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NAPLES — Lakes Environmental Association and partner organizations have removed remnants of an old stone dam in Burgess Brook that restricts fish passage, the first step to allowing more than two miles of passage for landlocked salmon and brook trout.
Burgess Brook is a tributary of the Crooked River, which has a wild population of brook trout and smelts, and provides nearly all of the spawning habitat for the landlocked salmon in Sebago Lake. Western Maine is one of the last strongholds for native brook trout and landlocked salmon. LEA and partners are working to expand the habitat, reconnect fragmented waterways, and install safer and more resilient stream crossings in collaboration with private landowners and municipalities.
The Burgess Brook project requires both decommissioning an old stone dam and replacing an undersized and damaged culvert. The dam is in Jugtown Forest, which is owned by Hancock Lumber. The forest consists of 5,000 acres of privately owned working forest that is open to the public for hiking, horseback riding, ATVing, snowmobiling and hunting.
The work is being led by a stream restoration specialist and representatives from LEA, Sebago Clean Waters, Casco Bay Estuary Partnership, Trout Unlimited and Hancock Lumber Co. The stone dam was removed to limit the amount of disturbance to the surrounding ecosystem. That work began Sept. 14.
Next year, the team plans to remove a damaged and undersized culvert directly downstream and replace it with an open-bottom structure that will allow fish, amphibians and other aquatic species to easily move upstream.
This work is part of a larger project to correct stream crossings that have a negative impact on fish habitat and pose flooding risks in the Sebago Lake watershed. Over the next five years, LEA hopes to work with landowners to open many miles of stream habitat for native brook trout by upgrading failing culverts as part of its collaborative work with Sebago Clean Waters.
Lakes Environmental Association is a regional nonprofit funded by members to protect the water and watersheds in the Greater Sebago Lake Region in Bridgton, Denmark, Harrison, Naples, Sweden, and Waterford.
PHOTO: Burgess Brook, from Jugtown Road, before dam removal. (Submitted photo)
