Woolwich Shellfish Conservation Committee chairman Dan Harrington isn't digging softshell clams this time of year, but he told selectmen at their January 7 meeting he bought a harvester's license for his wife, anyway. 

Harrington's payment increased the total amount the town allocates for management, conservation and enforcement of the flats that would on a productive year have diggers overturning the mud.

But harvesters have not found as many softshell clams as they would like along coastal Woolwich in recent years. 

The mud flats in town are open to shellfish harvesting and despite the low numbers, Shellfish Warden Jon Hentz believes there are seeds (juvenile clams) out there. 

Harvesters want to protect this resource for future generations and maintain a practice that has been a part of the fabric of the community throughout history.

“I'm not thinking about digging clams,” Harrington said. “But future generations have to have something to turn to.” 

The funds he invested in the town's Shellfish Conservation account by purchasing an additional license provides enough money (a total of $1,200 in the account) to pay Hentz for his work through to the end of the fiscal year, which ends June 30. 

Hentz said he would need $3,500 for the year to do a more thorough job of monitoring the clam flats and he has not been able to do his job correctly, but said any amount of funds would help.

The conversation among shellfish harvesters and selectmen indicated that investments of time, conservation work and patience could bring shellfish populations back to the area.

“I don't see anything will come back in great scale without mother nature stepping in,” Harrington said, adding that even as juvenile seed clams can be brought in, the flats will need time for these clams to grow. 

Board of Selectmen Chairman David King said the town has done a good job of making sure septic systems along the shore have been working properly. In recent years, volunteers and harvesters have turned around conditions on the flats along Brookings Bay.

Bath-based environmental nonprofit Kennebec Estuary Land Trust assisted the committee in reopening the flats following shellfish harvesting closures in 2008 due to pollution. 

By fall of 2011, areas were reopened following collaborative efforts among land trust affiliates, harvesters, members of the town, officials from the Department of Marine Resources and volunteers. 

According to information on the land trust website (www.kennebecestuary.org), they performed water quality testing and worked to reduce the impacts of contamination from leeching septic systems and other pollution sources. 

The land trust refers to a 2010 clam population study conducted by the committee that estimated the potential clam harvest in the 473-acre bay could be worth $14 million.