PHILLIPS — Despite dams blocking their path up the Kennebec River, a growing number of endangered Atlantic salmon have made their way to the cold-water habitat of the Sandy River to spawn each fall. Maine Department of Marine Resources estimates that 150 Atlantic salmon made it to the Sandy River and its tributaries this past October, nearly twice the number from the previous year. But that habitat of braided channels in the South Branch of the Sandy River was destroyed following a December flood when town officials brought in excavators and other large equipment and dredged a large section of the river.
A view Thursday of the South Branch of the Sandy River in Phillips where endangered Atlantic salmon habitat was destroyed when excavators and heavy equipment were brought in after December’s flooding. Dredged to make a canal, according to officials, the waterway was once made up of multiple thin channels of water, shaded by trees, making it ideal salmon habitat. Visit sunjournal.
com to watch a video flyover of the river. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal Fisheries expert Daniel McCaw, who formerly studied the Atlantic salmon habitat in the Sandy River, estimates that thousands of salmon eggs and juveniles were destroyed due to the dredging that turned the branch with numerous channels into a “canal.” The Maine Department of Environmental Protection is investigating the town for destroying the delicate habitat.
Other organizations such as the Natural Resources Council of Mai.