fish

This is a rebroadcast of an earlier show (original air date December 8, 2020); no calls will be taken.

The removal of the Edwards Dam from the Kennebec River — and the Great Works and Veazie Dams from the Penobscot — made national news and ushered in a new era for Maine's sea run fish. But the work is far from over. We'll discuss projects to remove dams, create fish passages and reconstruct culverts all over the state, and what these projects mean for the health of our rivers and streams. This program ties in with the publication of a new book this month about the Penobscot River restoration project.

The removal of the Edwards Dam from the Kennebec River — and the Great Works and Veazie Dams from the Penobscot — made national news and ushered in a new era for Maine's sea run fish. But the work is far from over. We'll discuss projects to remove dams, create fish passages and reconstruct culverts all over the state, and what these projects mean for the health of our rivers and streams. This program ties in with the publication of a new book this month about the Penobscot River restoration project.

Conservation groups are raising red flags about what they say are two significant fish kills in Ellsworth and Brunswick over the past week.

  A thousand square miles of river habitat will open up when the Veazie and Great Works dams on the Penobscot River come down. With the construction of a fish bypass on a third dam, 11 species of sea-run fish will be able to return to their historic spawning grounds. Dr. Steve Coghlan from the University of Maine’s Department of Wildlife Ecology discussed the impacts of dam removal and answer the question: Can we restore the Penobscot to its historic natural state?