WESTBROOK – After more than 20 years fighting for fish passages and cleaner river standards, members of the Friends of the Presumpscot finally got a chance to kick off their hiking boots and have a good time.

Some 25 members of the group and supporters of the organization’s cause to clean up the river and make it accessible to wildlife came out Monday evening to celebrate the first time in more than 100 years that fish are able to pass up the Cumberland Mills dam.

“It was us against Sappi [Fine Paper] basically, but now they’re coming around, Westbrook is coming around and realizing the river is something to really cherish. In two years, somehow, fish will be able to pass at the Saccarappa dam. We’ve gone all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court with this. Now, we’re kind of finding a moment to celebrate all of that,” said Michael Shaughnessy, president of the organization, during a gathering at the Frog and Turtle on Bridge Street.

In May, Sappi unveiled the new Denali fish ladder, which allowed alewives and other fish to migrate past the dam and up to Saccarappa Falls for the first time in 150 years. Sappi was ordered to put in the natural fish passageway in 2009 by the state. Another fish passage must be placed at the Saccarappa Dam, also owned by Sappi, by 2015.

Theo Willis and Karen Wilson, who both work in the University of Maine’s Department of Environmental Science, said the impact of opening the dams to fish may not be noticed immediately, but they will come.

“From the perspective of someone walking along the river, you’ll start to see some splashing as the alewives come up to feed. You might see birds congregating at the dams. From the perspective of a fisherman, you might see more fish. You can fly fish for alewives and shad. It’s pretty fun to fly fish for small-mouth bass and striped bass,” said Wilson.

According to Willis, the fish will begin to migrate up the river to spawn. The offspring, when born, will swim back to the ocean and stay there for around three years before returning to the same area they were born to spawn their own offspring. If the original spawning fish liked their new spawning ground in Westbrook, they could return each year to lay more eggs.

“I think 2020 will be an exciting year for fish,” said Willis.

Sandy Cort, a founding member and current treasurer of the Friends of the Presumpscot, said it was amazing to her how much the organization had accomplished since it began and since she was a child living in Westbrook.

“I remember this river below Sappi Mill ran the color of caramel,” Cort said.

Their first project was to stop a plant from opening in Windham because it was believed the water could not handle the discharge. That was in 1992. Since that time, the organization has worked to upgrade the classification of the river, get regulations tightened on what can be dumped into the water and restore the indigenous fish.

“It’s extraordinary, it’s exciting. It’s time to celebrate,” Cort said.

Dusti Faucher, another founding member and former group president, agreed.

“It’s amazing, it’s truly amazing to come this far. When we started, people thought there was no chance we could do this. It’s amazing where we are and it’s wonderful to look around and see it all. I said to somebody when we started this that we were going to work on the Presumpscot. ‘No, it’ll never happen,’ he said. By God it did,” Faucher said