Bozek, C. (2014). Removing Dams: Benefits for People and Nature. Solutions 5(6): 79-84. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/removing-dams-benefits-for-people-and-nature/
On The Ground
Removing Dams: Benefits for People and Nature by Cathy Bozek
“Schools and businesses were closed for a second day and thousands of residents still couldn’t go home Wednesday as a weakened timber dam threatened to give way and spill a 6-foot surge of water into downtown Taunton.”1 “Impassable dams have undoubtedly been the immediate cause of the decline of many fisheries, and a direct relation can be shown between the number of impassable dams on a stream and the condition of the fishery…”2
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here are 2,918 dams on Massachusetts waterways; about two hundred of those dams are located on the streams and smaller rivers that flow into the Taunton River in the southeast corner of the state.3 Dams have contributed to the degradation of natural systems and the decline of fisheries in this area, and they also pose a real risk to public safety. Removing old, unused, and unwanted dams can remedy these problems. The Taunton River runs through a gently sloping watershed in southeastern Massachusetts, nestled between Cape Cod and the Rhode Island border. The river is over 40 miles long, and it is the largest contributor of freshwater to Narragansett Bay. Smaller tributaries connect important headwater ponds and wetlands to the mainstem river. Hockomock swamp, for example, at 16,950 acres, is one of the largest wetlands in New England. This diverse watershed contains 45 species of fish,
Old Colony Historical Society, Taunton, MA
River herring provided a source of food for early residents of southeast Massachusetts.
154 species of birds, river otter, mink, and gray fox, and globally rare species such as the Atlantic sturgeon and bald eagle.4,5 The Taunton watershed has been inhabited continuously since at least the Early Archaic period, 9,500 to 7,000 years ago. Archaeologists have found evidence of many early Native American sites near the Taunton River and its tributaries.6 People used the abundant and diverse plant and animal resources available along the river, and remnants of Native American fish weirs used for trapping river herring are still visible today.4 The watershed was also one of the first areas that Europeans colonized— the town of Taunton was incorporated around 1640. The communities that sprouted up in the region used the
river for transportation, as well as a source of food. Early settlers caught shad and river herring during the annual fish migrations, and then dried and preserved the fish for the coming year.4 People continue to use the river for recreational fishing, boating, and swimming. In 2009, Congress designated the Taunton River as a National Wild and Scenic River, in recognition of its outstanding natural and cultural resources. Unfortunately, the Taunton River’s valuable natural resources and the present-day human communities are impacted by a relic of the area’s cultural history: dams. European settlers, in addition to using the rivers for transportation and a food source, also used the rivers for power, constructing dams along
www.thesolutionsjournal.org | November-December 2014 | Solutions | 79