Bates College SCARAB Community Engaged Research Reports Environmental Studies 12-12-2013 Alewives on the Little Androscoggin: An Intersection of Politics and Ecology Jordan J. Buetow Ashleen O'Brien Benjamin James McCormack Hallie Grossman Follow this and additional works at: http://scarab.bates.edu/community_engaged_research Recommended Citation Buetow, Jordan J.; O'Brien, Ashleen; McCormack, Benjamin James; and Grossman, Hallie, "Alewives on the Little Androscoggin: An Intersection of Politics and Ecology" (2013). Community Engaged Research Reports. 5. http://scarab.bates.edu/community_engaged_research/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Environmental Studies at SCARAB. It has been accepted for inclusion in Community Engaged Research Reports by an authorized administrator of SCARAB. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Alewives on the Little Androscoggin: An Intersection of Politics and Ecology Jordan Buetow, Ashleen O’Brien, Ben McCormack, Hallie Grossman ENVR 417 12/12/13 1 Executive Summary In cooPeration with the Androscoggin River Alliance (ARA) our caPstone grouP undertook an assignment to work towards restoring alewives to the Little Androscoggin watershed. In 1995, due to the concern of negative impacts to the economically important bass fishery, a state law was Passed that banned the stocking of alewives in Hogan and Whitney Ponds. In 2019 the first two dams on the Little Androscoggin River, Lower and UPPer Barker Dams, will be uP for relicensing by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and fish Passages will likely be installed to allow Atlantic salmon to migrate uPstream. Since alewives will be able to Pass the dams as well and enter the Little Androscoggin watershed, it is necessary to overturn the anti-alewife legislation to prevent any conflict. To aid the ARA in these efforts various research regarding the issue was conducted. The legislative history of the 1995 alewife bill and a similar anti-alewife case on the St. Croix River were gathered from the Maine State Law and Legislative Library. Detailed research was also done on the ecological, economic, and historical values of alewives through review of Primary literature, and interviews with biologists and fisheries sPecialists to be summarized in an education Pamphlet for distribution in Oxford County. Landowner information for Plots on Hogan and Whitney Ponds was gathered so Pamphlets could be mailed to the owners. Research revealed that alewives have no negative impact on water quality or bass fisheries. They are actually beneficial to water quality and critical sPecies to the food chain and many ecosystem functions, such as restoring the dePleted marine groundfish fisheries. They also are a historically important fish to the state of maine and have the potential to create a profitable industry if restored. In the legislative histories for the Hogan and Whitney Pond case of 1995 and St. Croix River case of 2013, the 1995 case showed what ideas and evidence the ARA must combat to overturn the legislation. The 2013 case provided scientific evidence that shows alewives do not harm the ecosystem or bass fisheries. The finding of this research suggest that if planned well, there should be enough scientific and historical data to change the minds of alewife antagonists. Looking ahead, the ARA Plans to sPend the next two years focusing on educating elected officials and the Public about alewives as much as Possible so that overturning the legislation can be as fast and Possible and be met with minimal resistance. Some more scientific research to investigate is the effects of a fully restored PoPulation of alewives on zooPlankton communities, which are resPonsible for the uPtake of PhosPhorus in lakes. This is important information to know before making claims that alewives will reduce PhosPhorus loading and algal blooms in the Little Androscoggin watershed. Eventually, a bill will be ProPosed that will hopefully overturn the current legislation, and when fish ladders are installed in the dams on the Little Androscoggin River the watershed will once again suPPort a robust Population of alewives whose benefits will be widespread through the ecosystem and community. 2 Table of Contents Executive Summary……………………………………………………………………………………………...2 Separate Lists of Tables and Figures……………………………………………………………………..3 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………….......4 Methodological ApProach…………………………………………………………………………………… 6 Results and Discussion…………………………………………………………………………………………7 Outcomes and Implications………………………………………………………………………………...20 Future Steps………………………………………………………………………………………………...…….21 ApPendices………………………………………………………………………………………………………..26 Literature Review ……………………………………………………………………………………………...26 Detailed Methods ………………………………………………………………………………………………36 Graphs ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………40 Map …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..42 Informational Brochure …………………………………………………………………………………..…43 Legislative Summaries ……………………………………………………………………………………… 44 Landowner Database ……………..…………………………………………………………………….……55 Separate List of Tables and Figures (Appendix C) Figure 1. Land use of Properties surrounding Hogan and Whitney Ponds…………….40 Figure 2. State residency of Plot owners…………………………………………………………….40 Figure 3. Full time residents on ProPerty ………………………………………………………….41 Figure 4. MaP of Hogan and Whitney Pond Landowners. ……………………………………42 3 Introduction In 2019 two of the lower dams on the Little Androscoggin River, uPPer and lower Barker Dams, are uP for relicensing by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Part of the FERC relicensing Project will likely include discussion of fish Passage, because neither of these hydroelectric dams currently allow for fish passage. On the federal level, fish passage will likely be required at these dams because Atlantic salmon, which are listed under the Endangered SPecies Act, have been tracked sPending significant amounts of time at the base of Lower Barker Dam (Ward, Personal communication 12/10/13). This behavior is evidence of a desire for the salmon to move uPstream and demands the installation of a fish Passage by the Endangered SPecies Act (Ward, Personal communication 12/10/13). The problem is that the waters of the Little Androscoggin are connected to the waters of Hogan, Whitney, and Tripp Ponds in Oxford, Maine. In 1995, state legislation was passed which banned the stocking of alewives in these ponds and their adjacent waters, but a fish Passage would allow all tyPes of fish to swim uP the Little Androscoggin. This Poses a conflict of state and federal laws. To combat this Problem, the Androscoggin River Alliance (ARA) hoPes to overturn the Maine state legislation disallowing reintroduction of alewives in Hogan and Whitney Ponds, with the goal of Preventing conflicting laws from impeding a swift Process of dam relicensing and fish Passageway construction. This is Part of the ARA’s larger goal of ecosystem restoration in the Androscoggin. It is important to eliminate this legislative conflict and to engage the community in a discussion about the restoration of alewives for three main reasons. The first is ecological - as a 4 buffer species, a net exporter of phosphorous, and a source of food for larger species (Townsend 2013), alewives are an integral piece of restoring a functioning Androscoggin ecosystem to the same level that existed before the large-scale develoPment of mills. The restoration of the ecosystem is in the best interest of the river itself, the People living around the river, and the functioning of the connected marine ecosystem. The second reason is economic, as alewives have the Potential to be a small though Profitable industry for Androscoggin fishermen (Brown et al. 2010). The third has to do with engaging the community in environmental issues that impact them. By Providing the resources to educate community members and take a Political stance on the restoration of alewives, our work with the ARA will have the effect of creating a dialogue among stakeholders about the Possibilities of native species restoration as a whole. This will encourage individuals to consider their relationshiP to their environment (sPecifically their river) in a Political and ecological sense. As a grouP, we undertook a series of research and Product-oriented tasks to address the goal of educating landowners about the importance of alewives in the Androscoggin watershed. In order to educate these landowners, we undertook three main Projects: gathering and summarizing legislative documents (see appendix F) creating a landowner database (see appendix G), and creating educational materials for landowners (see aPPendix E). The final goal for the dissemination of this information is to overturn the law which bans alewives from Hogan and Whitney ponds, which carries vast implications that touch on the education of the community, ecosystem health, and economic increase. 5 Methodological Approach To create the database for landowner information around Hogan and Whitney Ponds we had to take a couple trips to the Oxford town office. There we began by finding the maPs of Hogan and Whitney Ponds with the ProPerty lots labeled. Each waterfront property parcel was looked up in a book and data was recorded for maP number, lot number, landowner name, ProPerty address, land use, owner’s Primary mailing address, date of last transfer, assessed land value, total ProPerty value, and taxes Paid on the ProPerty. All data was compiled in an Excel