Shared Streams in Maine

Shared Streams field days showed landowners managing more than 35,000 acres how they could conserve and restore Atlantic salmon habitat.

Shared Streams in Maine is a 2002 winner of the prestigious Award of Achievement in Partnership from the National Resources Council of America (NRAC).

Shared Streams in Maine, a series of projects developed by the American Forest Foundation (AFF), improves habitat conditions for the endangered Maine Atlantic salmon through restoration and education projects with private forestland owners. The project's restoration results, featured at demonstration field days, educate and motivate other forestland owners to replicate conservation management measures on their own properties.

Shared Streams in Maine is administered through a regional partnership between the ATFS, Trout Unlimited (TU), the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Maine Forest Service and selected Maine certified Tree Farmers. Through voluntary forest stewardship measures of private forest landowners, the project is restoring and sustaining indigenous habitat of Atlantic salmon.

Forestry, the predominant form of land use in watersheds important to Maine Atlantic salmon, has contributed to habitat degradation in the past. Examples include: failing to establish adequate riparian buffer zones; removing streamside shade; building and using roads without controlling streamside erosion; and creating stream crossings that block fish passage.

Shared Streams is unique in addressing objectives of the Atlantic Conservation Plan for the Seven Maine Rivers through the cooperative efforts of ATFS landowners. Four certified Tree Farm sites were selected in watersheds, home to the rapidly declining Atlantic salmon distinct population segment identified by the NMFS.

On each site, restorative habitat improvement methods will be employed that private landowners are willing to implement and that are feasible. These model stream improvement techniques will then be promoted to other landowners through our ATFS.

Disseminating information about the success of each site multiplies the effect of the project within the watershed, as other forest landowners are encouraged by peers to implement similar measures. Project follow-up ensures landowners have access to the necessary technical assistance to assess, implement and monitor stream habitat conservation.

Shared Streams offers a unique opportunity for organizations with diverse interests (forest stewardship, fresh water and anadromous fish habitat enhancement, river conservation, and watershed protection) to collaborate with state and federal agencies to protect and enhance critical river ecosystems.