News  After Restoration, Rivers Flow Freely (Andover, Scituate, East Bridgewater)

In 2017 DER and partners removed the Balmoral and Marland Place Dams on the Shawsheen River in Andover, the Hunters Pond Dam on Bound Brook in Scituate and the Cotton Gin Dam on the Satucket River in East Bridgewater. The dam removals opened up 23 miles and improved access for river herring to 900 acres of spawning habitat. This past spring DER and partners monitored the sites for herring. While no fish were sighted at the former dam sites of Cotton Gin or Bound Brook during monitoring this spring, local residents have observed river herring upstream of both sites. MassBays National Estuary Program will continue to lead fish counts at Bound Brook and DER will continue to monitor at Satucket River. At the Shawsheen site in Andover, just over one year since the completion of two dam removal, local observers continue to monitor encouraging numbers of river herring migrating past the sites to spawn upstream.

Photos Left to Right: Shawsheen River, Bound Brook, and Satucket River.