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

Communities Across America Are Banning AI Data Centers And The Number Just Jumped From 8 To 78

May 10, 2026

According to the U.S. Data Center Moratorium Tracker, communities across the country have been pushing back against the rapid expansion of AI data centers with growing success, with the number of active bans and moratoriums jumping from just 8 in May 2025 to 78 today, including 50 active restrictions and

Read More
Happy News

An Alaska Animal Shelter Lets You Borrow A Dog For 48 Hours And It Is Leading To More Adoptions

May 10, 2026

The Anchorage Animal Care and Control shelter in Alaska launched a program in spring 2025 called Tails on Trails that has since become one of the most talked-about shelter initiatives in the country, pairing volunteers with a shelter dog for 48 hours and sending them out to explore the trails

Read More
Happy News

Scientists Gave Monkeys A Reward-Free Video Game And They Played Nearly 100 Rounds Anyway

May 10, 2026

Researchers at Kyoto University’s Institute for the Evolutionary Origins of Human Behavior set out to test whether curiosity in Japanese macaques follows the same pattern observed in humans, and what they found should resonate with anyone who has ever gone down a late-night internet rabbit hole for no practical reason

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 © 2026 HappyNews.