Recommendations for Future Restoration and Management Efforts for Mill Brook, Westbrook, Maine: Appendix B. Mill Brook Fisheries Reports

• Main Author: Casco Bay Estuary Partnership
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: USM Digital Commons 2008
• Subjects: restoration; fisheries; water quality; fish passage; CBEP; Habitat Restoration; Watersheds; Presumpscot River; Westbrook; Mill Brook; Atlantic salmon
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/cbep-publications/123; https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/context/cbep-publications/article/1123/viewcontent/2008_mill_brook_fisheries_app_b.pdf

In January 2001, the Maine Department of Marine Resources (MDMR), the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIFW), and the Maine Atlantic Salmon Commission (MASC) completed a document entitled Presumpscot River: Interim Goals for Fisheries Management, which outlined management goals for important fishery resources that currently reside or historically resided in the Presumpscot River watershed. Species addressed in the document include alewife, American eel, American shad, landlocked Atlantic salmon, sea-run Atlantic salmon, Atlantic sturgeon, black crappie, blueback herring, brook trout, brown bullhead, brown trout, chain pickerel, largemouth bass, rainbow smelt, smallmouth bass, striped bass, tomcod, yellow perch, and white perch. The three state fisheries agencies developed the interim fisheries management goals in response to several changes within the watershed: the probable removal of Smelt Hill Dam (located at the head-of-tide), the relicensing of six of the seven existing hydropower projects on the river, and improvements in water quality resulting from the closure of the pulping operation in Westbrook. These changes created a new opportunity for the restoration of diadromous1 fish runs and the enhancement of warm water and coldwater recreational fishing opportunities.