Honea on Benefits of Removing Dams: The Conversation
Institute assistant professor of science Jon Honea writes for The Conversation that removing dams can be beneficial for humans and nature, as they can be costly to repair, impede the populations of certain fish species, and worsen coastal erosion as they hinder sediment from migrating to oceans.
Honea studied salmon streams ecology in the Pacific Northwest, and is now working on a project on the Shawsheen River in Andover, Massachusetts, where he is monitoring the river herring population now that two old dams were removed.
One of dams’ greatest costs has been massive reductions in numbers and diversity of migratory fish that move up and down rivers, or between rivers and the ocean. Dams have driven some populations to extinction, such as the iconic Baiji, or Yangtze River dolphin, and the once economically important Atlantic salmon on most of the U.S. east coast.
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