NEWRY — A three-year project designed to test the addition of coarse woody debris to area streams to curb erosion and restore brook trout habitat is considered a success.

However, more time is needed to study the effects of the “chop and drop” method, project participant Jeff Stern of the Androscoggin River Watershed Council said late Tuesday afternoon by e-mail.

“Basically, chop and drop is showing positive trends in many different areas — habitat improvement, erosion control, moderation of extreme flows — but a longer study time is needed,” Stern said of the strategic tree felling method.

“Likewise, trout populations appear to be responding positively after the initial disruption caused by the addition of chop and drop to the streams in August 2007.”

During the brook trout ecology project, Stern said the council staff observed that it appeared to take about two years for the added wood to settle to form distinct, well-defined dams. Additionally, where more leaf litter was available, it helped to pack debris dams.

The Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture project cost $326,928, of which the federal amount was $65,538 and the non-federal amount was $261,400.

Funding was provided by the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture, Newry, Trout Unlimited and the Maine Department of Transportation, all of which partnered with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the University of Maine, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments, the Maine Department of Conservation’s Bureau of Parks and Lands and private landowners.

Two half-mile-long sections of two Sunday River headwater tributaries were treated by adding coarse woody material. A nearby tributary wasn’t treated for use as a control.

In December 2008, two Bear River headwater tributaries were added to the study and a half mile of each — Branch Brook and Chase Hill Brook — was treated with coarse woody material.

Annual monitoring followed the treatments. It included surveying longitudinal profiles and cross-sections, pebble counts, water level measurement, and biological monitoring of brook trout, aquatic insect and amphibian populations, Stern said.

The project addressed a strategy identified by former state fisheries biologist Forrest Bonney in Maine’s Brook Trout Species Plan, that environmental degradation from stream-side cutting, development and pesticide/herbicide application threatens some stream fisheries.

Both the Sunday and Bear river watersheds are sub-watersheds of the Androscoggin River.

It was believed that the chop and drop method would help:

* Maximize the contribution of wild brook trout stocks to the fishery.

* Restore degraded brook trout habitats and prevent continued degradation of such places.

* Raise awareness of Maine’s wild brook trout resources to grow public/private collaborative stewardship of said resources.

* Optimize angling opportunities for wild brook trout.

Stern said that historically, the Androscoggin River provided spawning and nursery habitat for sea-run Atlantic salmon.

Recently, the river from the sea to Rumford’s Pennacook Falls was designated as critical habitat for such salmon.

Stern said that restoring habitat for brook trout would also benefit the salmon.

“Overall, it appears chop and drop can be a relatively inexpensive and simple method to attenuate variability in flows, create, improve and restore brook trout habitat, and trap sediment,” he said.

“These are all important objectives in the sub-watersheds that were studied, as well as elsewhere throughout northern New England.”

“However, in-depth monitoring needs to be continued longer than a period of three years and is paramount to the future plans for continued brook trout habitat conservation efforts in these sub-watersheds and elsewhere,” Stern said.

To that end, participant Steve Coghland of the University of Maine at Orono is applying for grants to continue biomonitoring this year.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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