DATA SOURCES AND COMPILATION OF DATA 



Sources used in composing this chapter include pertinent scientific 

 literature, unpublished theses and reports, the preliminary results of the 

 National Wetlands Inventory (NWI), and personal communications. The NWI does 

 not delineate small (<40 feet; 12 m wide) rivers, streams, and brooks. Some 

 are identified as linear features (no area measurements possible). 

 Intermittent stream subsystems also are not delineated by the NV/I , but 

 intermittent streams are identified on USGS quads as dashed lines. 

 Preliminary data on the acreage of river and stream habitat acreage are 

 conservative, especially with regard to the upper perennial subsystem. 

 Additional information on certain individual river systems (primarily those in 

 eastern Maine, regions 5 and 6) has been collected by the Atlantic Salmon 

 Commission of Maine Department of Marine Resources, but is not presently 

 available. 



GEOGRAPHICAL CHARACTERISTICS 



NWI data indicate that a variety of riverine habitat types exist in coastal 

 Maine and that their abundance varies regionally (tables 6-1; see also atlas 

 map 1). The rivers of the coastal zone comprise a total area of approximately 

 16,136 acres (6533 ha), which constitutes <1% of the land and freshwater area 

 of the coastal zone. Riverine systems occupy the least area of the aquatic 

 systems in coastal Maine and the major portion of riverine area is tidal 

 (13,190 acres; 5340 ha, or 82%). Most of the riverine habitat in the coastal 

 zone is located in region 2; 11,631 acres (4510 ha) or 72% (table 6-1). Only 

 180 acres (73 ha), or about 1% of the riverine habitat in the coastal zone, is 

 located in region 3 (table 6-1). Region 2 has the only extensive riverine 

 emergent wetland habitat in coastal Maine (Merrymeeting Bay area), as well as 

 the largest area of riverine tidal flat and beach/bar habitat. The major 

 portion of mapped lower and upper perennial riverine habitat is in region 6 

 (725 acres and 535 acres; 294 ha and 217 ha, respectively). A total of 381 

 streams are named on USGS topographic quads of the coastal zone. The length 

 of riverine subsystems in these named streams is given in table 6-2. Fifteen 

 percent of the linear riverine habitat was classified in the NWI as tidal, 51% 

 as lower perennial, and 34% as upper perennial. The areal and linear 

 measurements indicate that the riverine tidal habitat represents a relatively 

 large acreage but relatively few linear miles; and lower and upper perennial 

 represent relatively few acres but many miles. Palustrine wetlands occupy 44% 

 of the total length of the named streams in coastal Maine. The State water 

 quality classification of named streams within the characterization area is 

 given in appendix B of chapter 3. The habitat mileages, tributaries, and 

 townships of named streams are listed in appendix A of this chapter. 



PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS 



The size of drainage basins in Maine riverine systems is presently being 

 examined by the USGS Water Resources Division and the Maine Department of 

 Environmental Protection. Data on drainage basin size and amount of discharge 

 on rivers gaged by the USGS are given in table 6-3. The drainage basin size 

 given is only that of the area upstream of the gaging station. Thus, the size 

 of the drainage basin of the entire riverine system is larger than that given. 

 (The site of the gaging stations are not necessarily within the coastal zone.) 

 The Penobscot River (8570 sq miles; 22,196 sq km) has the largest drainage 



6-3 



10-80 



