Environmentalists welcome dam demolition to raise river fish stocks.
Removal of the Veazie Dam on Maine’s Penobscot River began Monday, a move that environmentalists are calling a monumental step toward resurrecting the river’s once-abundant marine life.
Demolition of the 830-foot-long dam connecting Veazie and Eddington near Bangor on Maine’s largest river is part of the $62 million Penobscot River Restoration Project, which also included the removal of the Great Works Dam last summer and calls for building of fish passages at the Howland Dam.
Organizers say that the Penobscot’s sea-run fish, like Atlantic salmon, American shad and river herring, have declined over the last century in part because hydropower dams block them from reaching their spawning, rearing, and nursery habitats. They say removing the dam, built in 1913, will bring these fish populations back to life.
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