The Effects of Keeping and Removing Dams

[tketcham]

I also like seeing low head dams taken out or modified for safer boat and easier critter passage.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

"One of the worst blows to the river, though, was to its 12 species of sea-run fish. The Great Works, Veazie and Howland dams, all built in the 19th century, severed access to the river’s headwaters, which fish like alewives and shad, shortnose sturgeon and Atlantic salmon used as spawning ground. When the dams were erected, the effects on the fish population were almost immediate: By the 1850s, salmon no longer inhabited most of the rivers in southern Maine . . . ."

'Take It Down and They'll Return': The Stunning Revival of the Penobscot River

A historic project in Maine shows that when dams are removed, a river and its fish can recover with surprising speed.

reasonstobecheerful.world

 

[Jim Dodd]

In my Watershed. They have removed three dams. two low head.
They have been responsible for at least a half dozen lives, that I'm aware of.
Good they are gone !

The downside, is Air boats and prop less boats, use the river heavily, when ever the water levels permit.

I used to have a three mile stretch pretty much to myself, where I could often see wildlife along the rivers edge.
Not any more.

I really miss the solitude, but can only except it.

Jim

 

[tketcham]

The downside, is Air boats and prop less boats, use the river heavily, when ever the water levels permit.

I could see where certain stretches of river could become unusable by paddle craft because of high speed boat traffic. I'd like to see certain stretches of river, especially the ones where motorized boats have been previously excluded because of dams, become non-motorized waterways. Motor boats dominate most lakes and rivers and it would be fitting to let paddle craft have a few easily accessible places to call their own.

 

[stark78q]

"Massive dam projects like these make headlines, but they also obscure key facts about rivers and dams. For every large federal dam like Glen Canyon or Lower Granite, there are thousands of minor ones: nearly 80,000 small dams restrict the rivers of the U.S. and while lawsuits about the Snake River dams drag into their third decade, river lovers have been quietly clearing smaller clogs."
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