Where Wild Salmon Still Spawn
There is a river in Maine’s Peaks where, if you are patient and lucky, you can watch a wild Atlantic salmon jump. The Sandy River runs south out of the mountains of Franklin County through the towns of Madrid, Phillips, and Farmington before joining the Kennebec near Norridgewock. It is a beautiful river. And it is one of the last places in the entire United States where wild Atlantic salmon return to spawn.
That is not a small thing. Atlantic salmon were once so abundant in Maine rivers that early settlers wrote about harvesting them by the wagonload. By the twentieth century, dams, pollution, and overfishing had pushed them toward extinction. Today, the Gulf of Maine population is federally listed as endangered. The Sandy River and a handful of other Maine rivers are what remains of something that once defined this entire coast.
The reason the salmon still come back to the Sandy River, the reason there is still a river worth coming back to, is that the forests along its banks have stayed largely intact. Forested streambeds keep water cool. They filter runoff. They hold the banks steady so the gravel beds where salmon lay their eggs don’t fill with silt. Every acre of riverside forest is a piece of salmon habitat.
This is why the High Peaks Alliance has made the Sandy River corridor a priority. Since last summer, we’ve worked to conserve Walrath Woods, 120 acres of riverside forest in Strong. Ultimately, conserving the longest conserved stretch of the Sandy River and opening the town’s first public trail. We’re building the Sherry Walrath Memorial Trail, restored from an old snowmobile path. It will welcome hikers, anglers, and anyone who wants to walk beside a wild salmon river. If you’ve ever wanted to invest directly in wild salmon habitat in Maine, this is your chance.
Readers of Summertime in the Belgrades may already be following this story from another angle: students in the Belgrade area have been raising Atlantic salmon fry in classrooms and releasing them into the Sandy River as part of the Atlantic Salmon Federation’s Fish Friends program. Those fish, if they survive their incredible journey to the ocean and back, may one clay spawn in the very stretch of river the Walrath Woods project is working to protect. The classroom and the conservation project are part of the same story.
Wild Atlantic salmon are not a lost cause, but they are a cause that requires sustained effort. Protecting their habitat, piece by piece, river mile by river mile, is painstaking work. The High Peaks Alliance believes it is worth doing. The fish, apparently, agree.
The High Peaks Alliance works to conserve land and ensure public access across Maine’s High Peaks region. Visit highpeaksalliance.org to learn more and sign up for our newsletter for updates on conservation and access and for ways to get involved.
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