Erosion affecting abundant brown trout habitat

ELLSWORTH — State officials are studying erosion along the Winkumpaugh and Happytown roads that is sending silt and sediment into the east branch of the Winkumpaugh Stream and affecting local brown trout habitat.

For Ron Brokaw, regional fishery biologist with the state Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, the issue is quite simple: “There is a very important brook that is filled with literally thousands of little wild brown trout. We don’t stock the fish at all. Mother Nature provides them through natural reproduction.

“It is the most important spawning tributary for brown trout that feeds Branch Lake, and Branch Lake is one of the top five lakes in eastern Maine for fishing, swimming and, of course, for the city of Ellsworth which gets its drinking water from it,” Brokaw said.

In August, Jon A. Cullen of the Division of Land Resource Regulation in the Department of Environmental Protection met with city officials to discuss the erosion control measures needed after the ditching of the roads.

In a letter to city officials, Cullen said that after the roads were ditched, the city attempted to seed them to prevent erosion. On several sections of the road the seed did not take, and hay-bale dikes failed to prevent runoff after they became choked with sediment.

Cullen admitted that erosion control was an expensive and time consuming process, but he said soil particles that washed into tributary streams and carried phosphorous to the lake could cause the city long-term problems.

“An excess of phosphorous may eventually lead to an excess of algae in Branch Lake. Keep in mind that it can take 20 years or more to develop an obvious problem. If the lake starts experiencing blooms of algae, it will be too late,” Cullen wrote. “Unstable ditches along the Winkumpaugh and Happytown roads will eventually cause water quality problems in Branch Lake. The quality of habitat for spawning brown trout in Winkumpaugh Stream is already being affected,” he said.

Brokaw agreed with Cullen. He said he had not “electrofished” the area for years and happened to visit the stream in August. Electrofishing is a process in which the fish in a segment of water are temporarily stunned by an electrical charge, float to the surface and are counted by biologists.

City Manager Tim King said efforts had been made to ameliorate the situation. He said he believed that if Brokaw had an interest in the area, he should have contacted him.

The biologist admitted he had not spoken with King, but he said state DEP officials were working with the city. He said that although the present level of silt-sediment had not significantly affected the brown trout’s survival and growth, he was worried.

King said he believed the city had taken appropriate steps to maintain the road, and he said that the deterioration of the stream and lake could be due to many causes.

“It could be due to development in the higher elevations along the roads that lead to Winkumpaugh Stream. … It could be due to forest practices, it could be due to anything,” he said.

While Cullen admitted that other factors could be involved, he said they had a cumulative effect and road erosion obviously was a part of the problem.

Brokaw said if the city did not make efforts to rectify the problem, he would ask the DEP to take enforcement action.