U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service Emblem Animation
Downeast Maine
Culvert Replacements
In Downeast Maine, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been
working to replace culverts and increase fish passage.
Scott Craig/USFWS: This culvert, this stream crossing
probably failed several times.
And every time the culvert failed, they would usually just haul the culvert back up.
And the culvert inlet kept on getting higher and higher and higher.
Hence, that you started to create a pond above here. You can actually
see one of the 3 culverts that was here originally.
They were grossly undersized. And with all the
dead stumps and stuff too.
It's like, you know, that used to be a forest above there.
If you were digging that right now, it's like, that's a lot.
You know, it's like a you're go down to China.
(Timelapse stream restoration animation)
But to eliminate the back pond you know the stream channels are down there
and if you don't get it right..
that's when you get these elevated
ponded areas above. And this is what we see all over the place.
So before where the the road was a hindrance,
when we put in this open arch, and we redesigned the channel in here.
I expect in two to three years we we'll be sampling brook trout
underneath the road. Whereas before, they couldn't get past the road.
But they will be living under the road.
Now the bigger part of this one is the habitat modification
Before it was a pond,that got extremely warm.
Once we get rid of this heat sync up here,
brook trout will be able to live a lot more productive life.
Narration: Once ready, culvert replacements can often be executed
in as little as a couple days
Steve Koenig-Project S.H.A.R.E. Your taking a stream that is actually this wide,
and pinching it through two undersized culverts
So generally what happens is during high water,
that's too much capacity for the culvert to carry.
So the water exiting
is coming like you opened a fire hydrant.
It will churn and that turbulence will create what people know as
a 'plunge pool.'
Which basically excavates a hole at the bottom of the culvert.
Over time, that drops the elevation of the stream below to where
you have the 'perched' culvert that becomes a fish passage issue.
So the PH at this site is just over 4.3.
That is very acidic.
I've never seen a brook trout in a PH less than 4.6. So at that site I would think
taking out that pond, that wetland--the PH should go up a little bit.
So I think we'll see a net beneficial water quality improvement at that site.
With the low PH, we have absolutely no invertebrates underneath these rocks.
So no food source,very difficult to have fish.
Koenig: U.S. Fish and wildlife, Maine FRO, Maine Fisheries Research Office,
came on board with support. That was approximately 2006.
We have quite a bit more science support through them
that actually doubled my capacity. Until then, I was the only
full-time employee of S.H.A.R.E..
We have done over a hundred of these installations.
However we've done it in a very concentrated area. So we've taken the
highest priority areas, in this case the Machias River,
and we have in a 50-square mile watershed,
basically fixed every stream crossing that was a perennial fish bearing stream.
Browning: It's really a successful story of partnerships on all different levels.
And what I see are improvements that do benefit both the fishery
and the landowners and often the highway departments,too.
And that is just one of those classic win, win, win kind of deals
Produced by Jim Boehmer--Arcansus Pictures-- arcansus.com
Thank you Carl Schwartz, Cynthia Browning, Martha Naley,
Scott Craig, Steven Koenig, Mary Russ, Greg Russ
Madeleine Lyttle, Jan Rowan, Susan Wells. 0:04:51.210,0:04:53.210Timelapse by Scott Craig.
Music by Scott Hoffman
For more information about the National Fish Passage Program
visit:http://www.fws.gov/fisheries/facilities/nfpp.html