River of redemption

Steve Moyer stands in the Howland Bypass channel on Tuesday, June 14, after an event to celebrate the reconnection of 1,000 miles of Penobscot River system. On a day with higher flows, fish could very well be swimming in this very spot.

By Steve Moyer

I hit the wall at the University of Maine at Orono in my sophomore year, 1977. A promising track career derailed. I couldn’t handle injuries, couldn’t balance heavy course load, and my determination buckled. It was a heavy blow. I was -- in the words of a former beloved coach – “put out to pasture."

My balm was the peace of the Orono environment. I joined a great group of friends who showed me the joys of running slowly through the lovely woods, past the amazing beauty of the Penobscot and Stillwater Rivers. No intensity. No lofty expectations. No stopwatches showing times that were too slow. Those runs by the river and through the woods revived my desire to be an athlete, and fueled my young love of river conservation.

To my untrained eye, the Penobscot looked healthy in the late 70’s. In reality, it too had plateaued. With an assist from the new Clean Water Act in 1972, water quality had improved as industrial and municipal waste had been cleaned up. The cuts that I couldn’t see were those inflicted by a series of dams that had been built on the river starting in 1834, as sources of hydropower for the region’s mills. The dams were ruining the river’s once prolific anadromous fisheries – shad, herring, alewives, and best of all, Atlantic salmon.

A series of huge new risks faced the Penobscot in the 80s and 90s, threatening to undermine hard won progress. A proposal to construct “The Big A” dam in the upper part of the basin, an even more ominous proposal to construct the Basin Mills dam near Old Town, and the need to reauthorize the licenses of several old dams near Old Town, Orono, and Bangor, were “make or break” threats to the Penobscot. A salmon run that was once estimated to be at least 50,000 adult returning spawners, had dwindled to a few thousand, and all other sea-run fish were extirpated above the first dam

But in the challenges were seeds of opportunity for those who were smart enough, and resilient enough, to find them. 

The road to redemption was a hard one. River conservationists also hit a tough patch in the 80s and 90s. The Penobscot Indian Nation, fishers on the river for 8,000 years, and conservationists from the Natural Resources Council of Maine and Maine Audubon joined anglers from the Atlantic Salmon Federation and Trout Unlimited to fight battle upon battle against the new dam proposals, and against the new licenses for the old dams. They knew that, even though they had won some victories, the cause might well be lost in the end because partial wins were not sufficient to rescue the fish.

The hardy band resolved to try and look at Penobscot restoration in a new way. Instead of fighting the hydropower companies, they agreed to work with them to see if the group could find a big sweet spot between the needs of industry and the needs of dying anadromous fish populations. Much to its credit, the primary dam owner, PPL, joined the conservationists in a fresh look.

Thus began the greatest and most innovative river restoration program in history. Six conservation groups (including TU) and the Penobscot Indian Nation formed an independent group, the Penobscot Trust, to raise funds to purchase the dams, conduct the community outreach, develop and file the permits, and complete the project.

It was an incredible team effort. Sixty-five million dollars of private and federal funds were raised through the heart of the Great Recession and under difficult federal budgeting constraints. Thousands of hours of community outreach with town and civic leaders, and neighbors of the dams, were conducted to explain the project and gather support for it.

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Canoeists paddle through Great Works Falls during the National Whitewater Canoe Championship in the summer of 2015. The removal of the Great Works dam allowed for paddling passage of the restored rapids. (Dee Dee Reardon photo.)

Today we see a river being reborn. Two dams have already been removed, and a third bypassed. One thousand miles of habitat have been opened to fish passage. All --100 percent-- of the power lost from the removed dams has been replaced by upgrades elsewhere in the basin. The fish are returning in droves. On Tuesday, my TU colleague Jeff Reardon and I witnessed the final chapter in the construction/destruction process when the Howland bypass was feted. It was a powerful, moving day on the river.

There are many people to thank for such a great achievement. It’s risky to start naming names, but I am inspired by this day to want to have a go at it. There’s no better place to begin than with those who have been at it the longest! On behalf of TU, I would like to thank:

--The Penobscot Indian Nation, and our friend Director of Natural Resources John Banks, for the unwavering support, prodigious efforts, and a connection to the resource for thousands of years, that has inspired all of us.

--The Penobscot Trust, and staff stars Laura Rose Day, George Aponte Clark and Cheryl Daigle, who gave heroic effort to plan and conduct the project, and did 1,000 tasks large and small, to make it successful.

--Andy Goode, and the Atlantic Salmon Federation who were one of pioneers of the project, and who worked steadily all the way through to the end.

--Kate Dempsey and The Nature Conservancy, who came to the project in the middle innings, but whose leadership and drive were critical elements of its success.

--Pat Kelliher and George LaPointe were outstanding state agency partners whose work was essential to the project.

--American Rivers made substantial contributions to the project on Maine and in Washington DC, where Jim Bradley was a leader in Congressional appropriations  work.

--The U.S. Fish and Wildlife and the National Marine Fisheries Service were strong federal partners who provided funding and technical expertise;

--Senators Susan Collins, Angus King, former Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, and former Representative Mike Michaud, were great Congressional supporters who helped to garner critical appropriations and provided invaluable guidance to the project.

--The Bangor Daily News, who dialed in to the project at its earliest stages, provided readers in Maine with rich and comprehensive coverage throughout.

My apologies for all of those I missed. 

I’ll end with my heart felt thanks to our incredible TU staff and unrelenting Maine TU volunteers. Our very best effort was given by Maine staffer (and former TU council chair) Jeff Reardon, whose amazing savvy and bulldog determination were absolutely essential elements of the project. Jeff and the Trust’s Laura Rose Day led much of the community and citizen meetings effort for the project. If those meetings would have gone badly, and significant opposition would have arisen, the project would have been dead, the fish along with it.

Current staffers Chris Wood, Elizabeth Maclin, Kira Finkler and Joe McGurrin all made significant contributions, as did former staffers Charles Gauvin and Leon Szeptycki.

Thank you, Mainers, for showing us all how to find the innovative sweet spot and redeem a great river.  It’s a fantastic inspiration for me.  As other river conservationists learn about it, it’s my hope that the project will inspire others to try to innovative approaches to redeem their favorite rivers too.

Steve Moyer is Trout Unlimited's vice president for government affairs. He works out of TU's headquarters office in Arlingtong, Va.