When Landis Hudson thinks back to what rivers in Maine must have been like 250 years ago, she thinks of bountiful sturgeon, shad, eel, alewives and other sea-run fish.

“What was going on in 1776 in the springtime would have been, for someone like me, mindblowing and really impressive,” Hudson said.

Hudson, the executive director of Maine Rivers, a nonprofit that advocates to protect, restore and enhance the ecological health of the state’s river systems through efforts like dam removal, said colonial-era descriptions of rivers give her inspiration for what the next hundreds of years may hold for the state’s waterways.

“Sometimes, it’s hard to fathom how much they have changed,” Hudson said.

Centuries ago, rivers determined where Maine’s settlers decided to build their communities, sometimes leading to conflict with Native Americans. They played a key role in the growth of industry, which in turn left them with poor water quality.

Environmental regulations later helped clean things up. Manufacturing that defined riverside communities, meanwhile, declined. 

Given all that rivers have done in shaping the region for the last centuries of central Maine life, what could be next in the 250 years to come?

KENNEBEC DAMS

Along the Kennebec River, the current debate that will shape the river — and the entire region — for decades to come centers on the future of four dams from Skowhegan to Waterville. The Nature Conservancy, a global conservation organization, announced in September that it struck an agreement with Brookfield Renewable to buy the four hydroelectric projects for $168 million.

The Nature Conservancy’s publicly stated goal is to restore a free-flowing river through dam removal, decommissioning and other efforts. A group of other environmental organizations known as the Kennebec Coalition praised the deal, saying the dams are barriers to passage of endangered fish species. Their work builds on the removal of the Edwards Dam in Augusta nearly three decades ago.

The Nature Conservancy has said it envisions a yearslong process, engaging all those affected by possible restoration efforts. It has also said it is committed to finding a solution for Sappi North America’s Somerset Mill in Skowhegan, an employer of about 800 that relies on one of the impoundments to ensure sufficient water levels for its operations.

Even so, the possibility that the dams could come out has drawn backlash from officials at all levels of government, business leaders and some area residents. 

Most opposed are concerned about the potential loss of jobs at Sappi, a global leader in sustainable paper, pulp and packaging solutions and one the area’s biggest employers. There’s also the threat of losing property taxes on the dams, property values for waterfront homes and clean hydroelectric energy.

“River restoration efforts are slow,” said Hudson, whose group is part of the Kennebec Coalition. “It typically takes a big effort. It takes a lot of communication, a lot of prioritization and working together.”

RIVER FLOODING 

The December 2023 storm is still fresh in the minds of many, a reminder of the power of rivers when they surge to historic levels.

The rain and windstorm knocked out power to thousands. As the Kennebec rose, in part due to snowmelt from the relatively warm, early winter storm, it flooded low-lying areas such as downtown Gardiner and Hallowell. Upstream in Somerset County, high river levels shut down bridges and caused severe flooding in some areas, especially near the Kennebec’s confluences with the Carrabassett and Sandy rivers.

“We are a snowmelt-dominated flooding system,” said Greg Stewart, chief of the applied hydrology branch of the U.S. Geological Survey’s New England Water Science Center and who is based in Augusta. “Most of the major floods that happened in Maine are going to have snowmelt as a factor.”

Smaller streams and tributaries, meanwhile, are being affected by another trend in the weather.

“We’re seeing increases in the intense rainstorms,” Stewart said. “We’re seeing these short-duration, high-volume rainstorms more often.”

Could flooding experienced in 2023 be more common if the climate warms? Maybe, but it is hard to say with limited data and uncertainty about whether a recent warming trend will continue, Stewart said, and it is especially difficult to forecast the most severe flooding events over a long period of time.

“There’s not a lot of data points if we only have 100 years of record,” Stewart said. “So, forecasting into the future … there’s obviously a lot of error.”

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

In Skowhegan, community leaders have long discussed how to embrace the Kennebec, which rushes through a gorge near downtown. That vision, now known as the Skowhegan River Park, has finally begun to come to fruition after three decades of talks. 

Project organizers broke ground this week on a riverfront boardwalk, the first piece of the park to be constructed, with future plans for improved river access, adjustable whitewater waves and trail improvements.

Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony, U.S. Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, credited “a guy from Maine” — Edmund Muskie — for making such a concept even conceivable. Muskie, when he was one of Maine’s U.S. senators, championed the Clean Water Act of 1972 that revolutionized water quality regulations nationwide.

“Maine towns, for almost 100 years, turned their backs on the river,” King told the crowd. “They were oriented away from the rivers because the rivers were so polluted.”

For Kristina Cannon, president and CEO of the economic revitalization nonprofit Main Street Skowhegan, which has spearheaded the river park development, said the kickoff of construction marked the “beginning of a new relationship between our community and the Kennebec River.”

She painted a picture for the 150 officials, business owners and residents at the groundbreaking Monday of a place where future generations can stroll along the boardwalk, surfers play on a wave, kids learn to whitewater kayak, anglers cast lines and visitors open their wallets to shop and eat at local stores and restaurants.

“It’s about creating a place where the river is no longer something we just drive over, or admire from afar,” Cannon said, “but something we experience together every single day.”