History and charting a course forward
Have you ever sat next to the ocean, or overlooking a river valley, and wondered what it used to look like before farms, towns, cities and industry changed the landscape?
This is an important question when we decide to restore ecosystems. A first step is identifying what ecosystem state is the goal. The more pristine or further back in time we use as a goal, the less information is available and the harder it is to know how things actually looked, let alone how they worked. We need to avoid the "you can't get there from here" trap, where goals are not possible because of ecological changes that have occurred.
A shifting baseline occurs as people, particularly of scientists and fishermen in this case, recognize small changes through their lifetimes, but fail to see the dramatic long term decline of most species that has occurred over generations. See shifting baselines. The stunning illustration (available through the Oakland Area Historical Society) above demonstrates the dependence of early colonists on water power and the consequent change that occurred to river systems across New England through settlement. Presently, dams are being removed and fish are being stocked in Maine river systems to attempt restoration to past conditions.
Atlantic salmon and river herring are anadromous fish - they return to freshwater to reproduce after spending time in the ocean. River herring are the focus of our work and are made up of two species: alewives and blueback herring. The small anadromous river herring is a link between the sea and land, being important as food for coastal cod populations and fertilizer on land for european settlers. We know that these fish were very abundant, but we do not know the timeline. Archeological, historical and recent data will be used to estimate abundance of river herring in the Gulf of Maine river systems from 1600 to 1900. Initially, we are focusing on evaluating available spawning habitat as dams obstructed river systems. The changes are documented in the dam database and interactive map. For more details, please follow links to Research and Background.
We need help, from you!We encourage visitors to the site to let us know about any pertinent information. We are particularly interested in old diaries, documents and photographs, especially if they note the building of old dams or if they contain information about fish catches. The database is under development and data will be added though 2009.
River Herring in hand (above) and in mass at dam (below).
Photos by Adrian Jordaan.