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Alewife and blueback herring can now more easily return to their historic habitats along the Taunton River.
Environmental leaders are celebrating the removal of a dam in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, on the Town River, which will restore up to 10 miles of river flow as well as the migratory patterns of fish such as alewife and blueback herring.
The High Street Dam has stood on Bridgewater’s Town River for more than 100 years, and was the first barrier to migratory fish coming up the Taunton River from Narragansett Bay, blocking fish from passing into an important spawning habitat.
Typically, migratory fish such as river herring would start lining up at the mouth of Narragansett Bay in February, swim up through the Taunton River, around to Bridgewater, and they would have to pass a fishway at the High Street Dam that hadn’t worked very well since around 2010, when the region saw severe flooding, according to Alison Bowden, director of conservation science and strategy at the Nature Conservancy.
Now that the dam has been removed, migrating fish “can swim straight through,” Bowden said.
Many fish eventually make their way to Lake Nippenicket, and the High Street Dam removal helped river herring such as alewife regain access to 354 acres of spawning and rearing habitat at the freshwater pond.
The region experienced particularly bad flooding in 2010, prompting environmentalists to think about opportunities to reduce flood risk along the Taunton River and restore herring habitat throughout the watershed. Planning for the dam removal project first began in 2015 among local, state, and federal environmental leaders, including the Massachusetts Division of Ecological Restoration, the Nature Conservancy, and Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, among other organizations.
After months of feasibility studies, public meetings, and data collection, crews removed the 12.5-foot high, 80-foot wide dam in July 2023. The old High Street Bridge, built in 1790 and considered one of the oldest bridges in the state, was also removed, and a new, 55-foot bridge was built in its place. On Tuesday, May 21, state, local, and environmental leaders gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new bridge, which now provides “a very clear span” for fish to swim under, Bowden said.
Many fish eventually make their way to Lake Nippenicket, and the High Street Dam removal helped river herring such as alewife regain access to 354 acres of spawning and rearing habitat at the freshwater pond.
The bridge also better accommodates peak river flows and prevents flooding on nearby roads and properties. It was designed to withstand 500-year storm and climate change projections through 2070, according to a news release from the Nature Conservancy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the town of Bridgewater, among other partnering groups.
The High Street Dam removal and bridge rebuild project is “a national model demonstrating the environmental benefits of dam removals for restoring critical fish migration as well as a significant restoration of a natural habitat for the plants and animals living in the region,” the news release said.
The Nature Conservancy aims to restore river herring populations from Newfoundland to Florida, a range where “their status is not good,” Bowden said. The High Street Dam removal project was an important step in supporting herring habitats throughout New England and beyond.
