SUNDAY RIVER OUTWARD BOUND PROJECT AND MILL BROOK STREAM BANK STABILIZATION & HABITAT ENHANCEMENT PROJECT: A NEW APPROACH FOR CONTROLLING RIVERBANK EROSION IN MAINE

Sunday River: In July, 2008 the Town of Newry and partners installed an innovative project to stabilize 400' of severely eroding riverbank where the Sunday River threatened to wash out the Sunday River Road. The Sunday River Road is the only access to logging, year-round residences, summer camps, a school and recreation in the Upper Sunday River Watershed. The project included installing rock vanes that protrude into the river facing upstream, and “bar buddies” which consist of an anchor tree driven into the riverbed and cabled to additional trees placed horizontally at the toe of the bank. Vanes and bar buddies deflect flows from vulnerable banks. Newry received an $87,000 grant from FEMA's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. The grant was matched with $29,000-worth of locally-donated cash and volunteer labor.

Mill Brook: The Cumberland County Soil & Water Conservation District, in collaboration with numerous partners, conducted a unique stream bank restoration and habitat enhancement project in September 2007. The project stabilizes the bank, protects a home that was close to collapsing into Mill Brook due to bank erosion, and improves stream habitat and function. Rock vanes were installed and angled upstream to deflect flows away from the bank. Woody debris was anchored to the base of the bank and log deflectors were angled upstream, helping to turn water away from the bank during high flows.

Both the Sunday River and Mill Brook Projects are models for a new approach to stream bank stabilization in Maine. Rip-rap which was commonly used to protect eroding banks in the past has been discredited. Rock vanes provide more effective protection than rip-rap for eroding banks and are embedded in river systems so they don't wash out. Installation of vanes and bar buddies/woody debris improve aquatic habitat in ways rip-rap does not.