Over the last decade, Atlantic Salmon Federation’s Maine Headwaters Project has removed seven dams, built fishways at ten dams, and replaced 12 large culverts with bridges in Maine’s Atlantic salmon watersheds. ASF currently has 18 projects in development including removal of the Coopers Mill dam on the Sheepscot River in Maine. In 2016, Trout and Salmon Foundation partnered with ASF to support the Coopers Mill dam removal. This project will improve fish passage to 71 miles of stream and 847 pond acres for river herring, federally endangered Atlantic salmon, Eastern brook trout, American eel, and the five other diadromous fish species historically found above the Head of Tide Dam, which will also be re-engineered as part of this project.
This project was recently ranked as the top priority river restoration project in Maine for Atlantic salmon by NOAA Fisheries and was highlighted in a story in the Portland Press Herald.