Alewife restoration project to receive grant award

Kennebec River (source Maine Rivers)

Maine Rivers, as part of the Alewife Restoration Initiative, has been awarded $200,000 from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundations’ (NFWF) New England Forests and Rivers grant program. The New England Forests and Rivers Fund strives to restore and sustain healthy forests and rivers that provide habitat for diverse native birds populations, as well as freshwater and diadromous fish populations. Since its founding in 1984, NFWF has supported more than 16,000 projects that protect and restore our nation’s fish and wildlife species and the habitats they need to thrive.

The goal of the Alewife Restoration Initiative is to remove impediments or install fish passages at the barriers that prevent native alewives from accessing China Lake’s spawning habitat. The project will improve the connectivity between China Lake, the Sebasticook River and the ocean, and is expected to restore an annual run of between 800,000 and 950,000 adult alewives. The restoration of the Vassalboro’s nearby Webber Pond alewife run already provides revenue to the town of Vassalboro, in 2017 this totaled more than $18,000. The China Lake run is expected to be at least twice the size of the Webber pond alewife run.

For more information about the Alewife Restoration Initiative: Landis Hudson, landis@mainerivers.org phone: 207-847-9277.