TOWNSHIP 18 – Volunteers will gather today at Munson Rips to put the finishing touches on a project to protect the most critical Atlantic salmon spawning area in the East Machias River.

Members of area snowmobile and all-terrain vehicle clubs will install hemlock and spruce planks on a 110-foot-long steel bridge that will span the East Machias River, according to William Cherry, the watershed coordinator for the Machias and East Machias rivers.

The bridge is not wide enough for cars, but will provide a way for ATVs and snowmobiles to cross the East Machias at the end of the Eastern Ridge Road, he said.

“This is the No. 1 prime salmon spawning habitat in the East Machias,” Cherry emphasized.

The East Machias River is one of eight Maine bodies of water – including Cove Brook in the Penobscot River – where wild Atlantic salmon are an endangered species. The watershed councils are groups of local volunteers who are working to protect salmon habitat in the rivers.

Cherry said the Washington County Soil and Water Conservation District received a grant for the Munson Rips project because there is a need to provide a way for ATVs to cross the river without disturbing the salmon habitat.

Munson Rips had a bridge until the mid-1980s, when a wooden bridge constructed by St. Regis Paper Co. in the 1970s was removed.

The three concrete abutments that supported the old bridge were left standing in the river, and those were removed as part of the current project, the watershed coordinator said.

Advanced Resources and Construction, a Kingfield company, built the 110-foot-steel bridge support in two 55-foot pieces, and they were installed and connected on Tuesday, Cherry said.

Today, members of the Machias Ridge Riders, the Alexander ATV-Snowmobile Club and the Downeast Trailriders, will put on the wooden deck.

Cherry said the bridge, which is on land owned by International Paper Co., will be owned by the clubs and maintained by the Maine Department of Conservation.

Whitney’s Tool Shed in Machias has donated a giant cooker for today’s work session, and Nate Pennell, the director of the Washington County Soil and Water Conservation District, will cook a picnic lunch for the volunteers, Cherry said.

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection, the Maine Department of Agriculture, the Atlantic Salmon Commission and the National Wildlife Fisheries Foundation provided a total of $130,000 for the project.

The funds paid for removing the concrete abutments, construction of the steel support system and a nonpoint-source pollution survey of the East Machias river corridor in the vicinity of the new bridge, Cherry said.