Intrepid creek chubs stuck in a ditch
BY MEGHAN V. MALLOY
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 09/07/2008

MANCHESTER -- The Pushard family is accustomed to Maine wildlife wandering their Manchester property.

When the family cleared the property to build their home 11 years ago, it was common to see "eight or nine deer up there. We even saw a moose once," Rebecca Pushard said.

Still, even Pushard was surprised one summer morning a few months ago, when she saw a large rippling in the ditch along her driveway in the front yard.

"We've had some standing water in that ditch, and I thought maybe there was large bullfrog in there," she recalled.

The ditch, it turned out, was full of fish. Small, minnow-like silver-brown fish.

"I was shocked," Pushard said. "I've never seen fish in a ditch. I had to do a double take."

After a close inspection, she found a school of about 30 fish, swimming up and down in the front yard ditch.

The initial reaction from people when Pushard tells them about the water wildlife in her front yard has been one of shock.

"Oh, my husband thought I was crazy at first," Pushard said, laughing, of when she first told her husband, Rob Pushard, about the discovery. "I've been telling everyone we have fish in our ditch, and they're looking at me like I have three heads."

The Pushard family -- the couple have two children, ages 10 and 13 -- has been caring for the fish school all summer, even dumping buckets of water into the ditch when warm weather starts to soak up the water.

As summer reached its traditional end, Rebecca Pushard decided she needed to go to the town office to find out what could be done about the fish. The office referred her to the Maine Department of Inland Wildlife and Fisheries.

Peter Bourque, Director of Fisheries for Inland Wildlife and Fisheries, said the call was the first of its kind he has seen in his 43 year-career with the department.

"It was pretty strange," Bourque said, laughing.

The small fish are creek chubs, Bourque determined, a member of the minnow family, native to Maine. They are popular bait fish and found throughout the state.

How the school got into the ditch in the first place is still a mystery. A small wetland lies about a half mile down the road from the Pushard property. A culvert that runs from under Granite Hill Road to the Pushard's ditch might have been a pathway the fish took before getting stuck.

"Those fish were probably born in the wetland and ventured up the brook," Bourque speculated. "With the high water we had this spring and this summer, it probably provided a big enough waterway for the fish to travel up the brook and into the culvert."

The future of the ditch fish is uncertain, largely due to weather patterns and the impending autumn.

"If the ditch dries up, a herring or raccoon could come after (the fish)," Bourque said. "Well, either that or they'll dry up along with the ditch."

It is illegal for anyone to net the fish and take them somewhere else without a permit from the state. The law was passed some years ago to stop anyone from introducing an invasive species into Maine's ecosystem, which was why Bourque was initially concerned to hear the fish were stuck in a ditch.

"I wanted to make sure someone hadn't dumped their fishbowl or let loose some invasive species," he said. "With all that standing water, it was my concern that they could escape and get into a watershed."

An individual with bait license or a licensed fisherman would be able to legally take the fish, Bourque added.

"It's been an interesting mission to save them," Pushard said of the front yard water-dwellers.

The Pushard children "think the fish are so cool," their mother said. "My daughter was actually a little upset when we mentioned they might have to be moved before winter."

Meghan V. Malloy -- 623-3811, Ext. 431

mmalloy@centralmaine.com

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