Fly fishers sponsoring statewide spring cleanup

Maine’s largest Internet fly-fishing community has announced that it will sponsor a statewide spring cleanup effort on May 13.

Flyfishinginmaine.com’s cleanup efforts will be concentrated on popular fishing areas, mostly streams and rivers, across the state.

So far, enough volunteers from southern Maine and the Katahdin region have signed up to form at least the cores of regional teams. Each regional team will have a team leader who will be responsible for helping the team decide on the exact details of the cleanup schedule, including a meeting time and location, the order of events and a rain date.

The event is meant to be a fun gathering of outdoors people who would like to get together to help out a favorite fishing area, do some fishing, and maybe even hold a barbecue.

FFIM is still looking for people to lead and staff Moosehead, Down East and Aroostook County teams.

For more information or to volunteer, e-mail the coordinator, Brian Foley, at the4foleys@hotmail.com or call him at 866-0691.

Spring Running festival set

“The Spring Running: A Festival to Celebrate the Kennebec River’s Herring Revival” will be held on May 20 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Edwards Mill Park in downtown Augusta and Old Fort Western.

The Spring Running will not only celebrate a new season of fishing and farming, it will also honor the historical, cultural, ecological and economic rejuvenation represented by the return of the Kennebec River’s herring run in Augusta.

Events include a bateau display, a touch tank, demonstration fly tying and fly casting, fish smoking, net repair and-construction, fish prints and traditional barrel construction.

Nearly seven years ago, the Edwards Dam was breached, restoring 17 miles of the Kennebec to a free-flowing state and reopening prime spawning habitat for the first time since 1837. Ten species of migratory fish that had been blocked by the dam were then able to make their way upstream. Those included the shortnose sturgeon, Atlantic sturgeon, Atlantic salmon, striped bass, alewives, blueback herring and American shad.

For more information, call Dana Morse at 563-3146, extension 205, e-mail him at dana.morse@maine.edu, or go to www.springrunning.com.

To submit an item for publication in the Outdoor Notebook, send e-mail to jholyoke@bangordailynews.net, fax to 990-8092 or mail information to Outdoor Notebook, Bangor Daily News, PO Box 1329, Bangor, Maine, 04402-1329.