Restoring Balance to the Kennebec River

For thousands of years, the Kennebec River flowed freely from Moosehead Lake in Maine’s north woods to Merrymeeting Bay, one of the most productive estuaries in the country, and out to the Gulf of Maine. Tens of millions of sea-run fish—including American shad, river herring and Atlantic salmon—returned to spawn in its waters every year before heading back to the ocean. This natural migration helped sustain enormous fisheries in the Gulf of Maine, such as cod, as well as other wildlife and birds, like eagles and osprey. The Kennebec River is vital to the Indigenous Wabanaki people, for whom the river and its sea-run fish have been central to culture and sustenance for millennia.

During the past two centuries, dams have been built on the Kennebec to provide hydropower—lots of it. Today, the river and its tributaries host 20 hydroelectric dams. As a result, despite having some of the best Atlantic salmon spawning habitat in the country, the Kennebec’s run of salmon has dropped from hundreds of thousands each year to nearly zero. Science and nature are telling us that we’re asking too much of the Kennebec. The river is out of balance.

The Kennebec can be home to one of the largest river restoration efforts in the nation, reconnecting over 800 miles of river and stream habitat. Through thoughtful collaboration, it can be done in a way that provides economic benefits to towns along the river, from municipal revenue to local jobs, while supporting ecological benefits to fish populations and the communities that depend on them along the river and in the Gulf of Maine.

TNC and our partners are committed to working collaboratively with municipalities, businesses, Tribal Nations, agencies, riverside property owners, nonprofits and communities to achieve great things for people and nature on the Kennebec in the years ahead. This will include partnering with downtown revitalization efforts and working to enhance river-based recreation opportunities in the region.

TNC and our partners are 100% committed to developing a solution with Sappi that fully addresses the Somerset Mill’s long-term water system needs. We understand the vital role of the Somerset Mill for the forest products industry and the state’s economy, and we believe it will be possible to protect the mill’s future AND achieve river restoration goals on the lower Kennebec.

TNC has also sourced paper from Sappi for over 20 years. We print over three million copies of our magazine annually on paper manufactured at the Somerset Mill.

Collaborating partners working with The Nature Conservancy to implement this bold vision for the Kennebec include: Atlantic Salmon Federation, American Rivers, Bomazeen Land Trust, Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, Main Street Skowhegan, Maine Rivers, Natural Resources Council of Maine, Penobscot Nation, Trout Unlimited, Conservation Law Foundation and The Conservation Fund.

Funding partners providing critical resources to support this vision for the Kennebec include: James M. Cox Foundation, EJK Foundation, Holdfast Collective and The Conservation Fund.

This restoration draws on TNC’s decades of experience conserving Maine’s lands and waters in close partnership with communities. On the Penobscot River, the removal of the Veazie and Great Works dams demonstrated the immense potential of dam removal to restore ecosystems and advance river-dependent economies, cultures and livelihoods. Before the dams were removed on the mainstem of the Penobscot River, the count of river herring travelling upstream to spawn hovered between a few hundred and a few thousand per year. Only a decade after the dams were removed, it's estimated that 6.8 million fish made the trip. While some were initially skeptical, the clear consensus today is that river restoration benefited people and nature. Not only are millions of fish back, but more people now believe living near the river adds to their quality of life, and the river’s water quality, habitat and recreational value have all improved. Working closely with communities and partners, we know a similar story is possible on the Kennebec. 

It’s also helpful to look west to the restoration of Klamath River as the potential to remove the four lower dams on the Kennebec has often been described as the “Klamath of the East.” The last dam on the Klamath was removed in October 2024, freeing 420 miles of the river and its tributaries in California and Oregon. The restoration involved removing four hydropower dams that ranged in height from 33 feet to 172 feet, making it one of the largest dam-removal projects in U.S. history. Similar to the Kennebec, the Klamath dams had a devastating effect on salmon populations with once abundant spring-run Chinook down to less than 2% of pre-dam populations. It is still too early to understand the full impact of the dam removals but within 10 days of completing work on the final dam, more than 6,000 Chinook salmon were observed migrating upstream into newly accessible habitat over a two-week period. It’s further proof of what we’ve seen time and again, that degraded river systems can still recover—quickly—and that when we restore the flow of rivers, ecosystems bounce back. This gives us hope as the Kennebec restoration provides the opportunity to reconnect over 800 river miles. 

The Kennebec River supports all 12 sea-run fish species native to Maine, including American shad, the threatened and endangered Atlantic and shortnose sturgeon and the endangered Atlantic salmon. The Sandy River, a significant tributary of the Kennebec, offers some of the best Atlantic salmon spawning habitat in the country. Salmon cannot currently reach the Sandy because of the four lower Kennebec dams. Since construction of the first of these dams over a century ago, the river’s run of salmon has dropped from hundreds of thousands each year to nearly zero. Biologists have concluded that reestablishing access to the Sandy River is our best hope for restoring Atlantic salmon.

The removal of the Edwards Dam in 1999 on the lower Kennebec helped show the world what was possible through river restoration. Today, the restored part of the river, and its tributary, the Sebasticook, support the nation's largest run of alewives and blueback herring and one of the highest concentrations of bald Eagles in the lower 48.

Restoring the Kennebec can also support recreational, ocean and commercial fisheries. For centuries abundant populations of sea-run fish—including shad, alewives and blueback herring— helped support historic New England fisheries like cod, haddock, pollock, halibut and tuna. Restoring this section of the Kennebec can dramatically increase the forage base along the coastal shelf, improving the chances for rebuilding a number of ecologically and economically important groundfish species, like cod and halibut. Restoring this section of the Kennebec can also increase recreational fishing opportunities by helping to bring back American shad, a favored eating fish and a good challenge on a spinner or flyrod. On the Penobscot, the second year after providing access to upstream habitat, the shad population went from virtually unknown to hundreds downstream of the dam and over 8,000 passing upstream. 

The Nature Conservancy and our partners are committed to elevating Indigenous voices and perspectives, co-creating a shared vision for the watershed with Wabanaki Nations and supporting restoration of Wabanaki culture and foodways in the Kennebec watershed.

The Wabanaki Nations have been traditionally both maritime and riverine people. They depend on the resources that the rivers provide, including Atlantic salmon and other sea-run fish. Wabanaki Nations and communities traveled seasonally throughout their watersheds and territories to fish, hunt, gather and trade. Widely considered to have historically supported the most significant sea-run fishery on the North Atlantic Coast, the Kennebec watershed was a vital landscape in sustaining Wabanaki foodways and supported each of the Wabanaki Nations directly or indirectly.

The colonial expansion of non-native settlement in New England in the 1600 and 1700s violently displaced the Abenaki people from their traditional territories. Surviving Abenaki re-located to Penobscot and Passamaquoddy communities and to the communities of Odanak and Wôlinak in Quebec.

Today, there are four federally recognized tribes in what is now Maine: the Penobscot Nation, the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, the Passamaquoddy Tribe and the Mi’kmaq Nation. The Odanak and Wolinak are now the W8banaki Nation in Quebec. One of the goals of this project is to help reestablish cultural and physical connections between the Wabanaki Nations and the Kennebec River.

The Appalachian region—198 million acres spanning the continent from Alabama to the Canadian Maritime Provinces—is one of the most climate-resilient, biologically diverse and carbon-rich geographies in the world. It forms a critical 2,000-mile pathway of climate resilient lands and waters that act as a “natural superhighway” for mammals, birds, fish and amphibians seeking refuge from warming temperatures. 

The rivers of the Appalachians are teeming with life, hosting more than half of all freshwater fish species in the U.S. They provide a clean source of drinking water for 36 million people and help support a $25 billion recreation and tourism industry. These rivers also hold deep cultural importance for Indigenous Peoples and communities—both local and farther downstream—that depend on healthy waterways for food, drinking water, transportation, recreation and economic wellbeing.

But rivers and streams throughout the Appalachians are threatened in part by more than 70,000 dams, many of which are aging and obsolete. With the intensifying effects of climate change, they pose escalating risks to people and ecosystems. Just 2% of U.S. rivers remain free-flowing. Together with partners, TNC is investing time, expertise and resources in critical places like the Kennebec to remove barriers thereby restoring habitat, reducing flood risks, honoring Indigenous rights and supporting the millions of people who rely on healthy rivers.

Efforts to remove these barriers and reconnect the region’s critical river systems have been ongoing, but slow. During each of the past five years, an average of just 2.5 dams have been removed in each Appalachian state.

To truly protect and restore the rivers of the Appalachians, we must move faster. 

The Free Rivers Accelerator is TNC’s groundbreaking initiative to increase the pace and efficiency of dam removals throughout the Appalachians.

In the Appalachians, the Free Rivers Accelerator focuses on key leverage points identified through dozens of interviews with dam removal partners. Together we will build a pipeline of projects ready for investment, deliver targeted technical assistance, unlock financing and drive policy change to ensure rivers are free and protected for generations.

Unlike traditional efforts that can often take years or decades, the Accelerator is designed to move faster across broad geographies. By radically collaborating with communities, Indigenous Peoples, private investors, NGOs, engineers and infrastructure experts, TNC can address the funding and technical bottlenecks that often stall river restoration.  Efforts are underway to replicate the Appalachians model to take action for avoiding new dams and scaling dam removal in places like Europe, and for developing dam alternatives and durable protections for rivers in parts of our planet not yet imperiled by fragmentation caused by dams.

The Free Rivers Accelerator represents a bold new model for freshwater conservation. By 2030, we aim to free and secure nearly 200,000 kilometers of rivers around the world, making a significant contribution toward TNC’s global goal of conserving one million river kilometers.