State honors Clayton Lake logger for aiding brook trout project

FORT KENT – Keith Pelletier of Clayton Lake Woodlands was kept away from a presentation by bad weather in the northern Maine woods Thursday, but officials of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife will see that his award is delivered to him.

Roland D. Martin, DIF&W commissioner, said Pelletier will be given a copy of the Commissioner’s Print, a print of three brook trout by Maine Artist Thomas K. Merriam for the department.

The prints, according to Martin, are presented to people, organizations and agencies that assist DIF&W with its work in protecting Maine’s wildlife.

Pelletier and his company donated heavy equipment and labor for a project on Priestly Lake, west of the Allagash River.

“They donated I don’t know how many hours of manpower and equipment for the construction of a spawning box for brook trout on Priestly Lake last fall,” Martin said. “It was an important project for the fisheries of the region.

“It was a considerable effort on their part,” Martin said. “It deserved one of these prints.”

According to Frank Frost, assistant regional fisheries biologist in northern Maine, Priestly Lake’s trout population has been low for the last 45 years. The 645-acre lake in Township 10 Range 13 has excellent habitat for brook trout.

To overcome the lack of spawning habitat, Frost said Thursday, biologists decided to install a spawning box in shallow water at the northwest corner of the lake last September.

Clayton Lake Woodlands provided an excavator and an operator for the work. Frost said that enabled biologists to install a concrete well as a water source for the spawning box, which lies in about 21/2 feet of water on the shore of the lake.

The spawning box, a 4-by-8 foot cedar box, was filled with small-sized stone, providing an ideal site for brook trout.

The work will be completed this spring, making the box available for spawning in the fall.

The Merriam print, one of 350 commissioned by Martin, has been given away about 20 times in the two years that Martin has served as DIF&W commissioner.

Martin said several of the prints have been presented to retiring game wardens who gave the state many years of service.

“They are pretty special,” Martin said.