SUN JOURNAL • May 27, 2023
Lake Stream in Princeton is arguably Maine’s most fabled and frequented fly fishing water for landlocked salmon. The third week in May, this popular section of moving water was practically unfishable due to record low stream flow for this time of year. Why? Apparently to accommodate the loons during their nesting season. Given that loon populations in Maine are on the rise, and that natural predators, boat strikes and boat wakes are the single greatest cause of loon mortality, not water levels, common sense would suggest a compromise, or a temporary relaxing of the FERC loon nesting provision so that stream levels can be returned to at least minimum flows. Shouldn’t we strive to strike a balance in our regulatory approach to protecting wild things? ~ V. Paul Reynolds