On 04/25/2023, three experts spoke about “The Androscoggin River: Ripe for Renewal.”
Charlie Spies (Merrymeeting Bay TU board), John Lichter (Bowdoin College, Emeritus Prof of Environmental Studies), and Chuck Verrill, Esq. (Maine Rivers president) described the ecological importance of key species in the Gulf of Maine, their critical relevance to having healthy diadromous fish runs in our rivers between salt and fresh water, how dams decimated historic runs of gazillions of fish which fed the entire food chain, and the pending opportunity to finish restoring our rivers. The Androscoggin River was the focus because a big dam in Brunswick-Topsham is up for FERC renewal next year.
Maine has hundreds of defunct or outmoded dams. A few years ago, RESTORE sponsored a screening in Maine of the film “DamNation,” which documents that the only sure way to restore natural fish runs and the vast ecological and economic benefits of free-flowing rivers is to remove dams clogging the waterways.
The experts speaking about the Androscoggin River pointed out that we have done it before in other Maine watersheds, including the Kennebec. We can do it again.