Federal Infrastructure Funding Is Fueling a Push to Remove Dams

Federal Infrastructure Funding Is Fueling a Push to Remove Dams

Source: Associated Press

8/7/2024

Federal Infrastructure Funding Is Fueling a Push to Remove Dams

Credit: AP Photo/Erik Verduzco

On the whooshing Watauga River, excavators claw at the remains of Shulls Mill Dam, pulling concrete apart piece by piece and gradually opening a waterway kept in check for nearly two centuries.

Removal of this privately-owned hydropower dam in western North Carolina will be a boon for rafters, kayakers and tubers by allowing the river to flow freely for nearly 80 miles (129 kilometers). But maybe the biggest beneficiary will be a strange, ancient creature known as the eastern hellbender salamander.