Our Maine Street's Aroostook Issue 8 : Spring 2011 | Page 37
Atlantic Salmon
for northern maine
by Claudia G. Garland
Fair is Fair
Have you every enjoyed something so much that
you would do everything possible to ensure its continued
existence? It is that deep seated passion and dedication that
by Dan
finds a group of “County Anglers” paying it forward in the
truest act of deed. With Atlantic Salmon facing worldwide
extinction, this group knew they wanted the waterways of
their youth to be restored. They sought an opportunity
to bring back the day when rivers and streams would flow
with the lifeblood of the land; imparting joy and adventure
straight to the heart.
Nestled on the snowy bank of the Aroostook River
in Sheridan, Maine, lies the largest private, nonprofit
Atlantic Salmon Hatchery in the world! How did they
do it? This band of brothers knew what they had to do
and did it by using their Aroostook County work ethic, by
choosing to believe in their cause, and by joining together in
the fellowship of teamwork to build what is today known as
the Dug Brook Fish Hatchery and the lodge of the Atlantic
Salmon For Northern Maine.
Recently I was blessed with an invitation to tour
the hatchery, enjoy some mouth watering food at the lodge,
and engage
Ladner in conversation equally as satisfying. Most of
these “boys” receive social security benefits; however, their
age has done nothing to diminish their youthful recall and
exciting tales of fishing the Aroostook River.
My tour starts. “We confess not so much in knowing
what to do as much as we had the basics of what not to do!”
We set out to find clean and cold water. Dug Brook gave
just that. “The water is so damn cold, even the beavers
won’t live there”! A statement I was soon to learn would
be of great significance. “We needed pure, cold water, free
of animal scat or waste, and boys, we just found it!” So it
began, on the banks of the Aroostook River, gravity fed cold
water flowed into the hatchery from Dug Brook at a flow
rate of 124 gallons a minute. The water flows in a single
pass having less chance for the spread of bacteria. The cold
gravity fed water means no need for pumps or chillers.
SPRING 2010 Atlantic Salmon 35
FALL 2011