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Locals strive to preserve stream for trout

By Doug Harlow dharlow@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

SKOWHEGAN — One of only two or three urban, wild brook-trout streams in the state runs through the middle of Skowhegan.

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Craig Dennis, left, and Peter Whitkop, both members of the Skowhegan Conservation Commission and advisory committee, pose Friday morning for a portrait next to Whitten Brook in Skowhegan.

Staff photo by Michael G. Seamans

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Whitten Brook flows from Russell Road through neighborhoods, under town streets and back yards, and finally winds it way into the Kennebec River near the main offices of Skowhegan Savings Bank on Elm Street.

Efforts are under way, funded by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, to make sure the brook continues to be a safe home for brook trout and for the people who like to fish for them, say members of an advisory committee formed to restore the watershed.

"It's an urban impaired stream," said Craig Dennis, of Athens, a member of the Skowhegan Conservation Commission and the advisory committee. The key, said Dennis and fellow commission member Peter Whitkop, of Skowhegan, is to ensure that insects and invertebrate life on which the fish and other wildlife feed survive.

"The bugs tell the whole story," Whitkop said. "We would like to improve the bug life so that it can support a viable trout population."

The goal is to reduce or eliminate pollutants, such as petroleum products, pet waste, road salt and lawn fertilizers that collect from storm water drains on Madison Avenue and flow into the headwaters of Whitten Brook.

Jennifer Jespersen, Whitten Brook project manager with FB Environmental Associates Inc. of Portland, said the plan is to reroute storm water from Madison Avenue, which also is U.S. Route 201, while encouraging land and business owners to install grass and other vegetation to naturally filter water run off.

"What is really unique about Whitten Brook is that it's one of maybe two or three streams in the state that is considered an urban stream, that have a wild brook-trout fishery," Jespersen said. "What we're trying to do is reduce the effects from pavement, driveways and rooftops by infiltrating storm water into the ground naturally. All the water that comes from there goes directly into the storm-drain system and directly into the stream."

The plan is to redirect the storm water into a retention basin to treat it before it goes into the brook, she said.

"The U.S. EPA wants to use Whitten Brook as a pilot or a model for small urban streams in the state and around New England," Jespersen said.

She said the total costs of the restoration project will be calculated by February when a final draft of the plan is due and will be presented at a public hearing. There is no local money currently invested in the project.

The watershed covers about 300 acres, or about half a square mile, from Coburn Avenue to the state fairgrounds, then down Madison Avenue to Pleasant Street and finally to the river. A Whitten Brook Conservation Area was established on Russell Road a decade ago and is maintained as a nature preserve and recreation area.

Volunteers from the Mountain View Youth Development Center in Charleston helped commission members clean up the stream this summer.

The advisory committee also includes representatives from the state Department of Transportation, which maintains Route 201, and the state Department of Environmental Protection. Main Street Skowhegan also has pledged support.

"Whitten Brook is important to the community because it provides a sanctuary for people that live there," Jespersen said. "When we were out there this summer there were kids out there fishing, collecting salamanders. It's unique to have a stream run that runs through such an urban area, where people can get brook trout right in their own back yards."