A cooperative and multi‑year effort between the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS), Project Share and the Passamaquoddy Tribe will allow for the watershed from the St. Croix River to Nash's Lake to be open for alewife passage. Steve Agius, acting manager at the Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge, shared the good news as part of an update on the 2016 phase of the project: the construction of the Popple arch culvert in the Maguerrewock watershed area. The region may be most familiar to area residents as the eagle nesting site region located just off Route 1 heading north out of Calais.
     The Moosehorn manages 30,000 acres. While the refuge was originally formed to provide habitat for migrating waterfowl, "there's a big initiative to manage biodiversity" of the system, explains Agius. That includes reviewing water control measures within the Moosehorn and adjusting or replacing them to accommodate the passage of fish and other species such as turtles. The Popple culvert project is a case in point. It is an open-bottomed culvert that allows for species migration through the culvert and along its edges, both outside and inside.
      Agius has high praise for the partnerships that are making the work possible. "Just last August the projects were identified. It's exciting to get it done so fast." He credits the commitment by the Passamaquoddy Tribe to the restoration of the alewife as well as Project Share and three branches of USFWS. "It's a three to four week work schedule for just each project," and he notes that with the sharing of resources, the timeline and cost is about a quarter of what it would have been had the work been outsourced according to previous practices.
      The Moosehorn first began working with Project Share about four years ago. "They asked for technical assistance with a number of fish passage projects," explains Steve Koenig, executive director of Project Share. Since then the cooperative work relationship has gone both ways, with Koenig approaching the Moosehorn for its assistance with some of his organization's projects. "Project Share is all about cooperative conservation work," Koenig says. "No one has enough staff or resources to get it all done, so partnering with others is how we get things done. Working with the Moosehorn has been a pleasure." Part of that pleasure has been seeing key Moosehorn staff develop skills working with heavy equipment so that the work can continue in‑house.
      Both Koenig and Agius remark on the value of the capacity building. "It's really exciting and gratifying for our staff to be able to do the work," Agius comments. "They are on par with the highly skilled contractors I have worked with," Koenig says.
      "The final goal is for alewife passage all the way to Nash's Lake but also allow for waterfowl" to thrive, Agius explains. The final phase will be in 2017 with work done at Vose Pond. "I have no doubt the alewife will find their way," Agius says and points to the alewife observed in other fish passage efforts. "The biologists are working with the fish passage engineers on a monitoring system."
     Also good news is that the 2017 work should use even fewer resources than 2016 because the same designs can be used, not only useful for the physical work but also for the nine entities that have to sign off on the project. The cooperative partnerships have been "ideal," he adds.