The Maine Monitor: Endangered salmon may soon swim freely up a downeast river. But as the climate changes, a comeback isn’t guaranteed
September 16, 2026
Photo by Katherine Emery for The Maine Monitor
Excerpt from The Maine Monitor (September 15, 2026)
On a recent canoe trip to the remote upper reaches of the Narraguagus River, Ellie Mason saw prime Atlantic salmon habitat everywhere.
Though small, the river and its tributaries are some of the wildest in Maine, largely undeveloped and surrounded by forest. There are shady refuges for fish on hot summer days, and the rocky river bottom offers plenty of nesting spots for eggs.
But the salmon are missing.
The Gulf of Maine’s Atlantic salmon are listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act. In recent decades, only about 25 wild adult salmon have returned to the Narraguagus each year to spawn.
The main stem of the river runs about 40 miles from its source in the downeast lakes to its head-of-tide in Cherryfield, where an ice-control dam that stood for more than 60 years has just come down. It’s being replaced with a “nature-like” set of stair-stepping pools that will still slow down the ice jams that used to flood Cherryfield, but shouldn’t slow down salmon, river herring, shad and other migrating fish. Construction began in June and is set to wrap up by November.