Alewives are back in the news. The International Joint Commission, in conjunction with Maine’s Natural Resource Council and a number of other environmental organizations, are agitating to open the entire St Croix River watershed to free, unmitigated alewife passage.

This is, as Yogi Berra said, ” deja vu all over again.”

Back in 2008, after much debate, the Maine Legislature struck a compromise. It allowed the fish way to be opened at Woodland Dam to allow some spawning-run passage of these anadromous fish in the St. Croix River. Alewife advocates were never happy with this. They have long argued for total restoration of fish migrations into the lakes and ponds that provide headwaters for the St. Croix River.

During the 2008 debate, Washington County fishing guides, sporting camp operators, and many others with an economic stake in Washington County’s remarkable smallmouth bass recreational fishery, were at odds with the alewife advocates. The guides argued that the issue pivoted on a clear-cut choice: alewives or bass, that you can’t have both. Their position was, in my opinion, supported by the fact that Spednik Lake’s spectacular bass fishery died not long after alewives began spawning there. Those who opposed the free migration of alewives in the St. Croix held an additional ace in the hole. They contended that there was no historical evidence that alewives were ever able to make their spawning runs above Grand Falls and into the lakes in the first place. This position was supported by the testimony from the area’s Passamaquoddy natives.

So what is going on here?

It’s a tired old Maine story, really. This alewives dispute is a microcosm of so many other battles in Maine that are rooted in money and power. What we have is well-meaning environmental organizations, with large bankrolls, pitting their world view against hard-working traditional Mainers trying to protect whatever rights they have left to earn a living.

These organizations that seem to shrug off the interests of the working class Mainers in the name of “historic restoration” give a new meaning to the word audacity. No doubt they feel a self-satisfying sense of moral superiority in their unrelenting “struggle” to take man out of the equation and make everything as it once was. What if they are wrong? What if they get their way and free alewife passage does destroy this remarkable and lucrative smallmouth bass fishery, putting so many Washington County guides and sporting camps out of business? Aren’t they stealing a man’s livelihood in the name of historic restoration? Isn’t this a form of looting dressed up to look like environmental altruism?

What’s worse, these empowered environmentalists who want to save Maine from itself have no compunctions about using misrepresentations if it will further their cause. NRC spokesman Clinton Townsend, in a Bangor Daily News op-ed piece, asserted boldly that “alewives are not detrimental to bass.” He backs his statement by alluding to “peer-reviewed scientific documentation” published in 2007 by Maine Rivers. This is a popular mantra that sounds very authoritative, but it does not square with the indisputable facts. Alewives got into Spednik Lake and shortly thereafter a fabled smallmouth fishery disappeared. One and one equals two. A dozen peer reviews by Maine Rivers or any other organization will not change this.

Especially galling about this newest round in the alewife saga, is that a federal government agency, IJC, is joining forces with these environmental groups in an attempt to overturn a decision that already had been resolved by our state legislature.

As Downeast guide Dale Wheaton explained, “We have nothing against the alewife. We recognize that this anadromous little fish is God’s creature, too. But we can’t have both a great bass fishery and unlimited alewife runs up the St Croix River. This is our livelihood and a local economy we are talking about here.”

Understandably, Wheaton and his fellow guides feel overpowered by big government and the monied environmental lobby. If I were them, I’d shop around for a good attorney. If they can find a one who loves to bass fish, all the better.

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, WQVM 101.3) and former information officer for the Maine Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. His e-mail address is [email protected].