Maine Rivers

The mission of Maine Rivers is to protect, restore and enhance the ecological health of Maine's river systems. Maine Rivers is directing the China Lake Alewife Restoration Initiative. Our goal is to remove dams and install fish passage at 6 barriers in the Outlet Stream between China Lake and the Sebasticook River. This will allow native migratory alewives, a keystone fish species, to make their way from the ocean to China Lake to spawn. A run of nearly one million adult alewives is anticipated. Coordination and planning with partners is a central part of this overall project, which brings together two towns, state and federal agencies, a land trust, local schools and numerous volunteers. During this reporting year we completed the construction of the technical fishway at the Box Mill dam, and finalized plans for the Outlet dam fishway. Maine Rivers has also continued advocating to remove the 3 lower Mousam River dams, and 4 mainstream Kennebec River dams.