Break out the cowbells. American Rivers recently reported that a total of 80 dams were removed from US rivers in 2023, heralding a movement from California’s Klamath River all the way to the East Coast.
In a story for the organization by JESSIE THOMAS-BLATE, AR reports that “2023 was a major milestone year for dam removal in the U.S., with the initiation of the largest dam removal project in the country on the Klamath River in California. However, you may not have heard about the 79 other dams that were removed, reconnecting 1,160 upstream river miles. These projects reestablished migration corridors, made natural and human communities more resilient to climate change, improved access to habitat to promote biodiversity, eliminated safety hazards and maintenance costs, enhanced access to rivers for local communities, reestablished natural processes for healthy rivers, and many other benefits.”
In 2023, the states leading in dam removal were: Pennsylvania (15 removals); Oregon (9 removals); and Massachusetts (6 removals). Twenty-two other states also removed dams in 2023: Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
As a nationwide leader in river restoration, American Rivers tracks dam removal trends and maintains a national dam removal database. Wondering what the total is over the last 111 years? A total of 2,119 dams have been removed in the U.S. since 1912. Pennsylvania still leads the country in all time number of dam removals at 390!
Read full story here: https://www.americanrivers.org/2024/02/saying-adios-to-80-dams-in-2023/?ref=playak.com