Cold, snow and high winds did not stop the cold, chapped hands of workers in Damariscotta Mills this winter. With a narrow window of time to work on the fish ladder, the restoration project was in full swing all winter.
Work is expected to be finished on the pools by the end of this week. Make-shift tents, the lifeline of the workers all winter, have been taken down, and work crews are putting the finishing touches on the lower pools, preparing them for the spring alewives run.
“The working part of the fish ladder will be finished,” Damariscotta Mills Fish Ladder Restoration project manager Deb Wilson said.
“It will be functionally complete,” restoration treasurer Russ Williams said.
“It’s almost done. The aesthetic piece still needs to be done,” Wilson said. When volunteers started the project in 2007, they “had no idea what the scope of the project would be,” Wilson said.
The wear and tear of the past eight years is evidenced on the exhausted faces of Wilson and Williams. Although their feet on the ground approach is visible to the public; the grant writing, DEP applications, research, lectures, tours, thank you letter writing, supper and festival organizing, ordering of the yearly t-shirt and mug, and reports to grantees, that goes on behind the scenes, goes largely unseen except to their families.
Although bone tired, a small twinkle in their eyes hints at the excitement that harbors the thought of the fish ladder restoration project drawing to an end.
The duo did not work alone, as the entire community rallied behind them. Both Wilson and Williams hope the Fish Ladder Festival, held over Memorial Day weekend, will raise enough money to finish the project.
“We are looking forward to the festival,” Wilson said. “Anyone who wants to help with the festival to help raise money to finish the project please contact us. We would be delighted with the help.”
“We are almost done. We have a little more fund raising to go,” Williams said. “We would not be here without the strong community effort, with lots of volunteers, who have put in hours and hours.”
The Nobleboro Historical Society, and the Towns of Nobleboro and Newcastle started the restoration initiative in 2007. Grant writing, community bean suppers, and the spring and fall alewives festivals were held to raise funds to restore the fish ladder.
In addition to the grass roots effort, they have received grants from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Elmina Sewell Foundation matching grant, Horizon Foundation, and the Davis Conservation Foundation.
Neighboring homeowners will soon have their lawns and driveways back, which have served as storage areas and a thoroughfare for equipment and supplies all winter. “The homeowners have put up with a lot,” Wilson said.
Although functionally complete, “there will still be some clean-up, and some stone facing to be done. The capping of the cement work will not be finished by the spring run,” Wilson said.
The temporary access bridge will be removed later this spring. Finish work still needing to be done includes back filling the ladder, restoring and re-seeding lawns, and putting stone face capping on the cement work.
Williams anticipates it will take $35,000 to $50,000 to complete the fish ladder. Both Wilson and Williams hope the spring Festival on Memorial Day weekend will put them over the top.
“It is unclear where we will end up at end of season,” Wilson said. “We are in the final push right now. We do not want to leave any exposed concrete. We would love to have someone help us finish the stone work.”
“They have done impressive work this winter. We anticipated making 14 pools and made 16. The winter was just brutal. The guys did a great job working through it. They capped 30 pools, and finished all the pools. The big concrete facing (wall) is waiting for another time when we have more money.” Wilson said.
“The biggest challenge was the weather. The stone masons were snow shovelers with a landscape company, so when it snowed, they shoveled snow,” Williams said.
The cement work was done by McClintick Foundations, of Nobleboro, and the stonework by Jorgensen’s Landscaping out of Bath.
“The head foreman is Jason Lang,” Wilson said. “His great grandfather was George Jones of Damariscotta Mills. He grew up around the fish ladder and the Mills. He was so pleased to be involved. He has many fond memories of coming here as a child.”
In all, work was done on 46 of the 68 pools in the fish ladder this winter. Before restoration work began eight years ago, the fish ladder consisted of resting pools and runs. The fish jammed into the old pools causing depleted oxygen levels.
The newly designed fish ladder has a series of pools that the water flows through. Rises from pool to pool are no more than 10 inches. In the old ladder, the resting pools were off of the main channel, and the rises were three to four feet. Fisheries engineers say the optimal rise is an 8 to 10 inches, Wilson said.
“It is very exciting to think about the fish coming in this year, and going up a completed ladder,” Wilson said.
In light of the collapse of the shrimp industry and very few smelts last winter, Wilson was asked if she was worried about the Alewives population. “I don’t know what all the other guys are doing, but so far the fish like what we are doing,” she said. “We went from 100,000 to 150,000 fish per year to 917,000 in eight years. Really it is over a million, as no one counted at night.
“With the new pools, the fish changed their pattern, and are going up at night. We went from 100 in 10 minutes at the height of the run to 1200 in 10 minutes. I think we are finally getting up to the level that were passing years and years ago,” Wilson said.
The plankton eating fish “help keep the lake clean,” Williams said.
“The scientific answer is if there are too many fish to be supported (by the lake), the young do not stay in the lake, but go out earlier,” Wilson said. “There is no indication that is happening.”
With a late ice out, Wilson expects a later arrival date of the alewives, which run when the water reaches about 55 degrees. “Everybody is scouting them,” Wilson said of the gulls, osprey and egrets that circle the bay. Also six seals were spotted by the base of the bay, “hanging out, waiting,” Wilson said.
Wilson said the next phase of the project after the ladder is complete is restoration work on the walkway between the fish house and the dippers, which is in poor condition.
“That is a big project,” Williams said.