Stream Process Restoration: Threats, Solutions, and Results Associated with Road Crossings

In 2009, the USFWS Maine Fishery Resources Office and Project SHARE completed a Strategic Plan for restoring aquatic/riparian habitat in Downeast Maine Atlantic Salmon Rivers.  The premise of the plan is to work collaboratively with private landowners to improve native salmonid habitat through restoration of stream processes in high priority catchments (HUC 12) rather than addressing site specific symptoms of habitat degradation in lower priority catchments.

Threats addressed were primarily related to fish passage issues at stream-road crossings and remnant log drive dams in 1^st -3^rd order streams.  Actions taken included road decommissions (n=25), log drive dam removals (n=15) and installation of bankfull spanning open bottom structures (n=107) installed via stream simulation methodology. 

The stream simulation design projects not only restored unhindered fish passage, but more importantly addressed other aquatic habitat issues that disrupted ecological stream processes such as constricting culverts and log drive dam structures that created upstream backwaters that increased summer water temperatures above critical feeding thresholds (22.5°C) and/or impaired downstream sediment/water/wood transport to breaking points that caused frequent and catastrophic road washouts.

Since 2008, we have obtained funding to assist landowners with 147 projects that have increased access to >800 km of quality headwater salmonid habitats.