The Hughesville Dam Removal and Musconetcong River Restoration Project
The Musconetcong River straddles the border of Warren County Pohatcong Township and Hunterdon County’s Holland Township just south of Phillipsburg. Over 300 hundred years ago colonists dammed the Delaware River tributary for hydropower. The Hughesville Dam, a few miles from the confluence of the Delaware and Musconetcong rivers, today could serve no purpose.
In 2016, the Musconetcong Watershed Association in a collaborative effort with state and federal agencies completed an estimated $1.5 million project to remove the Hughesville Dam.
Since the dam removal on the Musconetcong River, the American Shad, the largest of the herring family and an angler’s favorite, swam up the Musconetcong for the first time since colonial times. Read more from:
Biologist Pat Hamilton holds a shad caught near the Warren Glen Dam on the Musconetcong River in Holland Township. The American shad is making an impressive come back to the Delaware River watershed.
(New Jersey Fish and Wildlife)
The Woodland Dam Removal and Little Sewickley Creek Restoration Project
The Woodland dam was built in 1928 to supply water for a local estate. The dam was no longer used for any purpose and was a deteriorating safety hazard. The property owner, in partnership with the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and American Rivers, performed extensive research on the dam. With grant funding from American Rivers and the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, the dam was successfully removed in July of 2015.
Removal of the dam restored the stream to more natural conditions. It reconnected upper portions of the stream to the river and enhanced the genetic health of plants and animals along the entire 17.8 miles of the stream. The removal and installment of grade control structures reduce bank erosion, as well as eliminate hazards from the deterioration of the dam. Read more from
http://lscwatershed.org/?page_id=489
Photos of the Woodland Dam Removal provided by the Little Sewickley Creek Watershed Association
Maple Tract Preserve Stream Restoration
This short video provided by Wildlands Conservancy that explains the importance and effectiveness of dam removals. Referencing their removal of the Maple Dam on the Tunkhannock Creek in 2017. See more at http://www.wildlandspa.org/mapledamremoval/
The stone masonry Maple Dam on the Tunkhannock Creek in northeastern Pennsylvania seen prior and after its removal in 2017 by the Wildlands Conservancy.
The Conestoga River
The Conestoga River, located in Lancaster County in southeastern Pennsylvania, is part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. It was once home to seven obsolete dams that were originally built to power mills or provide navigation canals. The presence of the dams degraded the Conestoga River system by preventing the movement of American Shad, as well as smaller migratory and resident fish species. After the dams were removed, The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission found that “stream banks are stabilized and no longer eroding, the stream gradient is greatly improved, the river flow is restored and moving sediment downstream, and stream organisms have returned—all of which suggest that the Conestoga is a much healthier river system” (American Rivers et. al., 1999, 48).
Hertzler, Richard. Workers use heavy equipment to tear down the Rock Hill Dam along the Conestoga River near Millerville in 1996.
The Solomon Creek Dam
Solomon Creek Dam an approximate 4-ft high structure and nine check dams rows of stone piled across the stream were removed along with years of sediment that had accumulated behind the structures. These dams served no functional purposes. They were in a state of severe disrepair and were contributing to accelerated erosion and restriction of fish, specifically trout passage. The PA Fish and Boat Commission is working with the Eastern PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation to secure funding to implement the removal of Solomon Creek Dam restoring the natural function of the stream channel.
Read more from https://www.timesleader.com/news/local/670416/project-stabilizes-solomon-creek-in-ashley
Trout found in the area of whose migration was restricted prior to dam removal, retrieved from Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation website Epcamr.org.