The Nobleboro Historical Society and the Damariscotta Mills Fish Ladder Restoration received nearly $100,000 last month. They will use that money for extensive work this winter, but still need to raise matching funds for the grant.
The groups received the $92,505 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation on Nov. 15.
“This grant is a tremendous boost for the restoration efforts,” said Nobleboro Selectman and project director Deb Wilson. “It is the largest single grant that we’ve received since the project started in 2007.”
The grant requires matching funds of $116,000 and there is now $67,000 on hand. Supporters need to raise $49,000 as a local match for the grant.
“We have six to eight months to raise the funds,” said project treasurer Russ Williams. “We’re hoping to raise the money sooner because work on the project is beginning and we need the funds soon to complete the work in a tight timeframe.”
Work on the fish ladder must be carried out during the winter when it is not in use by fish – between Dec. 1 and April 1, members of the Fish Ladder Restoration Committee said. Starting this week, they plan to put stone facing on 22 concrete pools in the middle third of the ladder.
Old Castle Concrete recently donated $3500 worth of concrete for the project Wilson said.
The stone facing is an aesthetic improvement, but it also improves fish passage, members of the committee said. It helps soften the flow between pools, and helps break up current when it strikes the concrete walls.
Nobleboro and Newcastle have maintained the fish ladder in Damariscotta Mills since 1808. Beginning in 2007, the towns – via the Nobleboro Historical Society – initiated a full-scale restoration of the fish ladder.
Before the restoration began, Frank Waltz Sr. tended the old fish ladder, Wilson said. Waltz, Wilson said, knew how to move rocks within the ladder in just the right way to keep alewives moving upstream.
“Frank was worried because the fish ladder was deteriorating rapidly,” Wilson said. Through freezing and thawing, root action, and the movement of water, the stones that made up the fish ladder had moved and constricted the stream and the problem was getting worse each year, committee members said.
In 2010, Wilson gave a tour of the fish ladder to National Fish and Wildlife Foundation officials, including Tony Chatwin, director of marine and coastal conservation for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and Mary Beth Charles, fisheries conservation manager.
“They were impressed with the great community participation in the project, its scope and the project’s potential for significantly improving fish passage,” Wilson said.
A few months after the visit, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation invited the Damariscotta Mills Fish Ladder Restoration to submit a grant proposal.
With the leadership of Mary Ellen Barnes of the Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission, the Restoration Committee prepared a detailed application for funding to install stone facing in the reconstructed pools.
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation is a 27-year-old non-profit organization that preserves and restores native wildlife species and habitats. The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation directs public conservation dollars to the most pressing environmental needs and matches those investments with private funds.
Any tax-deductible contributions to the Fish Ladder Restoration Project can be mailed to the Nobleboro Historical Society, P.O. Box 122, Nobleboro, 04555, or online at www.damariscottamills.org.
For more information, contact Deb Wilson at deb.wilson@roadrunner.com, or call 380-6997 or Russ Williams at rwilliams343@gmail.com.
