Preparing Frost Gully Dam, in Freeport, for removal on June 15. Dillon Dougherty photo
After three unused dams were removed from Frost Gully Brook in Freeport this summer, stream restoration consultant Alex Abbott saw brook trout start moving upstream to spawn “literally instantly.”
Frost Gully Brook stretches a little over 3 miles through Freeport, flowing into the Harraseeket River just below Upper Mast Landing Road before it empties into the sea. A spokesperson for Maine Water, which owned one of the dams along Frost Gully, said its dam had been around since the turn of the 19th century.
Sea-run brook trout, otherwise known as “salters,” are an anadromous fish that swim up rivers from the ocean to spawn in freshwater. Karen Kurkjian photo
Abbott, who works to restore Maine watersheds to the highways of fish traffic they once were, spends much of his time in the field surveying sites and species, collecting information for Geographic Information System maps, and working with partners like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service and the Freeport Conservation Trust to dismantle manmade obstacles to fish migration.
“All of these barriers to fish passage are really barriers to all sorts of ecological processes,” Abbott said.
Sea-run brook trout are anadromous, meaning they swim from the sea up rivers to spawn in freshwater. If rivers are blocked by barriers like dams or culverts, anadromous fish spawn in much smaller numbers.
Dan Meaney, director of Corporate and External Communications for Maine Water, said he anticipates “continued work with local land trusts to continue to be good stewards of watershed land we own.” Maine Water supplies water to approximately 85,000 people in 21 communities across Maine.
The other two now-demolished dams were owned by the Freeport Conservation Trust. Since the removal of all three on June 15, Abbott and a group of volunteers from the Maine branch of Trout Unlimited — many of them recreational fishermen — have noticed a marked increase in fish swimming up the brook to spawn in areas that had long been inaccessible to them. They said this is in part due to the temperature of the now-contiguous brook decreasing, making it more attractive to trout and other fish.
Abbott, who started doing this work as early as 2006 when he helped to build an inventory of barriers to fish passage across the state, is encouraged that millions of dollars have been granted to Maine towns for stream restoration and other climate initiatives since then. Earlier this month, Bowdoinham, Harpswell and Phippsburg received $50,000 apiece through the Community Resilience Partnership Community Action Grant, issued by the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future.
Still, Abbott said, there is much to be done.
Using the Maine Stream Habitat Viewer, which Abbott helped create in partnership with Maine Audubon, towns can access habitat and barrier data for brook trout, salmon and alewives.
“I certainly love more than anything getting out on the ground and seeing the improvements actually being made in the streams,” Abbott said.
This fall, he said, he has seen brook trout swim upstream that haven’t done so for years.
“So that is why I do the work,” Abbott said. “That just makes it all worthwhile. It’s really fun and rewarding to see the results of our streams essentially healing themselves when we let them, when we get out of the way.”
Where Frost Gully Dam used to halt the progress of the brook, the water now runs freely, aiding the migration of local trout from salt to freshwater. Karen Kurkjian photo
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