Kennebec River Ecological Survey
Midwest Biodiversity Institute
USEPA
The Kennebec is an important ecological resource that has received significant public and private sector efforts to improve
water quality and restore historic fisheries resources. Analytical tools are now needed to evaluate the biological response
to habitat, water quality and fish passage improvements brought about through the Clean
Water Act and Federal Power Act.
Despite the visibility of these efforts on this and other Maine rivers, standardized biological assessment methods are not
currently available to measure the impacts.
The Midwest Biodiversity Institute and Kleinschmidt developed standardized, quantitative large river biological assessment field and analytical methods for Maine, based on the use of fish assemblage-based metric criteria and comprehensive evaluations of biological changes to Maine’s large river resources. MBI and Kleinschmidt surveyed over 100 miles of the Kennebec River mainstem fish assemblage to develop prototype methodology and critical data for initiating the analyses. All sampling stations were geo-benchmarked using Global Positioning Systems (GPS). Biological and environmental data can then be imported to Geographic Information Systems (GIS). These data also provided new information for other aquatic resource management goals, including mapping invasive species, anadromous fish restoration, and recreational fishery resource management. The usefulness of this approach for natural resource managers has allowed it to address contemporary and emerging issues such as:
- Development of biological criteria and the refinement of aquatic life use designations relative to water quality standards,
- Development of the Biological Condition Gradient (BCG) being developed by U.S. EPA for the implementation of tiered aquatic life uses and biological criteria on a national basis,
- Baseline assessment of the large river fish assemblages of Maine, including adaptation of sampling and survey designs successfully used on large rivers of other U.S. regions,
- Current status of fish populations of special interest and concern, including game, anadromous, and invasive alien species,
- Assessment of the impact and effectiveness of existing management programs using an integrated assessment process,
- Discovery and characterization of previously unknown or poorly understood problems,
- Potential and realized effects of dam removal on fluvial aquatic assemblages.
- Cooperating organizations include the Maine DEP, Maine IF&W, Maine DMR, Maine Atlantic Salmon Commission, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and Trout Unlimited.