New era in dam administration

Under Babbitt’s leadership, besides freeing the Colorado River, two notable projects were established to protect fish species; they are the Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program (http://www.lcrmscp.gov/) and the Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program (http://www.fws.gov/coloradoriverrecovery/). The endangered species are the Colorado pikeminnows, razorback suckers, and bonytail and humpback chubs. Beyond addressing the ESA requirements, the programs “work toward protecting and recovering over one hundred sensitive species and their habitats with efforts to restore the environmental health of the Lower Colorado River for the next fifty years”.

The Platte River has been another beneficiary of this new era in dam administration. The Platte River is one of the most developed rivers and “has experienced significant alterations in its aquatic and riparian habitats, contributing to the decline of nine endangered species”. In 1997, a cooperative agreement was setup among stakeholders to restore “the river's natural habitat and, with it, populations of endangered species”.

The determination of restoring natural habitats was clearly shown in the demolitions of the Newport No. 11 dam of Clyde River in Vermont and the Western Canal Dam of Sacramento River in California. Both dams had barricaded salmon from their preferred upstream spawning habitat for 40 and 70 years respectively.

Then, the Quaker Neck Dam on North Carolina's Neuse River, the Sunbeam and Washington Power dams in Idaho and the Edwards Dam on Maine's Kennebec River were also removed in order to restore the natural river flow.

Either demolitions or deconstruction, all these efforts were to show that bold moves can be made to protect species and their habitats. In addition, it is possible to act on a new thinking of sustainable environmental practices which focus not on the short-term human benefits but to provide an ecologically sound environment for all species in the long run.