Celebrating Fish Passage Milestones on the Sheepscot River

In 2019, we celebrated two habitat restoration milestones on Maine’s Sheepscot River, where fish passage barriers were removed at the two lowermost dams on the river. The Coopers Mills dam in Whitefield was fully removed in 2018. The Head Tide dam in Alna was partially removed and fish passage rebuilt in 2019. The dams were removed in partnership with the Atlantic Salmon Federation and the two towns where the dams were located.

For decades, fish returning to the Sheepscot River to spawn have been delayed at the bottom of these dams. They’re often unable to get by to reach their historic spawning grounds upriver. Opening up river habitat can help increase the populations of these fish, many of which are prey for popular recreational fish like tuna and striped bass.

On October 31, 2019, in the pouring rain, the restoration community in Maine donned raincoats and carried umbrellas, and gathered to celebrate the breach of the Head Tide dam on the Sheepscot River, home to endangered Atlantic salmon.