PENOBSCOT RIVER

The Penobscot River is 560 kilometres (350 miles) long with a basin area of 22,500 square kilometres (750 square miles). It is the second largest river in the northeast. It flows entirely within the state of Maine.

It is formed from the waters of many small lakes along the northern border of the state. The main headwater is the West Branch. This meets the East Branch at Medway to form the Penobscot River.

The important tributaries of the Penobscot are the Mattawamkeag River and the Piscataquis River. The Penobscot flows southeast until the junction with the Piscataquis and then southward, gradually enlarging into the drowned estuary known as Penobscot Bay. The Penobscot is only navigable to Bangor, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) from its mouth.

The river flows through large areas of forest and the transport of timber, pulp and paper are the main commercial activities.

This important wildlife river is the subject of heated controversy between those seeking conservation and those who want to develop it. Recently the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission decided to reject Bangor Hydro-Electric Company's proposal to build the Basin Mills Dam on the Penobscot River in Maine. One reason is that the dam would have threatened Atlantic salmon.

The 6 m (18 feet) - high Basin Mills Dam was projected to have flooded wildlife habitat and impeded migrating salmon. The dam would have also impinged on the Penobscot Indian Nation's sovereign, treaty-reserved fishing rights. At this time the Penobscot is New England's most important Atlantic salmon river.

Of the 14 rivers in Maine identified as Atlantic salmon rivers, more than 70 percent of Atlantic salmon fishing in 1994 occurred on the Penobscot.

The lower part of the Penobscot River was first explored by Samuel de Champlain in 1604. The name Penobscot is for a tribe of Native Americans.

Penobscot Bay is about 50 kilometres (30 miles) long and opens to about 45 kilometres (27 miles). This funnel-shaped estuary can experience very high tides when storms blow Atlantic Ocean waters into the open end of the bay. For the same reason the river also experiences a tidal bore.