possibly removing the dam has not only been proposed but approved to be conducted, and DSF is currently raising funds along with The Nature Conservancy to complete the study. On the East Machias River, DSF is currently working to restore Beaverdam Stream, a small tributary that "contains the largest amount of inaccessible salmon habitat remaining in the East Machias watershed." DSF has already removed multiple small culverts and a stream crossing that have begun to return the stream to its original state as a haven for young herring and salmon smolt. At the Pennamaquan River, a historic run of river herring has been decimated to less than 25% of its size 50 years ago, as the lower fish ladder at the dam is broken and almost unusable. DSF is working alongside the Washington County Council of Governments and the Sunrise Economic Council to restore this fish ladder to a functional condition. At the Orange River, DSF is fighting its most fervent battle for dam removal. The 150 year old Whiting Corner Dam at Mill Pond was constructed as a fire suppression pond before the creation of water tanks on fire vehicles. It immediately decimated the entire populations of herring and salmon that used the river. Local residents constructed several fishways that helped improve access for herring, but these passages have long since disappeared. The dam is actively deteriorating and crumbling into pieces of stone and serves no functional purpose in the modern era of the 21st century, so DSF has proposed a plan to remove the dam entirely and bring back diadramous fish to the Orange River watershed. Though they are facing pushback from several locals, DSF is involved in multiple legal battles to finally demolish the nonfunctional dam and improve ecological conditions on the river for generations to come.

See Also

• Washington County, Maine

• Atlantic salmon

• Dam removal

External Links

mainesalmonrivers.org

https://downeastsalmonfederation.com/