There is little doubt that Cherryfield Foods’ planned cranberry bog in Washington County is a major step in the development of a new industry in that struggling region.

And there is good reason to believe that the state’s new salmon conservation plan can protect Maine rivers as well as the Endangered Species Act without the heavy-handedness of federal regulation.

So when the two collide, as they have with Cherryfield’s unpermitted bog digging in the Pleasant River watershed, something has to give. In this case, it has to be Cherryfield, and it has to give until it hurts.

No, Cherryfield should not be taken out and shot for its offense — it appears that the unapproved clearing of 53 acres may have occurred far enough, roughly five miles, from the Pleasant to avoid any significant damage to salmon habitat. But if the two-month-old agreement is to survive its first real test, the state must come down on the company with fines and required remedial actions that are fair but firm, that cannot be faulted for leniency.

The irony is that Cherryfield helped create the self-policing state salmon protection plan as a liveable alternative to the federal listing that many feared would shut down industry, agriculture, aquaculture and forestry along the seven rivers.

The company has the necessary permits to build its bog, but the permits include several conditions, including one that no construction work be done between mid-October and mid-April, that a final plan with a wildlife survey be completed and that an independent monitor be on hand to oversee the job. The work apparently was done in November and December, with no final plan and no monitor.

That’s why it’s troubling to hear Cherryfield’s operations manager, Ragnar Kamp, who served on the committee that wrote the state plan, say the violation is the result of differing interpretations of what is construction and what is not. Hint: If it involves backhoes, bulldozers and chain saws, it’s construction.

It appears that the unapproved work did little damage; a small amount of peat deposited in an unnamed stream that eventually leads to the Pleasant may be about all. That’s a relief, but there is more to this than a shovelful of silt.

In pushing its salmon plan, Maine told the federal government the state could protect the habitat with its existing laws and enforcement practices, combined with a cooperative relationship between regulators and business. It was a tough sell and the feds can back out of the deal and proceed with the endangered species listing at any time. Whatever action the state takes against Cherryfield must, of course, be tempered by a determination of whether the violations were unintentional or willful, but fines must not be allowed to be merely a cost of doing business.

Financial penalties often are used to send a message. In this case, the state must send two. To developers: Maine means business. To the federal government: Maine keeps its word.