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The 2nd Annual Spring Running Festival Celebrates Historic Herring Runs on the Kennebec

Posted on: Monday, 14 May 2007, 15:00 CDT

AUGUSTA, Maine, May 14 /PRNewswire/ -- A group of hearty individuals are pulling out all the stops and organizing a celebration of the Kennebec River called The Spring Running Festival. Bring along your family and friends because you have a personal invitation to attend on Saturday, June 2nd from 9AM to 4PM at Mill Park and Old Fort Western. A special pre-Festival Kickoff Chowder Supper will be held at the Calumet Club, 334 Northern Avenue the night before, Friday, June 1st. Rain date for the Spring Running Festival is Sunday, June 3rd.

It's all about the celebration of a river re-born. Come and enjoy a variety of demonstrations, exhibits and entertainment. Watch a blacksmith and barrelmaker preserve fish the old style way. Learn techniques for kayak safety and fishing from a kayak. Enjoy free fly-tying and casting instructions. Shop local Maine artisans at our craft show. There will be musical entertainment in the afternoon, a farmer's market and an open invitation to come fly a kite with the Nor'easters Kite Flying Club. It's all free. Don't miss the fun. For more information including our rain cancellation policy and a complete schedule, visit http://www.springrunning.com/ See you there!

A Little History

Alewives, Blueback Herring and American Shad are three of the ten species of native migratory fish that once populated the Kennebec River in huge numbers. Every springtime, these three kinds of river herring return from the ocean to freshwater to spawn in the Kennebec River watershed. At one time, the migration of herring ran into the millions. Take shad, for instance: millions of pounds of shad were landed commercially from Colonial times into the early twentieth century; and during that era, shad were so numerous that it was considered a sign of poverty to eat them. All these fish weren't just there for humans, either. They were a crucial part of the river's food chain, as food for eagles and osprey and river-dependent mammals. An 1852 history of Kennebec River towns, Gardiner and Pittston, relates that "alewives were so plentiful there at the time the country was settled, that bears ... fed on them in the water. They were crowded ashore by the thousands." But with industrialization came pollution and damming - and the virtual collapse of these fish populations. When one river town built a dam that blocked alewives from their spawning grounds, an early chronicler wrote about the outrage of residents upstream. "It was difficult to persuade the aggrieved people to forbear using violence to open a passage for ye fish ... the cry of the poor every year for want of the fish... is enough to move the bowels of compassion in any man that hath not an heart of stone."

And A Lot of Hope for the Future:

Now, thirty four years after passage of the Clean Water Act, the Kennebec's degraded water quality has dramatically improved, with the removal of the Edwards Dam. State of the art fish passage is slated for dams upstream of Augusta. And with these improvements, herring have rebounded on the river. City officials, business owners, scientists, historians, farmers, anglers and environmentalists all joined together to celebrate the return of herring to the Kennebec River; the restoration of a missing piece of our river communities' history; and the potential that these fish represent for a rebuilt river system, and richer communities. This resurgence of life in the Kennebec culminated in the many groups, agencies and individuals in the Capitol area who sponsored and hosted the First Annual "SPRING RUNNING" River Herring Festival which was held in May of 2006 and will continue to grow the festival in future years!

For further information, please contact Dana Morse, Maine Sea Grant, Darling Marine Center, Clarks Cove, Walpole, Maine 04573 207-563-3146 ext 205 dana.morse@maine.edu or, visit the Festival web site for up to date information: http://www.springrunning.com/

City of Augusta, Maine

CONTACT: Dana Morse, Maine Sea Grant, Darling Marine Center,+1-207-563-3146, ext 205, dana.morse@maine.edu, for City of August, Maine

Web site: http://www.augustamaine.gov/http://www.springrunning.com/

Source: PRNewswire

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