New book documents Ducktrap River conservation Waterway seen as key to salmon survival painstakingly captured in pictures, words

LINCOLNVILLE – It’s easy to overlook the Ducktrap River.

It’s not nearly as large or as long as the Penobscot, Kennebec or Androscoggin, and its link to the ocean is not marked by any harbor or port, or even a town.

But the river – which winds its way from Tilden Pond west of Belfast to Penobscot Bay just north of Lincolnville Beach – is every bit worthy as the subject of a love letter created by Scott Dickerson and Dennis C. Shultz, both men believe.

In words by Dickerson and photographs by Shultz, the river and its watershed are explored and evoked in “To Save A River,” a new coffee-table book, published by Aperture.

Dickerson, director of Camden-based Coastal Mountains Land Trust, has worked for years with the trust, the Ducktrap Coalition and others to protect the river and the watershed from development.

The Ducktrap is one of eight rivers in Maine listed by the federal government as vital to the survival of the endangered wild Atlantic salmon.

Remarkably, 81 percent of the river’s shores are protected by land acquisition or conservation easement, and 45 percent of the watershed land is similarly protected. The trust and other groups have acquired more than 1,000 acres, most of which is still open for hunting and hiking.

Dickerson was introduced to Shultz about three years ago, he said, by a volunteer who thought Shultz, a noted landscape photographer who had set up a studio in Rockport, could donate photographs for the trust’s newsletters.

“I was very impressed with his work,” Dickerson said of his first encounter with Shultz.

Shultz, a lifelong fly fisherman, said the river’s native salmon is what initially interested him in the Ducktrap.

The photographer began to explore the miles of woods that line the river, “and became totally entranced,” Dickerson said.

Shultz uses a large-format camera, making images on 8-inch-by-10-inch and 4-inch-by-5-inch negatives.

“It gives you incredible resolution,” he said, but the equipment does not lend itself to portability. Including the tripod, Shultz had to lug 70 pounds of photographic gear on his back as he explored the Ducktrap, sometimes on skis or snowshoes.

“It’s a very deliberate process,” he said. “It takes hours, generally, to compose and focus.”

As Shultz explored the river through the seasons, he identified special spots, returning in different weather and light, finding just the right image.

As Shultz produced photographs, Dickerson said, he was “just blown away by these images.”

Dickerson consulted land trust board member Herb Belkin, a former music industry executive who lived in Camden before his death last year. Belkin collected art photography,

Belkin pondered presenting the photographs in a gallery show, then settled on the book idea. He and Dickerson interviewed some writers, but none seemed to use the appropriate tone for what they had in mind for the text.

Meanwhile, Dickerson took some time off, traveling west with his wife. By e-mail, he sent his journal entries back to friends, including Belkin.

Belkin told him, “You are the author,” Dickerson remembered, laughing. “I was anointed ‘author.'”

The idea made sense, he admitted, because “I’ve been involved in this Ducktrap Coalition since the beginning,” in 1995.

“My job was to animate these beautiful landscape photographs,” Dickerson said, as well as relate the 300 years of “human history” of the river, focusing especially on the recent conservation efforts.

Davis Thomas, a former editor of Down East magazine who lives in Camden, assisted in editing and designing the book, winnowing down the 1,000 images Shultz produced. The final product, a volume that measures about 12 inches by 14 inches, includes 125 pages of text and large photographs.

Beyond the beauty of the photographs and the prose, Dickerson hopes “To Save A River” can be instructive as an environmental success story. The conservation of such a high percentage of the river puts it at the top of the list of protected rivers on the East Coast, he said.

“Much of this can be translated to bigger rivers,” he said of the conservation. “These things are possible, regardless of the size or scale of the river.

“We think that telling this story can encourage others to be ambitious, to be creative,” Dickerson said. “There’s a bit of a recipe in the book.”

The book, a co-production of Coastal Mountains Land Trust and Aperture, drew financial support from Fjord Seafood USA/Ducktrap River Fish Farm, French Foundation, Lund Fund of the California Community Foundation, MBNA Foundation, National Wildlife Foundation and Turner Foundation, and the Herbert A. Belkin Memorial Fund. “To Save A River” is dedicated to Belkin’s memory.