Join Maine Campaign Case Statement - Flipbook - Page 30
Photos: © Phoebe Parker
RIVERS PROFILE
HADLEY
COURAUD
Sebago Clean Waters Conservation Coordinator
Former TNC in Maine Stream Crew Team Leader
Leading TNC’s seasonal stream crew, I had the privilege
of working with Mainers statewide investigating the
intersection of roads and streams. These neighbors shared
their meals, their homes, and the kind of heartfelt stories
that come from those living in close connection to the land
they love. In Aroostook County, it was our job to analyze
culverts so TNC could determine if they posed an obstacle
to the flow of the stream, to the road above, and to fish
and wildlife passage. We found culverts hidden behind
downed trees or inside beaver dams, and others innovatively
fashioned out of overturned dump trucks or old rail cars.
When you’re out in the woods inspecting 20 culverts a day,
it can be easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. The fact is,
culverts have an outsize impact on mitigating some of the
dangerous effects of climate change. One of these effects
is an increase in storm events and the amount of water
coursing through rivers and streams, and an undersized
or ill-placed culvert can get clogged easily. This creates an
acute threat to community and industrial road networks,
which can get flooded and damaged. The impact is also
severe on wildlife and natural habitat—when water can’t
flow under roads naturally, the movement of sediment and
nutrients is restricted, and fish and wildlife are less able to
migrate up and down stream to complete their life cycle.
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JOIN MAINE | NATURE.ORG/MAINE
By amassing data and analysis for most of Maine’s 26,000
stream crossings, TNC can now work directly with partners
to focus restoration projects where they have the most
impact for stream health and human communities. Our work
restoring Maine waterways is a reminder of how climate
change touches everything around us—and how there is
always something we can do to enact change. I’ve carried
that understanding with me into my new role working with
Loon Echo Land Trust and Western Foothills Land Trust on
the Sebago Clean Waters project, collaborating to conserve
streams and the surrounding forest lands in the Sebago Lake
watershed which filter drinking water for one-sixth of our
state’s population.
My vision for the rivers and streams of Maine is a landscape
of healthy, connected waterways that carry fish and aquatic
critters alongside the stories, livelihoods, and heritage of
Maine’s human communities. It’s crucial that this vision
centers the Wabanaki, new and rural Mainers, and makes
space for everyone to enjoy and actively participate in the
work of protecting these gifts. I appreciate that TNC is
working with renewed humility and intention toward
making this vision a reality.
