Supporting Alewife Restoration in the St. Croix River Watershed - Anadromous Fish Counts at Milltown Dam, Map and Document Library, and Youth Engagement Program - 2020

Year
2020
Topic

Aquatic Ecosystem Health

Project Description

This project has 3 aspects:

1) 2020 Fish Counts at Millltown: This project is the final year of a 3-year project (2018, 2019 and 2020 inclusive). The intent of the project is to document the first complete four-year spawning cycle of river herring returning to the St. Croix River watershed following removal of the last fishway barriers in 2013. The project will enumerate all anadromous fish entering the St. Croix River at the lowermost (Milltown) dam. The project forms the basis for measuring progress of current international efforts to restore sea-run alewife, blueback herring and American shad to the watershed, as well as plays an important role in supporting and validating recent alewife population dynamics models being developed to support alewife restoration planning, and supporting DFO and other agencies with establishing plans, priorities and targets for future alewife restoration efforts. The project will provide these counts and other biological data to agencies, legislators, and involved parties to support evolving restoration plans.

2) Map and Document Library: The intent of this project is to support the St. Croix International Waterway Commission with cataloguing, digitizing and properly archiving the 1000+ historical studies, documents and photo slides, as well as 600+ maps, collected by the organization since its inception in 1986. The project will also make this information more easily accessible to the local public, as well as share the information as part of an online library that the SCIWC has started.

3) Youth Engagement Program: Connecting children to local outdoor resources in the St. Croix River: The intent of this project is to create and implement a youth engagement program that can be provided to the middle school students in Charlotte County, New Brunswick (similar to a program developed in Calais, ME). The program would introduce students to various aspects of the St. Croix River, including water quality sampling, outdoor adventures, and events like a nature scavenger hunt.  

This project is also highlighted in our IWI projects StoryMap here

Outcome

Complete

Partners

Maine Department of Marine Resources