By Lisa Pohlmann, Special to the BDN Bangor Daily News op-ed For the last few weeks sea-run fish known as alewives have been heading up Maine’s rivers to lay their eggs. Their journey is a breathtaking force of nature to behold, as they fight strong currents, heading upstream in droves. While probably hundreds of millions Read More
Kennebec River
Citizen Leaders Stand Up to Protect Maine’s Precious Natural Heritage
For the Kennebec River, Bald Mountain and South Portland, three people are making a real difference. By Lisa Pohlmann Portland Press Herald op-ed AUGUSTA — This winter, I took my 8-year-old grandson out for an afternoon adventure in the snow-covered woods. We followed deer tracks, talked about the wood duck boxes in the marsh and Read More
My Maine This Week: Sam Horine
“A recent rain had put a hard crust on the snow that made skiing and snowshoeing hard to do, so I bet my wife, Patricia, that I could ride a bike on the river. I did, but wouldn’t recommend it.” – Photo courtesy of NRCM member Sam Horine of Skowhegan, Maine.
We Need Answer to Maine Smelt Decline Before It’s Too Late
Portland Press Herald editorial Rainbow smelt were once found as far south as Chesapeake Bay, and were particularly abundant along the Gulf of Maine. Now, the small, tasty fish has disappeared from Connecticut south, in a depopulation so rapid that researchers were too late to pinpoint an exact cause. A similar trend is occurring in Read More
Reclaiming Rivers
By Henry Heyburn Jr., NRCM board member In July of 1999, I attended the breaching of the Edwards Dam on the Kennebec River. There were hundreds of others in attendance including Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer John McPhee, author of Coming Into the Country, The Survival of the Birch Bark Read More
Racing for a Reason
by NRCM Board member Kate Rush When I was a kid, my parents purchased a waterfront lot on Sebasticook Lake in Newport, Maine. As dairy farmers, traditional vacations were not often practical so a nearby retreat where we could escape for a few hours at a time seemed more fitting. Then came our first July 4th, and Read More
Creature Feature: Rainbow Smelt
Rainbow Smelt Osmerus mordax Cool Fact: Smelt have been fished commercially since the 19th century, with most being landed in Maine waters. One of the great rites of winter in Maine is renting a shack in a smelt camp on the Kennebec River and fishing for smelt through the ice. Warmed by the wood stove Read More
Dam Owners Should Help Finance Kennebec Fish Run Restoration
by Clinton B. “Bill” Townsend Kennebec Journal op-ed The Kennebec River once hosted enormous runs of Atlantic salmon, river herring and other fish that live part of their lives in fresh water and part in the ocean. By the 19th century, however, those resources had become only a fast-fading memory. Water pollution, over-harvesting and impassable Read More
Lower Kennebec River a Secret Jewel for Paddlers
Waterville to Gardiner stretch ‘kind of a little gem of a river trip that’s very accessible for people that live here,’s says state official by Paul Koenig, staff writer Morning Sentinel news story The paddling trip from Waterville to Augusta, or even farther south to Gardiner, is an underrated trip compared to more popular waterways, Read More
