4 Dams Set For Removal In Maine Will Open Hundreds Of Miles Of River For Salmon, Herring And Sturgeon

4 Dams Set For Removal In Maine Will Open Hundreds Of Miles Of River For Salmon, Herring And Sturgeon

In Maine, ownership of 4 large dams has been transferred to The Nature Conservancy in a sale it hopes will return the river they operate on into prime habitat for salmon for the first time in a century.

Operated by Brookfield Renewables, the dams along the lower Kennebec River prevent ocean going, freshwater fish like salmon from accessing ancestral spawning grounds upriver.

On September 15th, 2025, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Brookfield signed a purchase and sale agreement for the four dams totaling $138 million.

The Kennebec River is fed by Sandy River in the heart of Maine before running down to the Gulf of Maine past the towns of Skowhegan and Waterville. The Weston, Shawmut, Hydro-Kennebec, and Lockwood dams are located in intervals along this stretch, called the lower Kennebec.

The federal regulatory process for decommissioning a dam, as seen in the recent parallel in California, where four dams were removed to make way for salmon, needed more than 5 years from start to finish. As a result, TNC will look to gather another $30 million in funding to create a nonprofit that will manage and oversee the decommissioning process, during which the dams could continue to generate power for 5 to 10 years.

That would include working with Sappi North America, whose Somerset Mill, located between the town of Skowhegan and the Shawmut dam, to find a solution to the company’s long-term water needs, which are currently met by this dam.

Their twin goals in the decommissioning project are to return free-flowing conditions to the lower Kennebec River to support regionally-endangered North Atlantic salmon, while doing so in collaboration with existing stakeholders in the dams’ activities, Sappi included.

“TNC and its partners are 100% committed to developing a solution with Sappi that fully addresses the Somerset Mill’s long-term water system needs,” the organization wrote in a statement. “We understand the vital role of the Somerset Mill for the forest products industry and the state’s economy.”

Atlantic salmon are considered near-threatened worldwide, but certain stocks in the North Atlantic have almost completely disappeared. Access to Sandy River via the lower Kennebec would open up hundreds of miles of prime habitat for spawning and coming of age.

Brookfield maintains dams higher up the river, but these areas are considered to be of poor habitat quality. Those dams also happen to produce substantially more electricity than the dams along the lower stretch of the river—those set to be removed.

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The Maine Monitor reports that fishing advocacy groups have argued for the dam’s removal for “decades.” River herring, the federally-protected Atlantic sturgeon, and American eel, all rely on Maine’s freshwater rivers to either spawn or feed before swimming out to sea.

The current predicament finds around one-twelfth of the historic spawning population of Atlantic salmon returning to the Kennebec via the gulf, where they’re captured at Lockwood Dam and actually trucked up the roads past the next three dams to spawn. During the reverse journey many do not survive the journey to the gulf past the industrial infrastructure.

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The removal of the Klamath River dams this time last year produced incredible results immediately, with fish finding their way back upstream far past the farthest dam to spawn within a single season, proving that ancestral instincts can remain intact despite generations of fish not being able to act on them.

But examples also lie closer to home, with dams removed years past along another Maine river, the Penobscot, resulting in long-term economic and environmental improvements.

WATCH a video report below from TNC…