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F or the fi rst time since the 1800s, nearly 1,000 miles of habitat along the Penobscot River are accessible to Atlantic salmon and 10 other fi sh spe- cies that spend part of their lives at sea but return to fresh water for spawning. e fi nal step making that pos- sible — a natural fi sh bypass at the Howland Dam that's 1,050 feet long and approximately 200 feet wide — was offi cially dedicated on June 14, marking the completion of the 16-year Penobscot River Restoration Project. "It's the last major element in terms of opening up habitat," says Laura Rose Day, who has worked herself out of a job as the $60 million project's executive director. Day says a day or two before the June 14 dedication, almost on cue, the fi rst tagged Atlantic salmon swam through the Howland fi sh bypass. " at's big news," she says. "It really marks the beginning of the recovery of the river." Day is quick to add that the river restoration project isn't just about salmon, notwithstanding its status as a revered and endangered fi sh species. It's also about realizing the full potential of the region's waterfront communities, with a restored river ecosystem opening up new opportunities for eco-tourism and a revival of the region's traditional sport-fi shing heritage. A prime example: For the second year in a row, the American Canoe Association held its annual whitewa- ter canoe competition on a nine-mile stretch of the Penobscot between Old Town and Eddington that previously was blocked by two dams. e four-day event, hosted by the Penobscot Nation, attracted 149 competitors from 14 states and two foreign countries. "It is a watershed, and it's big — from the headwaters in the mountains to the Gulf of Maine," she says. "We're impacting an entire region. It's not just about fi sh." Balancing environmental and economic interests Kleinschmidt Associates, a Pittsfi eld- based energy and natural resource con- sulting fi rm, worked with what would have once been opposing sides in the Penobscot River Restoration Project. It helped the hydropower companies (for- merly PP&L, then Black Bear Hydro Partners and now Brookfi eld Renewable Partners) relicense and actually increase the power generation at several remain- ing dams. But it also worked closely with the Penobscot River Restoration Trust — a coalition of conservation groups and the Penobscot Nation that purchased three dams from PP&L in 2010 for $24 million — helping with the decommissioning and eventual removal of Great Works (2012) and Veazie (2013) dams and the decommissioning of the Howland Dam, which remains in place but is no longer generating power. "We've been involved in this for more than 10 years," says Alan Haberstock, vice president of eco- logical services for Kleinschmidt Associates, describing its work on the $4.8 million Howland natural fi sh bypass. Funding came from variety of public-and-private donations and grants, including a $650,000 donation from the Atlantic Salmon Federation. Besides Kleinschmidt, companies involved included Hood River, Ore.- based Inter-Fluve Inc. (which has an offi ce in Damariscotta), Portland-based Haley & Aldrich, Brewer-based CES Inc. and Salem, Mass.-based SumCo Eco-Contracting. Haberstock, who has worked for Kleinschmidt for 20 years, says the fi rm's work with both the hydro com- panies and the conservation groups involved in the Penobscot restora- tion refl ects its evolution from being a "very industrially focused, very utility focused" company to one with a more balanced perspective and portfolio. "If we have the know-how to enhance the hydropower operations and generate more electricity [i.e., at the Orono, Stillwater and Milford dams], that's what gives the own- ers more money to address environ- mental issues, including fi sh passage, maintaining habitat and enhancing recreational access," he says. "Hydro is our core, our genesis as a company. But the skills that lent themselves to working on hydropower projects have led us to be successful in the ecologi- cal science projects as well." Mimicking the natural river channel Haberstock says a representative of the federal government described the Howland project as "the largest and most complex natural fi sh bypass in the United States." He modestly adds, " at depends on how you defi ne 'largest.' So we're describing it as one of the largest natural fi sh bypass channels ever constructed in the eastern United States. It's really cutting edge." Engineering a natural fi sh bypass, he says, in many ways, presents greater tech- nical challenges that constructing the more traditional man-made fi sh ladders or fi sh lifts. "You don't have an off -the- shelf template," he says. "It's extremely complicated. Small things can make a big diff erence. Whenever you remake one thing it aff ects another. It's the epitome of a multi-disciplinary project." Brandon Kulik, a senior fi sher- ies bio logist who's in his 30 th year at Kleinschmidt, says the Howland fi sh bypass was designed to mimic a natural river channel. Some areas have boul- ders clustered together, other areas are more open, and still others off er nar- row channels. "All those things are not randomly placed," Kulik says. Haberstock adds, with a grin: "You can't put in rocks that are so small they will actually sweep downstream when the river is running high. It's also part of our thinking that the rocks should not stand out as 'diff erent': It would look weird if we had imported white marble from Vermont. Finally, our client wanted a proven system, one that if left alone would function naturally. at was an important design objective." Since 11 species of migratory fi sh use the Penobscot River as a spawning or nursery area, designing the bypass had to take into consideration how each fi sh species would be impacted by water- fl ow velocity and depth, particularly during the spring and early high-water seasons when the spawning runs are happening. Ironically, the needs of the endangered Atlantic salmon posed fewer design problems than those of smaller, weaker fi sh, such as blueback herring. "Salmon are fairly easy," says Haberstock. " ey can leap up to 12 feet and swim around tough conditions. We wanted to restore the historic runs of shad and blueback herring, so we had to consider their needs as well." A river reborn Completion of 16-year restoration project marks new era for Penobscot River J a m e s M c C a r t h y F O C U S G R E AT E R B A N G O R VO L . X X I I N O. X I X A U G U S T 2 2 , 2 0 1 6 20 P H O T O / J. RO Y T E , T N C L I G H T H AW K The $4.8 million Howland Natural Fish Bypass, shown at the left of the decommissioned Howland Dam near the juncture of the Piscataquis and Penobscot rivers, provides upriver passage for 11 sea-run fi sh species, including the endangered Atlantic salmon.

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