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The Science, Politics, and Biophysical Outcomes of Dam Removal

Event Type
Seminar/Symposium
Sponsor
Geography & GIS
Location
2020B - Natural History Building
Date
Mar 6, 2020   3:00 - 4:00 pm  
Speaker
Frank Magilligan, Dartmouth College
Cost
This event is free and open to public
Contact
Department of Geography & GIS
E-Mail
geography@illinois.edu
Views
197
Originating Calendar
Geography and Geographic Information Science

Dam removal is becoming an increasingly important component of river restoration, with >1,500 dams having been removed nationwide over the past three decades.  Despite this recent progression of removals, the lack of pre- to post-removal monitoring and assessment limits our understanding of the magnitude, rate, and sequence of geomorphic and/or ecological recovery to dam removal.  Taking advantage of the November 2012 removal of an old (~ 190 year-old) 6-m high, run-of-river industrial dam on Amethyst Brook (26 km2) in central Massachusetts, the first part of this talk presents the immediate eco-geomorphic responses to dam removal.  To capture the geomorphic responses, our research group collected baseline data at multiple scales, both upstream (~ 300 m) and downstream (> 750 m) of the dam, including monumented cross sections, detailed channel-bed longitudinal profiles, embeddedness surveys, channel-bed grain size measurements, RFID pit-tagged gravel, which were repeated annually.  These geomorphic assessments were combined with detailed quantitative electrofishing surveys of stream fish richness and abundance above and below the dam site and throughout the watershed and visual surveys of native anadromous sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) nest sites. 

The second part of the talk addresses the results of our recent project that reveal how complex cultural dynamics, competing interpretations of science and the environment, environmental micropolitics, and the role of multiple actors generate and shape conflicts over dam removal. These results show that the historical geography of New England influences conflicts over removal in important ways, particularly with regard to the roles of aesthetics and identity in landscapes that are characterized largely by consumptive as opposed to productive uses. These findings also suggest that restoration in long-humanized landscapes will embroil new constellations of human and nonhuman actors, requiring attention to the political and cultural, as well as the ecological, dimensions of river restoration.

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