A historic dam in Washington County will be replaced with a terraced fishway this summer, capping an over decade-long effort to improve fish passage and broaden public access along the Narraguagus River.
The Cherryfield dam, built in the village in 1961 to keep ice from flooding downtown, is one of several Maine dams that is slated for removal or under consideration for removal.
The dam will be replaced with a natural-style fishway that will allow multiple fish species — such as alewives, blueback herring, Eastern Brook trout and endangered Atlantic salmon — to migrate upstream using various pathways that replicate natural river conditions.
In addition to reconfiguring the water flow, the project will improve public access to the Narraguagus River, including updates to nearby Cable Pool Park, which will receive a new play area, amphitheater, gazebo, restrooms and a floating dock for boating and swimming.
Local environmental groups have collaborated with town officials and residents for more than a decade to remove the dam. In 2024, the town voted to replace the dam with a fishway.
“Cherryfield is a town with a really strong connection to the river,” according to Jacob van de Sande, associate land protection director for the Maine Coast Heritage Trust. “The history of the river and the community are just so tied together.”
The project, which will cost approximately $9.1 million, is led by the Downeast Salmon Federation in partnership with Maine Coast Heritage Trust, The Nature Conservancy, Atlantic Salmon Federation and the Town of Cherryfield.
Work on the project has been permitted between July 15 to Oct. 15, to ensure that migrating fish aren’t impacted.
The dam’s removal will involve building boulder-made step pools — at elevations that meet federal fish passage standards — with resting areas for fish to safely travel through, van de Sande said.
The new fishway will preserve the dam’s headpond to maintain flood control.
With the current ice dam’s existing wooden fishway, some fish species — particularly Atlantic salmon — struggle to find the entrance and navigate through it, van de Sande said.
The steps will be engineered to allow fish passage at varying water levels, he added.
The dam’s removal is expected to leave sea-run fish with fewer migration barriers on the Narraguagus River than at any time in the past two centuries, according to the Downeast Salmon Federation webpage on the project.
Van de Sande said the new fishway will be particularly beneficial to local aquatic life, given that ongoing climate change can alter a river’s water temperatures, shift water flows and reduce dissolved oxygen levels.
“The ability of the fish to go all the way up into the headwaters and back again makes them much more likely to survive in a changing climate,” van de Sande said.
A study published in mid May found that oxygen levels in more than 21,000 rivers around the world had fallen an average of 2.1% since 1985, according to the Associated Press.