Event/Article Title: Explore the Masse Dam Removal and Stream Restoration

Date and Time: Saturday June 4th 10am -11am

Location: On Main St. in East Vassalboro

This year, native alewives are returning to China Lake for the first time since at least 1783. Over the past five years, the China Lake Alewife Restoration Initiative has removed or built fishways at six dams on Outlet Stream in Vassalboro, reconnecting China Lake to the Sebasticook River and the ocean. Eventually the restored alewife run is expected to total close to a million returning adult alewives. The Masse Dam site was the first of these projects, a dam removal completed in 2017. Along with removal of the Lombard Dam in 2018 and the Morneau Dam in 2021, the project created close to 2 ½ miles of free-flowing stream where previously had been severely-degraded impoundments, overheated, low in oxygen and full of invasive fish and aquatic plants. Through grants from the Maine Natural Resources Conservation Program and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and with the help of the Waldo County Soil and Water Conservation District, Maine Rivers has been working toward a comprehensive ecological restoration of this stretch of stream, including re-establishment of a natural stream channel and revegetation of the riparian buffer. Join us on a tour of this historic site, to see the progress that has been made, and the work remaining to be done. Meet on Main St. in East Vassalboro just north of the town center.