SUN JOURNAL • September 1, 2024
For generations, factories and mills operated along the Sabattus River, but those businesses are gone now. Left behind are a series of dams along that do not produce power but do create impassible barriers to native migratory fish species. Removing the lower dams and installing an engineered fishway at the Sabattus Lake Outlet (Sleeper Dam) will allow fish species to return. Restoration of the Sabattus River is expected to make 2,429 acres of lake and pond habitat, and 75 miles of river and stream habitat accessible to migratory fish species. Once access is restored to Sabattus Pond, a self-sustaining run of nearly 500,000 adult alewife, a keystone species, is expected to return each year. ~ Landis Hudson, executive director, Maine Rivers