Tom Hennessey has been a wonderful supporter of the Atlantic salmon as a majestic gamefish, and of the program in Maine to protect them and preserve them from the ravages of pollution, poaching and dam building. He has donated time, effort and numerous prints to the Atlantic Salmon Federation and to the Penobscot, Veazie and Eddington salmon clubs in support of their programs over a long period of time.

So it was with some measure of disappointment that I read his column in the Bangor Daily News on March 2 about the West Winterport dam.

It is a shame that so much of the knowledge held by the old-timers about the native fisheries that our rivers used to support has been lost. We have little evidence of the presence of Atlantic salmon in Marsh Stream in the years since the end of World War II, just the persistent rumors, second or third hand at best, of the occasional presence of these fish as far upstream as Monroe. And the March 1960 newsletter of the Atlantic Sea Run Salmon Commission contains the following verbatim quotation: “A youngster in Frankfort had the thrill of his life when he hooked and landed an adult salmon while fishing for trout with an alder pole and worms.” Alas, no name or date.

But there is evidence of a historic presence of Atlantic salmon in Marsh Stream. It is well documented and fully accepted by the Maine Atlantic Salmon Commission.

In a letter to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection dated Sept. 6, 2001, Norman Dube, fisheries scientist with the Atlantic Salmon Commission, says that biologists G.A. Rounsfell and L.H. Bond unequivocally stated that Atlantic salmon were historically present in Marsh Stream in their 1952 Research Report No. 1, on salmon restoration in Maine. This conclusion is based on unpublished field notes made between 1867 and 1900 by Charles Atkins, Maine’s first fisheries commissioner, who devoted his career to the restoration of Atlantic salmon.

In the book “Ridge Runner,” published in 1948, Gerald Averill recounts his boyhood in Frankfort Village from 1900 to about 1914. He later became one of Maine’s best known game wardens. Averill wrote with enthusiasm about his boyhood encounters with migratory fish in Marsh Stream, including river herring, eels, sea run brook trout, and “the occasional great silvery salmon.” He also wrote with despair about the destruction of the carrying capacity of the stream and its watershed from the clear-cutting of its headwater forests. “Ridge Runner” is at the top of the list of books which chronicle Maine as it once was and, to our great loss, will never be again.

In the summer of 2001, Pete Ruksznis of the Atlantic Salmon Commission staff undertook a habitat survey of Marsh Stream. Preliminary analysis of the data show approximately 1,629 units of spawning and rearing habitat in both branches of Marsh Stream above the West Winterport dam, more than Cove Brook and the Ducktrap River combined. These two streams, each of which flows into the same Penobscot estuary as Marsh Stream, both have small runs of wild Atlantic salmon to this day.

As to the dam at Frankfort, there is no question that its ability to pass fish upstream is less than ideal. In myh own view, the existing fish ladder is improperly located, because the best passage would be on the north side of the stream. As it is, at high tide there is little or no attraction flow which would lead any migratory fish to the fish ladder. The silver lining to this cloud is that the state and federal fishery agencies are well aware of this deficiency and are actively working on a remedy.

Will removal of the West Winterport dam actually result in the restoration of Atlantic salmon to Marsh Stream? It would be a brave person indeed who claims unconditionally that such will be the case. The long history of effort at restoration in the Penobscot River shows how difficult it is to bring back a once great run from the brink of extinction. But as Hennessey ware careful to point out, when FISH ( ) removed the dam at the Route 1A bridge in Hampden in 1997, Atlantic salmon found their way upstream in a matter of weeks.

It is our belief that the resilient Atlantic salmon will have a much, much better chance of restoring themselves in Marsh Stream (with a free-flowing stream, improved water quality and few non-native predators) without the West Winterport dam in place. And the sea-run brook trout should benefit as well. We should all look forward to the day when the great-grandson or great-granddaughter of the boy with the alder pole has the chance to fish for trout or salmon in a revived Marsh Stream.

Clinton B. Townsend is president of Facilitators Improving Salmonid Habitat.