With the success of Edwards behind them, community watershed groups in Maine have begun to tackle even more audacious restoration projects. “The Edwards opened people’s minds to the possibilities of what could happen,” says Laura Rose Day, executive director of the Penobscot River Restoration Trust. The Penobscot is considered the best, and “last,” hope for restoring self-sustaining runs of native Atlantic salmon, she says. The ambitious project would remove the two dams closest to the ocean, decommission and create fish passage at a third, and make river-friendly improvements at four other dams.

“When the dams come out, this would be the first time in 200 years that uninterrupted paddling will be possible from the river’s historic fallsÐhome to the Penobscot Indian nation-to its mouth,” explains Day. Given the Penobscot’s dramatic drop, whitewater paddlers may find new playgrounds here. And she says, the removal of these dams will improve access for native sea-run fish to over 500 miles of habitat, yielding “ecological benefits that will dwarf those of the Edwards.” Under the terms of the restoration agreement, the Penobscot River trust must raise a total of $25 million by 2009 in order to purchase the three dams slated for decommissioning. The project has support from Maine’s Congressional delegation and has received $3.5 million in federal funding. “There’s a lot of momentum on all fronts,” says Day with optimism.

There’s another set of challenges involved in the effort to restore water quality and fish passage for the Atlantic salmon, shad, blueback herring, and fish native to the Presumpscot River. “There are eight dams on the river. The first, Smelt Hill Dam, was removed in 2002 through a citizen-led process, opening up a beautiful little whitewater stretch of river,” says Dusti Faucher, president of Friends of the Presumpscot. “Then five consecutive dams were relicensed in 2003,” Faucher explains. As part of that process, her group and American Rivers convinced the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to make fish passage and certain flow requirements conditions of relicensing.

The dam owner, South African Pulp and Paper, Inc., is challenging these conditions, arguing that the state of Maine’s Clean Water Act certificate (granted under the federal Clean Water Act) only applies to a direct discharge of a pollutant, not to an impairment like dissolved oxygen which occurred below the dams. Having lost their case in Maine Supreme Court, the dam owners appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which heard the case in late February. The outcome of this case could dramatically affect states’ ability to regulate water quality, particularly where dam licensing is involved. Non-profit river and conservation groups, tribes, fishing groups and scientists from all across the country have joined Friends of the Presumpscot, the state of Maine, and others in this case.

A full five years after Edwards’ removal, “things on the lower Kennebec are very good,” says Nick Bennett, staff scientist with the Natural Resources Council of Maine. River conditions have improved substantially and “there’s been a dramatic increase in insect life,” says Bennett. This is a big deal for the river, he explains, as insects are vital to the aquatic food web and thus bodes well for continued improvements in health of the rivers’ herring, stripers, shad, sturgeon, and salmon. Anglers and those who cater to them are thriving too. “We have a lot more river to fish in,” and business has improved with Edwards Dam gone, says Bob Dionne of Aardvark Outfitters in Farmington, Maine, who guides fly-fishing trips on the Kennebec.

It’s important to remember, says Laura Wildman of American Rivers’ northeast field office, that the goal is not to remove dams for the sake of removing dams. “We’ll often go out to a site and make a recommendation that a dam not come out,” she says. The objective is to figure out what’s best for the whole river community. “Some dams may not be serving their original purpose but their recreational and aesthetic benefits exceed what could be achieved ecologically with their removal,” she explains, citing the dam that creates Sweet Pond in Guilford, Vt. She also stresses the importance of dialogue between dam owners and river advocates.

With the precedent set by successful removal of the Edwards Dam and many others, communities all across the country are identifying marginal dams, unsafe and abandoned dams, and questioning the reclicensing of dams whose environmental impacts are too costly. Most that have been removed are small and defunct, but larger operating hydropower dams like those on the Penobscot, Milltown Dam in Montana and those on the Elhwa River in Washington State are now slated for removal as well. And those that have been removed are but a fraction of the estimated 75,000 dams that span the nation’s rivers.

“What happens on these rivers from now on very much depends on the extent to which local watershed groups and river advocates are willing to keep up the pressure,” says Bruce Babbitt. “When you look at the success we’ve had, you realize how important it is to seek consensus at the local level. This is a real grassroots effort. The benefits are so spectacular, I’m certain that this work will continue as we’ve only scratched the surface of what remains to the done.”

As fish begin moving up their natal rivers in the Northeast this spring, paddlers will begin gliding downstream, some traveling waters flowing freely and accessible for the first time in generations. All because people who care for their rivers said, “Let’s see if this can happen.”

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