Steve Heinz Submitted photo
Friends of Merrymeeting Bay’s fifth presentation of its 25th annual Winter Speaker Series, “Restoring the Lower Androscoggin River,” is scheduled to feature Steve Heinz of Trout Unlimited, Maine Chapter, at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 9.
The series presentations are being held via Zoom. To access the event, visit fomb.org.
The group hosts its free series from October to May, the second Wednesday of each month.
The Lower Androscoggin River includes the watershed below Lewiston Falls and including the Little Androscoggin. Much of the restoration presentation material draws on the Maine Department of Marine Resources/Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Draft Fisheries Management Plan, according to a news release from Friends.
Heinz will then cover actions in progress, including Federal Energy Regulatory Commission relicensing challenges and opportunities (virtually all of the dams are up for relicensing in the next 10 years) and the proposed upgrade to water quality classification of the lower river. Much of what happens in the Little Androscoggin depends on the Lower Barker dams, lowest on that tributary.
Heinz will close with challenges, areas needing support, and calls to action.
Heinz earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a Navy commission from the University of Louisville through its NROTC program. After a career as a naval flight officer, he retired with the rank of commander in 1990. The Navy bought him to Maine, where he has lived and worked since 1988 and where he became active in Trout Unlimited more than 17 years ago.
His serious involvement in conservation began when he organized volunteer support for a MDIFW Level 2 Stream Survey of Martin Stream in Turner in 2005. For 10 years, he served as conservation chair for the Sebago Chapter Board of Directors and spearheaded volunteer efforts such as fish passage impediment surveys and Trout Unlimited Embrace-A-Stream grant projects, highlighted by his coordination of two dam removals in 2013.
Heinz worked with the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve in 2015 to remove a third dam in Arundel. In 2016, working with the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other government agencies and nonprofits, he organized and coordinated a series of proposals resulting in nearly $500,000 in grant money for five habitat restoration projects.
Heinz has been awarded by MDIFW for his efforts and been instrumental in his TU chapter, which received the Gold Trout award as chapter with the greatest success in conservation projects that protect and restore habitat in their area.
He continues to serve Trout Unlimited on the Maine Council as FERC action coordinator, and is working on a number of FERC relicensings in Maine. He is also an active member of the Royal River Alliance, where his most recent project was to produce an online fishing guide for the watershed.
For more information, contact the organization at 207-666-3372 or edfomb@comcast.net.
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