Deal to restore fish runs (Presumpscot River, Maine)

[jpak]

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=119974&ac=PHnws

WESTBROOK — The Presumpscot River, one of the nation's first industrial waterways, will be reopened to schools of migratory fish under a historic restoration plan announced Tuesday.

Sappi Fine Paper North America, owner of the former S.D. Warren paper mill in downtown Westbrook, intends to remove the Cumberland Mills Dam by 2011 as part of a preliminary agreement with the Friends of the Presumpscot River and other conservation groups.

The dam is adjacent to the paper mill and is the first obstacle for herring, alewives and other fish that swim upriver from Casco Bay. It had become the focal point of a long-running battle over fish access on the Presumpscot that dates back to violent clashes between American Indians and Maine's first industrial settlers more than 250 years ago.

Within five years after that dam is removed, the company would install a fish passageway, such as a ladder or lift, at the next dam upriver, the Saccarappa Falls Dam. Migrating fish also would be trapped and trucked farther upstream, and the company would install fish passageways at four more dams as fish populations reestablish themselves, according to the agreement.

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