An incoming $12 million grant from NOAA to the Passamaquoddy Tribe by way of the Sipayik Environmental Department (SED) will provide the necessary funds to complete the fishway project at Woodland dam. The grant is one of several the department has been awarded recently as it continues its work to restore the St. Croix River - known as the Skutik River to the tribe.
      "There's a whole lot going on," says Ralph Dana of the SED. Grants and funding -- of which the department helped to raise approximately $22 million -- are only part of the story. Behind the scenes, the tribe is collaborating closely with "an unusual cast of characters," Dana says, from federal and state agencies to NGOs and Woodland Pulp.
      "That's where the strength is," Dana says. "That's where we can really do some great stuff."
      The river restoration work is in full force, with the removal of the Milltown dam last year leading to a significant return in alewife numbers upstream. "This is the first time fish are going by that location unimpeded in 140 years," Dana says. "That's a big deal."
      There's still work to be done with the removal of the Milltown dam, as remnants of the structure persist, but that debris will be taken out within the next few years. Across the river, the Peskotomuhkati Nation under Chief Hugh Akagi is handling the monitoring of the river's restoration at the Milltown dam site. "It's so satisfying to see that kind of work taking place and not be encumbered by an international boundary right in our home territory," Dana says.
      The Milltown dam is one of three dams located on the main stem of the Skutik. Next is the Woodland dam, where the tribe is collaborating with the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) to build a $43 million fish lift that will enable alewives and other native species to travel further upstream. "It's a huge improvement in fish mobility," Dana says.
      The fish lift is at the 60% design phase, says Dana, adding, "We now have the resources needed to complete it." While the timeframe for the fish lift's completion isn't yet clear, Dana says it will "probably be at least a two-year project once it's started."
      Along with the fish lift, a second fishway is being built at the Woodland dam in recognition of the potential fish capacity of the river, according to Chris Johnson, a biologist with the SED. "It's anticipated that up to 80 million fish could spawn in that rivershed," Johnson says. "If I had my preference, I'd build three fishways," he adds with a laugh.
      Further up the Skutik is the Grand Falls dam, where a natural fishway is being planned in collaboration with the Nature Conservancy and the DMR.
      With the three dams addressed, "We're on the brink of seeing absolutely incredible healing and restoration of the system," Dana says.

Other projects under way
      While the dams represent one major obstacle that's soon to be overcome for the restoration of the Skutik, the SED and the tribe are simultaneously working toward improving fish mobility and habitat in waterways across ancestral Passamaquoddy territory.
      The tribe will be receiving $7.4 from the U.S. Department of Transportation to replace four road stream crossing sites, with two located in Perry, one located in Pembroke and the fourth located in East Machias. Work to install new culverts at the sites will begin next year, benefiting alewives and other native fish species. In the case of East Machias, the tribe is collaborating with Downeast Salmon Federation with a goal of improving salmon migration.
      Another recent award comes from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is providing $1.6 to assess PFAS and heavy metals in fish tissues. Fish will be tested in the Skutik, at Boyden's Lake in Perry and at the Pennamaquan River in Pembroke. With the project being a collaboration with Bigelow Lab, it's opened the door to new connections with organizations, nonprofits and universities. "That's created momentum, too," Johnson says.
      Other recent awards include $200,000 from the Maine Community Foundation for the restoration of the salt marsh of Sipayik and $360,000 from an NGO to support and advance the development of the Schoodic River Restoration Trust.
      At Meddybemps Lake, a natural fishway is being planned at the outlet to the Dennys River. Noting the significance of the area - including the presence of the remains of a 9,000 year-old fishing village and an EPA Superfund designation - Johnson emphasizes that "the restoration of that site is important," but that it's been delayed by external factors.
      "The work is going," Johnson says. "There's a lot of effort right now." He attributes some of the funding the environmental department has recently received to the DMR being added to a Statement of Cooperation to restore the river last year. "[That] really allowed us to move forward with some of these projects."
      For Dana, a Passamaquoddy citizen, being part of the work to restore the Skutik is profound and humbling. "It speaks to who we are," he says, explaining that Passamaquoddy could be translated to "people of the pollock." By working to restore the alewife, known to the tribe as "the fish that feeds all," he continues, "Our hope is that it will have an impact on the marine environment. It may have an impact on the collapsed groundfishing industry someday. And maybe our namesake will be present once again in the numbers that it used to be, right in our bay. That's what drives this."
      More broadly, Dana sees the work as a part of a larger effort to "heal the environment, to strengthen and regain indigenous connection with all matter, all things, all species, the land, the water. We've lost that connection. Collectively, as a whole, society has. We've gotten so far removed from that."