Steve Schneider, left, rests while Scott Gerry lifts a log.
Photo: Lee Burnett
By Lee Burnett
Two old canoe buddies are clearing blowdowns from the Mousam River, making unobstructed passage possible for the first time in more than 15 years.
Steve Schneider and Scott Gerry use chainsaws and brawn to drag limbs and logs out of the way. Then they float down to the next blockage, sometimes only yards downstream. They’ve cleared dozens of blockages on a two-plus-mile stretch below the School Street Bridge and are working their way toward Estes Lake, another three-plus miles downstream. They’ve made three forays this spring and on their fourth trip earlier this week, I joined them with my own canoe and chainsaw.
We put our canoes in at the Sanford Sewerage District pumping station on Jagger Mill Road and had a pleasant paddle for a couple hundred yards. Then, a massive blockage of at least seven trees confronted us.
“You see this wall of trees and you think, no way are we clearing that,” said Gerry. “And then, you say, ‘hell yeah we are!’”
We spent the next two hours there.
“That was the biggest [blockage],” said Schneider, as we finished up just as dusk settled around 8 pm. Schneider said he’s scouted the river and found only smaller blockages downstream.
Gerry and Schneider are friends who have paddled together for 35 years, sometimes as far away as North Carolina and Gaspe peninsula in eastern Quebec. Gerry is a podiatrist, Schneider a retired family practitioner.
Schneider said he took on this project because he wants to make the Mousam more accessible.
“I think it’s a great community resource that people should have access to and knowledge of,” he said.
“A lot of people don’t realize what we have.”
Gerry credits Schneider with motivating him. “I love Steve. If it’s important to Steve, it’s important to me. Plus, I’m all about access to rivers.”
Schneider and Gerry were guided by advice from Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection, which has no permit requirements for limited tree clearing to remove obstacles to navigation. Sam Sheppard, a project manager for the DEP in southern Maine, said woody debris is an important part of river and stream ecosystems, so it’s important to leave some snags in the river.
Quite coincidentally, Schneider’s and Gerry’s labors align with new attention to the Mousam from a state conservation organization not normally associated with rivers. The Maine Coast Heritage Trust launched The Rivers Initiative six-plus years ago to bring attention to key watersheds that flow into the Gulf of Maine. Initially, the focus was the Orange, Narraguagus and Bagaduce rivers. More recently, efforts expanded to include the Sheepscot and Mousam rivers. Projects range from improving fish passage, restoring habitat, and conserving land to improving recreational opportunities. MCHT has been meeting with local land trusts to explore potential projects.
An appealing attribute of the Mousam is the extensive sand and gravel aquifers underlying the river, which provide a cooling influence that will sustain aquatic critters as climate change warms the planet, according to Christ Schorn, a project manager for MCHT.
“It’s one big glacial deposit that holds onto the water. It’s very deep and pretty chilly. Its significance is quite remarkable,” he said. “We think [the Mousam] will be more resilient in the face of climate change. We want our rivers to be cold.”
Another attribute of the Mousam is its visibility, noted Schorn. “Anyone who drives along Route 95 crosses it, which is pretty much everyone who comes to Maine,” he said.
Currently, the aquifer’s cooling influence on the Mousam is counteracted by the warming influence of dammed lakes – from Mousam Lake in Acton and Shapleigh, down through Sanford’s mill ponds and further downstream, the power-generating dams owned by Kruger Energy and Kennebunk Light and Power. Schorn counts 11 dams on the main stem of the river.
“This is one of the most densely dammed and populated of our coastal rivers,” Schorn said.
An indicator species of river health is native populations of brook trout. While the headwater streams of the Mousam still support native brook trout, the most common fish in the Mousam are warm water fish, such as bass, pike and perch, according to Jim Pellerin, a fisheries biologist for Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Twice a year, the state stocks brook trout in Sanford and brown trout in Kennebunk. Most fish do not survive to reproduce.
“We see very little holdover. It’s what we call a put and take fishery,” said Pellerin. “We do see on medium and larger rivers localized cold tributaries or springs … fish know these places; they find them and congregate.”
Gerry and Schneider have a silent partner in their clearing efforts. A resident of the lower Mousam who shuns publicity has been working his way upstream from Estes Lake and has cleared blockages to within a mile of where they worked this week.
The post Smoother Sailing Ahead for the Mousam River appeared first on Sanford Springvale News.
