Land Use

In the beginning of European settlement in the watershed, land use meant two things: cutting trees and damming streams. Both were done with profits in mind. Thus, when Vaughn dammed Damariscotta Lake, he made no provision for the alewives to get back into the lake for spawning. The situation was not rectified until 1794 (according to Dunbar and Dow) or 1810 (per Castner). This 64 or 80- year hiatus in spawning runs indicates that the alewife, although anadromous, does not have to return to the stream she was spawned in. The spawning run of alewives in the Damariscotta Lake Watershed is controlled by the towns of Newcastle and Nobleboro by maintaining the fish ladder and managing a limited harvest of the fish.

To the settler, cutting trees was doubly beneficial. The lumber could be used to build a house and barn, the trees could provide firewood, and maybe there was some cash money in it if he could sell it to the local sawmill. Once the trees were gone, he had fields that could be cleared for crops, orchards, or pasture. These things were done to the point where the land to the lake’s edge was predominantly pasture rather than forest. As an example, Avery Bond was a surveyor in 1886. He had taken a few reference reading from his back yard so that he could check his transit compass from time to time. He used the weathervane post on Moses Moody’s barn (about1 ¼ miles to the south), the chimney on the original town house (about 2 miles across the lake), and the rod in the church spire (also about 2 miles to the northwest). None of these objects exist today, but even if they did they would not be visible because of the trees. The trees had grown back because the lakeshore land was no longer needed for crops and pasture. This new sylvan setting was ideally suited to the evolving shore land use as cottage property. It is somewhat paradoxical to note that as the shore land development progressed, many landowners began clear-cutting to improve their view of the lake or to make room for the types of gardens and lawns they had at home. The towns around the lake were eventually forced to adopt ordinances for the shore land, which would limit the cutting of vegetation so as to maintain a green belt around the lake. The ordinances were also designed to reduce the pollution potential by limiting the cottage density in the shore land and placing restrictions on the design and location of septic systems.

Only two dams remain in the watershed. The dam at Damariscotta Mills is still in use generating electrical power. The other is the Meserve Mill Dam. The rebuilding of the dam in the 1990s, made possible by government funds and private donations, was justified by noting that it was a source of water for fighting fires. The dam at Damariscotta Mills raises the interesting (and unanswered) question of its effect on the overall size and shape of the lake. Castner notes that the geological formation of the falls required a negligible amount of artificial construction to control the flow. However, some increase in height would have been prudent in order to insure an adequate supply of water during dry years. The depth of the millpond created by Vaughn is unknown. According to Dunbar and Dow, the depth of the millpond in 1928 was 6 feet. In that year, Central Maine Power Co., to satisfy increasing demand, raised the level to 10 feet. Over the years, the depth has been a major issue between the owners of the water rights and the property owners around the lake.

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