Bill passed to open St. Croix to alewife run

Barring any last second surprises in Augusta, this spring alewives will be able to reach the 98% of their traditional spawning habitat in the St. Croix River watershed that has been blocked for the past 19 years. The reopening of much of the river to alewives is taking place because of recent changes in the positions held by state and federal regulators and legislators, fishery managers and tribal officials.
Legislation sponsored by Passamaquoddy Rep. Madonna Soctomah received a unanimous "ought to pass" recommendation from the Marine Resources Committee on April 2, unanimous passage in the House on April 3 and a 32-3 vote in the Senate on April 9. As emergency legislation, LD 72 then needed two-thirds support in the House and Senate, which it received, to take effect immediately upon enactment. It's not expected that Governor Paul LePage will veto the bill.
During the session the legislature considered three bills concerning the alewives' passage in the St. Croix -- two that would open the Grand Falls dam fishway by May 1 and one that calls for a longer timeline for reopening the dam. During the six and a half hour hearing on the bills on March 25, a total of 56 people testified, with 40 supporting unlimited alewife passage this year. Nine people spoke against all three bills and in favor of retaining the current blockage at the Grand Falls dam. The Woodland dam, lower on the St. Croix, was reopened under legislation enacted in 2008.
The change in position to support alewife passage was evident in much of the testimony. In 2008, then Passamaquoddy Governor William Nicholas of Indian Township had spoken against opening up the Grand Falls dam, but last year the Passamaquoddy Joint Tribal Council reversed its support of that position, adopting in September 2012 a resolution favoring unimpeded passage by alewives in the St. Croix.
In his testimony, tribal member Brian Altvater Sr. of Pleasant Point, founder of the Schoodic Riverkeepers, which held a 100-mile run last June to draw attention to the plight of the alewife, stated that for thousands of years the alewives "would make their journey from the sea up to the St. Croix River to access the many lakes and streams to spawn in the waters of their ancestral homeland, returning vital nutrients from the ocean to these freshwater lakes and streams. Alewives once numbered in the tens of millions in the St. Croix River but now have been reduced to around 30,000, with an uncertain future." Noting that the alewife "is the fish that feeds all," he said its return would help bring back other fish that were once numerous, and he urged allowing them unrestricted access above the Grand Falls dam.
Patrick Keliher, the current Maine commissioner of marine resources, spoke in support of a bill that the department had submitted, LD 584, that calls for a longer timeline for reopening of dams to alewife passage, in accordance with the Adaptive Management Plan drafted by the St. Croix River Watershed Board of the International Joint Commission. Because of concerns expressed by guides in the Grand Lake Stream area about the alewives' possible impact on smallmouth bass, the plan would have bass reproductive success monitored to determine the pace for allowing alewives farther up the St. Croix watershed.
However, George Lapointe, who was the commissioner of marine resources when the Adaptive Management Plan was developed, testified in support of LD 72 and not the department's bill. "We agreed to the adaptive management strategy in principal because it was the best deal that we could get at the time, not because it was the best thing for the alewife, the St. Croix River or the environment," he stated. He noted that a number of changes have occurred since that plan was developed, including unanimous support for alewife restoration by the Passamaquoddy Tribe, the finding by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that Maine's 1995 alewife law that blocks their passage violates the federal Clean Water Act, and the studies that have demonstrated that alewives pose no threat to smallmouth bass populations.
In addition, Wendi Weber, regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), noted that the USFWS does not support the Adaptive Management Plan, even though the agency was involved in its development. She stated that the best available science indicates that alewives "have no negative impacts on overall water quality, zooplankton communities or recreational fisheries such as smallmouth bass. To the contrary, published scientific literature and experience demonstrate that alewife provide abundant forage for freshwater bass species in approximately 70 of Maine's watersheds, including the Kennebec, Sebasticook, Damariscotta, Penobscot and Orland rivers." The St. Croix watershed has the highest potential to produce alewives of any watershed in Maine. She added, "Alewife are an important food source for a multitude of fish and wildlife species in freshwater and at sea. As such, they are a keystone in the ecosystems they occupy. Moreover, they are culturally and economically important in the United States and Canada."
That point was reinforced by Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen's Association, who noted that the lobster industry, the economic backbone of coastal communities, currently has to rely on importing bait from distant sources. "Fortunately, we have a tremendous underutilized local bait source right here in Maine," she said in support of LD 72. "The alewife run on the St. Croix River has historically provided a rich source of alewives for our fishermen. Today, it provides hardly any due to its blockage. This is bad policy that hurts Maine lobstermen, weakens our coastal economy and threatens our environment.
One group, though, has not changed its position about alewives in the St. Croix watershed: the sporting guides in the Grand Lake Stream area. Harry Bailey of Grand Lake Stream, who as a legislator had sponsored the 1995 bill that blocked passage of alewives at the Woodland dam, stated in his testimony that the collapse of the smallmouth bass fishery in the upper St. Croix River watershed in the 1980s was closely correlated with larger alewife runs. When the alewife runs were blocked, the freshwater fisheries began to recover, he stated. Bailey's family has been in the sporting camp business on Big Lake since the early 1930s, and he stated that allowing the alewives to return to the upper St. Croix would threaten the guiding industry and commercial sporting camps that depend on the freshwater fisheries.
Despite the change in position of the fisheries regulators, legislators and other stakeholders, the Princeton Rod and Gun Club, at its March 21 meeting, voted to oppose all three bills concerning the alewife run on the St. Croix, Bailey noted.
However, Lee Sochasky, who until recently was executive director of the St. Croix International Waterway Commission, which has supported the Adaptive Management Plan, urged legislators to approve opening the upper St. Croix up to alewife passage this year. Her four points were: alewives are native to the St. Croix and previously ran far up into the St. Croix watershed; research now shows that alewives and smallmouth bass successfully coexist; the state lacks the authority, and possibly the funds, to implement the Adaptive Management Plan; and fisheries management can best be carried out by fisheries agencies, without artificial constraints imposed by legislators.