It has long been my belief that many of Maine’s socio-economic afflictions would be solved if we could somehow ship all of our state legislators to Siberia for about five years. On a smaller scale, it is pleasing when a scheduled legislative hearing on a bad piece of legislation is postponed by nasty weather. This is what happened on a planned hearing for LD 1957, An Act to Restore Diadromous Fish to the St. Croix River. Scheduled to be heard on Feb. 13, it was postponed to early March when heavy snow and an ill wind blew in from the Eastern Seaboard that day.

This bill, which would allow the stocking of thousands of alewives in the St. Croix River watershed, is the worst cockamamie scheme to come down the pike since a Winterport legislator sponsored a bill that would have levied a nickel returnable deposit on cigarette butts.

Understandably the Maine Professional Guide’s Association (MPGA) and the Grand Lake Stream Guides Association are up in arms over this bill. It is sponsored by State Senator Dennis Damon of Hancock. The guides, whose livelihoods depend upon the bass and salmon sport fishery Downeast, have not forgotten what happened to the once-fabled bass fishery at Spednic Lake in the 1980s when alewives were introduced. Simply put, the alewives ate the bass fry and the bass population crashed! Today, 30 years later, the Spednic bass fishery is still in recovery.

What’s the argument for messing with the status quo and stocking alewives in the St. Croix River watershed?

Proponents assert that there is historic precedent, that alewives once populated this watershed and thus we have a moral responsibility to make things as they once were. This is a common refrain we hear nowadays as the preservationists and the politically correct feel-good crowd devote their energies and resources to resurrecting yesteryear and taking humans out of the equation.

A former Downeast state fisheries biologist Ron Brokaw points out, there is no hard evidence that historically there ever were alewive runs above Grand Falls in the first place. Never mind the feel-good aspects of alewife “reintroduction.” This bill, LD 1957, would allow the stocking of alewives ABOVE Grand Falls. Once there, the alewives would enjoy free runs into Big Lake, Grand Lake Stream, and other Downeast sport fisheries that connect with the St. Croix River watershed. Perhaps most troubling, this legislative proposal makes no provision for monitoring the potential for the import of disease or predation upon the bass and landlocked salmon so critical to the Down East economy.

Brokaw, who managed the Downeast sport fishery for years, argues convincingly that introducing sea-run alewives into the St. Croix River watershed is a recipe for disaster. He also shoots big holes in alewife stocking rationales being advanced by proponents.

One of these rationales is that alewives will provide needed food for eagles. Brokaw writes, “They (eagles) do just fine preying on the abundant river populations of fallfish, suckers, smallmouth bass, and pickerel.”

He also shatters proponent assertions that alewives would add much needed nutrients to these Downeast sport fisheries. Brokaw sites the current quality of these storied sport fisheries. He asks how anyone could believe that “a river drainage with such outstanding fisheries of statewide significance is somehow lacking in nutrients? This assertion is ludicrous,” insists Brokaw.

So the weather conditions and rescheduled hearing for LD 1957 may be a stroke of luck for the Downeast sport fishery. This gives opponents more time to rally the troops.

The hearing scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 13, has been rescheduled to Monday, March 3, at 10 a.m. in Augusta Civic Center. Short of sending sponsors of this bill a one-way ticket to Siberia, you might want to make contact with your area lawmaker and express your concerns.

V. Paul Reynolds is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide, co-host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network (WVOM-FM 103.9, WCME-FM 96.7) and former information officer for the Maine Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. His e-mail address is [email protected].