Looking Across Reynolds Brook

Reynolds Brook flows into Orange River, which is unseen along the forest edge in the background; all are part of The Orange River Conservation Area, one of 15 tracts protected by The Downeast Coastal Conservacy. The Orange River parcel includes a 6 mile (9.7 kilometer) easily navigated flat-water canoe trail. Further downstream toward where the Orange River drains into tidewater estuary are two almost 200-year-old dams which establish the water levels and really the whole ecosystem of the lower Orange River drainage. Like all dams in Maine, they are under attack by activists who want streams to be totally accessible to migrating alewives and salmon, even if it means destruction of viable existing ecosystems that have developed over the recent centuries.