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Water Restoration - A Project Of Maine To Restore Its Rivers And Aquatic Resources

GLOBALIZATION which is the free flow of goods and services among countries claims another victim! This hydra-like monster who depletes resources and destroys everything along its path added another state in its long list of victims, this time the State of Maine.

Maine has been considered as the largest source of paper making in all of the United States until the 20th century. This is due to its terrain. Eighty percent of this state is made up of forests which grow trees like pine, balsam, fir, basswood maple, oak, spruce, etc which are good sources for building wooden ships and paper making. Its manufacturing industries and tourism industry were flourishing then. Maine is also blessed with large rivers and lakes making it as one of the top fishing states of U.S. Among them are the Androscoggin and Saco which originate in New Hampshire flowing across Southern Maine and into the Atlantic Ocean, the Penobscot and Kennebec Rivers, the St. Croix and St. John and the largest lake, Moosehead. Maine's other major lakes include the Belgrades, the Grands, Rangeley and Sebago. These rivers are rich in brook trout, salmon perch, pickerel, alewives and lobsters which are found at Rockland, edge of Penobscot Bay. These aquatic resources were abundant in Maine until several years ago when their numbers went down drastically because of overfishing and the destruction of Maine's rivers and lakes due to the number of dams constructed along the rivers to support its industries. These dams impede the free movement of fishes along the different lakes and rivers, thus limiting their reproduction.

Maine authorities realize this big problem and have taken steps towards the restoration of the rivers and lakes to improve the fast dwindling number of its fishes. These include the following;

1. The Sebasticook River Watershed Restoration in Newport, Maine. The Sebasticook River is the largest tributary to the Kennebec river. This river is considered the habitat of nine different species of sea-run (anadromous) fish. Restoration of this consists of three projects.

a. The removal of Guilford Dam, a fish passage installed on the Sebasticook Lake outlet dam.

b. Restoration of the river bed between Sebasticook Dam and the former Guilford Dam.

c. Installation of two fish passages at and below the outlet of Plymouth pond.

The removal of Guilford Dam will allow the free movement of the fish to swim upstream to the Sebasticook River.

With the restoration of the Sebasticook Watershed, the authorities of Maine hope to increase the number of fish spawning like the American shad, river herring, striped bass, Atlantic salmon and American eel.

Pleasant River Hatchery

Part of the efforts in the restoration of fish particularly the Atlantic salmon is the project called Pleasant River Hatchery. This is an education and enhancement facility at the Wild Salmon Resource Center. The purpose is to hatch Atlantic salmon into the Pleasant river. This facility was constructed to educate students and community members about the conservation of Atlantic salmon.

Another effort towards restoration of Atlantic salmon, which is getting scarcer and subject to extinction, is the proposal to expand the endangered species to include Atlantic salmon from the Androscoggin river to the Dennys river including the anadromous salmon of the Kennebec and Penebscot rivers. The listing will provide full protection from the "Endangered Species Act". If approved after the December 2008 deadline, Atlantic salmon and the anadromous salmon from the rivers which were excluded in the 2006 review of the status of the Atlantic salmon of Maine will now be included in the list of endangered species under the Endangered Species Act.

With all these restoration efforts undertaken by the authorities of Maine, they hope to increase the number of dwindling aquatic resources particularly fish.

Seed Newsvine

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