|
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
||||||||||||
Good News on the Penobscot
There is another year of good news to report on the Penobscot River in Maine. As of mid-July, over 1,000 fish had passed the fish ladder at the Veazie Dam, the first major obstruction on the main stem of the river. This marks the second year in a row that more than 1,000 fish have returned to the Penobscot. The heavy rains that have plagued the mid-Atlantic and northern New England have helped the salmon runs on the Penobscot.
Under an agreement reached last year with the Pennsylvania Power and Light Company (PP&L), the Veazie Dam is scheduled to be removed. PP&L will sell the Veazie dam and two others up river to a partnership of various conservation organizations and the Penobscot Indian Nation for $25 million. The dam will be removed after the sale is completed. Removal is not anticipated before 2007.
The Penobscot had been closed to catch-and-release sport fishing after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the Atlantic salmon as an endangered species in the seven Down East rivers. Four or five years ago, the state of Maine closed all of its rivers to any fishing for Atlantic salmon after the listing.