Skip to content
  • Happy Health
  • Happy Mindset
  • Animal Wonders
  • About Us
    • Team
  • Subscribe
Menu
  • Happy Health
  • Happy Mindset
  • Animal Wonders
  • About Us
    • Team
  • Subscribe
Happy News

This Dam Removal Could Save Endangered Species

The Nature Conservancy purchased four dams along Maine’s lower Kennebec River for $138 million in a deal that will open hundreds of miles of prime spawning habitat for endangered Atlantic salmon for the first time in a century. The Weston, Shawmut, Hydro-Kennebec, and Lockwood dams currently prevent ocean-going fish like salmon, river herring, Atlantic sturgeon, and American eel from accessing ancestral spawning grounds upriver. Right now, only about one-twelfth of the historic salmon population returns to the Kennebec, where they’re captured at Lockwood Dam and actually trucked up roads past the next three dams to spawn. The decommissioning process will take five to ten years while the dams continue generating power, similar to California’s recent Klamath River dam removal that saw fish returning to spawn within a single season.

Atlantic salmon are near-threatened worldwide, with certain North Atlantic stocks almost completely disappeared, making access to Sandy River via the lower Kennebec crucial for species survival. The Nature Conservancy says it’s 100% committed to working with local stakeholders including Sappi North America’s Somerset Mill, which relies on one dam for water needs. Fishing advocacy groups have argued for decades that these dams need removal, and examples from Maine’s Penobscot River show that dam removal produces long-term economic and environmental improvements. The Klamath River success story proved that ancestral instincts remain intact despite generations of fish being blocked, giving hope that salmon will quickly reclaim their historic spawning grounds once these barriers come down.

PrevPreviousThe First Antidote For The Silent Killer Could Save Thousands
NextThe Abandoned Chow Chow Who Found His Perfect FamilyNext

Recent Articles

Happy News

The Turtle Comeback Of The Century

December 16, 2025

One million turtle nests have been counted along the western coastline of India, a number that leading sea turtle expert Kartik Shanker describes as “crazy high” and represents a stunning tenfold increase from just two decades ago when only 100,000 nests existed along the entire Indian coast. The olive ridley

Read More
Happy News

The Knock On The Door That Led To A Beautiful Gift

December 16, 2025

Tim Swinburn from Melksham in Wiltshire knocked on Clare Brixey’s door in Standerwick, Somerset in 2004 with the worst news any parent can receive: her 20-year-old son Ashley had died in a car crash. As the family liaison officer from Wiltshire Police, Swinburn provided compassionate support and became someone Brixey

Read More
Happy News

Chocolate Waste Just Became The Future Of Food Coloring

December 16, 2025

Scientists at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia have discovered how to transform chocolate factory waste into a stunning natural blue food coloring worth over $275 million globally. The breakthrough uses an ancient strain of red algae called Galdieria sulphuraria that literally eats the sugars from

Read More
« Previous Next »
  • Privacy Notice
  • Accessibility Notice
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
  • Unsubscribe
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Privacy Notice
  • Accessibility Notice
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
  • Unsubscribe
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2025 HappyNews.