Headwaters

ASF’s Headwaters program is dedicated to removing barriers to fish passage, restoring stream ecology and natural habitat, and enhancing cold water refugia. Headwaters focuses on small and medium-sized projects that cumulatively have a large impact.

Working closely with communities, governments, Indigenous, and non-government organizations, ASF is committed to identifying the highest value barrier removal and habitat restoration projects. We work to build local support, engineer solutions, raise funds, and complete the work on the ground.

The Sandy River begins in the High Peaks Region of Western Maine and runs 75-miles to the Kennebec River. Designated as “critical habitat” for Atlantic salmon recovery, the Sandy contains an abundance of high-quality spawning and rearing habitat and is the focal point of salmon restoration in the Kennebec.

In 2023, ASF and our partners completed the Walton’s Mill Dam removal project on Temple Stream in Farmington, Maine. It is one of the largest Headwaters projects to date, reconnecting 52-miles of high-quality, cold-water habitat to the Sandy River. Along with the removal of the dam, ASF worked with the town and community to construct a new streamside park where the impoundment used to be. Atlantic salmon, American eel, and Eastern brook trout will benefit from restored access to Temple Stream.

In the upper Penobscot watershed, construction of a large fishway at the Baskahegan Co. Dam in Danforth, Maine is underway. The structure will restore migratory fish access to 137 miles of stream and 8,960 acres of lake habitat in the Crooked Brook Flowage and Baskahegan Lake, making this project the single largest alewife restoration project to date on the Atlantic coast. Alewives are a keystone ecological species for the Gulf of Maine, providing forage for scores of species. They also co-evolved with Atlantic salmon and provide a critical prey buffer for salmon and a vital source of marine-derived nutrients that promote primary productivity in Maine’s stream ecosystems.

The construction of a new Alaska steep-pass fish ladder at the Branch Pond Dam is the third and final major project in the Sheepscot River watershed undertaken by ASF over the last decade. Branch Pond and its cold-water feeder streams are the headwaters of the West Branch of the Sheepscot River. The Sheepcot supports the southernmost locally adapted stock of endangered Atlantic salmon in the U.S. At 320 acres, Branch Pond is the fourth largest pond in the entire watershed and the only sizable pond in the entirety of the West Branch, making it a high priority site for fish passage for alewives, American eel, brook trout, and Atlantic salmon. ASF previously removed the Coopers Mills Dam in Whitefield in 2018 and partially removed the Head Tide Dam in Alna in 2019. Altogether, these three projects addressed the most significant barriers in the watershed, significantly improving fish passage to 167 miles of rivers and streams and 1,250 acres of lake and pond habitat, and fully reconnecting the entire West Branch of the Sheepscot to the Gulf of Maine.

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

Partnered with the Canadian Wildlife Federation and local watershed groups to:

• Remove a collapsed bridge on Mill Creek
• Restore access to high-quality habitat on the Mill River
• Construct a nature-like fishway to bypass a dam on Hyde Creek

NOVA SCOTIA

Worked with the Nova Scotia Salmon Association and local partners to:

• Enhance 2.6 kilometres of the Mull River in Cape Breton by deepening and narrowing the channel to cool water temperatures
• Restore 1.5 kilometres of degraded habitat from agricultural practices on the Upper Ohio River by installing log deflectors and other habitat features to provide cold-water refugia and better spawning conditions for salmon

NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR

• Supported the Salmon Preservation Association for the Waters of Newfoundland & Labrador on improvements to a fish passage structure and monitoring station on Corner Brook Stream
• Supported the Labrador Hunting and Fishing Association to clean up an abandoned, dilapidated fishing lodge site on the Kenamu River, where harmful substances like oil and gas were left behind and spilling into the river

NEW BRUNSWICK AND QUEBEC

Financially supported projects in the Restigouche watershed led by the Gespe’gewa’gi Institute of Natural Understanding to:

• Address sedimentation issues in the Kedgwick watershed
• Remove a barrier to fish passage in the Gounamitz watershed
• Launch a cold-water enhancement project on the main stem Restigouche River

Nathan Wilbur is ASF’s Executive Director of Regional Programs. Nathan will oversee the expansion of Headwaters to Canada. Nathan is a professional engineer, avid outdoorsman, and father. In his role, he oversees ASF’s conservation work in Atlantic Canada and Quebec, managing five staff people spread throughout the area.

Nathan and his team are also responsible for relations with ASF’s provincial and state salmon councils, Indigenous organizations, and affiliated watershed groups, more than 100 independent partners in all. The Regional Programs team also works closely with provincial and federal government agencies throughout eastern Canada, positioning ASF well for expanding the Headwaters program into Canada

Nathan’s interest in the natural world inspired him to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Forest Engineering from the University of New Brunswick, followed by a Masters of Science degree in Civil Engineering focusing on fluvial geomorphology and cold water habitats for Atlantic salmon.