Maine Coast Eco-history 1998 Dennys River

Maine Coast  Eco-history 1998. The below BDN article by reporter Mary Ann Clancy describes how   Maine Governor Angus King in being opposed as he tries to implement state wild salmon conserving alternative to federal  Endangered listing  of Atlantic salmon.
At issue: stakeholder Denny's River Watershed Council opposes state  setting up fishtraps called weirs to capture all upmigrating salmon, allow culling of aquaculture escapees, counting/ releasing wild fish. Problem: concentrates the salmon schools into single location- much more available to seals & 2-leggers at both ends of the weirs)

The Bangor Daily News    Thursday, August 6, 1998

Dennys River Watershed council says salmon face predators at proposed  weir site
By Mary Anne Clancy, Of the NEWS Staff --

Map Source _USFWS and NOAA

DENNYSVILLE - Maine's federally mandated state plan to protect Atlantic salmon took a
blow from within this week when a local watershed council opposed state placement
of a fish weir on the Dennys River.

The weir, designed to keep farmed salmon from
entering the river while allowing wild salmon to swim upstream to spawn, is a
critical part of Maine's Atlantic Salmon Conservation Plan.

The state adopted the
plan earlier this year to prevent a federal
listing of the Atlantic salmon as threatened
under the Endangered Species Act.


The Dennys River Watershed Council, which voted to oppose the weir this week, has no
authority to prevent it. But the local opposition comes as state officials begin the
first major salmon protection project amid expectations of a lawsuit that could call the
state plan into question.

The threat of a lawsuit was heightened last week when a federal court ordered the
National Marine Fisheries Service to designate coho salmon on the Oregon coast
as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The court order stemmed from a
lawsuit by environmentalists and fishing groups in the Northwest who challenged
the validity of a largely voluntary state plan to protect the salmon. The court ruled that
NMFS could not accept the Oregon plan as a substitute for strong federal action. Some say
the ruling portends a similar lawsuit against Maine's plan.

Bill Nichols, chairman of the Maine Atlantic Salmon Authority, said the Dennys River
weir is an essential part of the Maine plan. For that reason, the salmon authority will
proceed with plans for the $250,000 weir, he said.

''I feel badly because we'd like to operate with community approval, but we're also
under pressure because the weirs are required under the Maine Atlantic
Conservation Plan,'' Nichols said. ''One way or another, there will be a weir there and
the only question is who will build it - the state or the federal government.''

Bill Robinson, chairman of the Dennys River Watershed Council, said his group supports
the state plan and knows that weirs are critical, but believes the location on the
Dennys River that the salmon authority has chosen is ''all wrong.'' The salmon authority
wants to put the weir at the site of an old mill pond at the mouth of the river and close
to the tidewaters of Cobscook Bay, Robinson said.

Salmon that don't swim into the weir esigned to channel them upriver quickly -
and many salmon won't enter a weir - either will be forced out to Cobscook Bay and
devoured by seals or will linger near the Edmunds bridge and be targets for anyone
who wants to take them, Robinson said.

The Dennys is one of seven Maine rivers that federal fishery agencies believe are home to
the last wild runs of Atlantic salmon in the United States. Earlier this year, Maine
adopted a salmon protection plan for those rivers as an alternative to a federal proposal
to designate the salmon as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The
seven rivers are the Dennys, East Machias, Machias, Pleasant and Narraguagus in
Washington County and the Sheepscot and Ducktrap farther south in Maine.

Local watershed councils for each of the seven rivers also are part of the state
conservation plan. Members of the councils are to include all stakeholders in the
watershed, including major landowners, state and federal agencies, municipal
officials and businesses. The councils will identify and protect against threats to water
quality and salmon habitat within the rivers, according to the state plan.

At a meeting to adopt bylaws Monday, the Dennys River Watershed Council
unanimously opposed the weir site as its first official action, Robinson said. In addition to
expressing concerns about seals and human predators, the 15 people at the meeting
identified several other reasons for their opposition in a news release issued Tuesday.

The group said the weir would interfere with the scenic view of the lower Dennys
River. Construction of the weir would disturb sediments and logs on the river bottom,
possibly damaging downstream tidal clam flats, the council said. The release also stated
there had been no environmental impact statement.

Nichols said he agrees that seals could pose a problem, but that is something the salmon
authority will have to address through other measures.

The V-shaped weir is designed to guide fish swimming upstream into a trap. The trap
will be checked daily to allow wild salmon to swim freely upriver to spawn, and to remove
any aquaculture salmon from the river.

Weirs are a key part of the state plan for the Dennys, East Machias, Pleasant and
Narraguagus rivers because the rivers are close to salmon aquaculture operations on
the Washington County coast. The weirs also will be used to count the number of salmon
returning to the river, and to collect brood stock that will produce wild salmon for
future river stocking.

According to federal and state officials, aquaculture salmon that escape from their
sea pens pose several threats to wild salmon. The farmed salmon can expose the wild
salmon to diseases and parasites. The aquaculture fish can interbreed with the
wild salmon or the farmed fish could lay their eggs on top of the wild salmon eggs,
smothering them and reducing survival rates.

Nichols said the weirs should pose no threat o clam flats because the salmon authority
will use coffer dams to contain sediment during construction. The state wanted to
construct the weir on the site of a previous fence weir on land owned by the Dennys
River Salmon Club, but the club refused to grant the salmon authority access rights for
more than one year at a time, Nichols said.

 Since the new weir will cost $250,000 and is epected to be in place for 10 years, the
state could not agree with that arrangement, he said.

Nichols said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has given Maine $1 million and instructed
the state to install the weirs. The money will pay for weirs on the Dennys, East Machias
and Pleasant rivers, and the Machias River weir will be put on hold, he said. The salmon
authority will install a temporary fence weir at the site this fall and will install the more
permanent V-shaped weir next spring, he said.

Henry Nichols, coordinator of the Maine Atlantic Salmon Conservation Plan and no
relation to Bill Nichols, said the job of the watershed councils is habitat protection, not
fish management. The state plan delegates fish management responsibility to the
Atlantic Salmon Authority, Nichols said.

''Obviously, we'd like to be partners in all aspects of this effort, but not putting in that
weir will cetainly jeopardize the whole state plan,'' he said.


1998, Bangor Daily News