New Stream Smart Crossing on Baker Brook

This fall a new stream smart crossing was installed as part of the District’s Pleasant River Restoration Project Phase II grant with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. The undersized Baker Brook culvert crossing at Haskell Road experienced chronic road topping and washouts, with each incident adding approximately 32 yards of material to the stream. This led to low dissolved oxygen and buried stream habitat downstream. Baker Brook is a tributary of the Pleasant River in Windham. The Pleasant River does not meet state water quality standards due to low dissolved oxygen levels and high bacteria levels.

To qualify as a stream smart crossing, the existing culvert was replaced by an open-bottom arch culvert that exceeded the width of the stream to allow for large storm events and safe terrestrial and aquatic wildlife passage.

This project was funded in part by the US Environmental Protection Agency and administered by the Maine Department of Environmental through a Clean Water Act Section 319 grant. Additional funding came from the Town of Windham’s watershed protection grant and Baker Mountain Road Association.