FREE NRCS - Audubon Stream Smart Workshop

These workshops will focus on the value of improving stream habitat connectivity, proper installation and maintenance of road/stream crossing structures to prevent erosion and washouts, and how landowners can get financial and technical assistance to improve road/stream crossings. These workshops are being hosted by Maine Audubon as part of the 25,000- square-mile Maine Aquatic Connectivity Restoration Project led by The Nature Conservancy and 18 other partners. This project will restore some of the state’s highest-value aquatic networks from habitat fragmentation and degradation by improving road-stream crossings, using Stream Smart design and installation principles to improve habitat and aquatic organism passage and reduce the impacts of increasingly volatile storm flows. Funding and technical assistance is available under this Regional Conservation Partnership Project across most of Maine, except Cumberland and York Counties and northern Aroostook County.

Training will start with a classroom session at 10:00AM until noon when we will break for lunch and discussion. Lunch will be provided through a generous donation from Project SHARE for the Whitneyville workshop. After lunch we will visit several field sites in the area to look at real crossing structures on the landscape. The workshops will conclude at 2:30PM.

Landowners (including woodlot and camp owners as well as lake and road association members), road construction contractors, loggers, foresters, and forestland managers will benefit from attending this free workshop. Others interested in habitat connectivity, stream restoration, and fisheries management are encouraged to participate.

During the classroom session, Ben Naumann, NRCS Fisheries Biologist, will provide information about the importance of stream connectivity for fish and wildlife movement, major types of barriers to fish passage created by road/stream crossings, sizing and installing road stream crossings, and design strategies to achieve fish passage. Representatives from the local NRCS offices and Farm Service Agency will explain how these agencies work, and how private landowners can apply for funds and technical assistance to improve aquatic organism passage on their properties.

The field portion of the training will give participants a firsthand look at crossing structures in the area to see the problems and solutions presented in the classroom. We will visit a variety of sites and learn how future road washouts and flooding can be prevented by using road-stream crossing structures that allow the free passage of water during major storms. 

Participants will leave the workshop understanding why it’s important to install “Stream Smart” crossings that allow fish and wildlife to pass, and prevent road failures during high storm events. In addition, NRCS programs that provide technical and financial help for landowners to implement conservation practices - such as effective road/stream crossings and improved management for wildlife habitat - will be highlighted and shared.

Pre-registration is required for these free technical training workshops. For more information, to pre-register, or if you need special accommodations, please contact Annica McGuirk, Maine Audubon Program Support Specialist, by calling (207) 781-2330, extension 219 or by emailing [email protected]. Continuing education credits are available for licensed foresters.