Improving Access for People and Fish on the Wabassus Lake Tract

September 10, 2010

This week we hung two new trailhead signs on the Wabassus Lake Tract, making it easier for people to find and enjoy our newest trails: the 1/4 mile long path to Dawn Marie Beach and the 1 mile hike up Wabassus Mountain.

Both paths are found on the Wabassus Mountain Rd, which is about 4 miles west of Grand Lake Stream and runs south from the Fourth Lake Rd. We’ll get maps made soon!

Both of these new trails were supported with an access grant from the Land for Maine’s Future Program, which provided essential funding for DLLT to purchase the Wabassus Lake Tract. DLLT volunteers planned both trails and cleared the Dawn Marie Beach path, while a crew from the Maine Conservation Corps constructed the Wabassus Mountain Trail this summer.

This week we also continued our work to improve habitat for brook trout and other aquatic wildlife by installing a bottomless arch culvert on the South Branch of Rolfe Brook where it is crossed by the Wabassus Mt. Rd. The undersized culvert installed under previous ownership had been chronically clogged by beavers, causing the stream to flow over the road, washing sand and gravel into the stream bed below. It will take the stream some time to heal from this extra sediment, but the new arch culvert provides fish habitat now, and will be able to handle high flow without causing problems downstream.

We’ve completed other fish habitat restoration projects on Belden, Hayes, Scott, and Rolfe Brooks on the original Farm Cove Community Forest, completed one other on a Wabassus Lake tributary already, and have another planned on North Brook near the southern edge of the Wabassus Lake Tract this fall.