Removing Dams Along the Quinnipiac in Southington

The conservation group, Save the Sound, is planning to remove two dams from the Quinnipiac River in a plan designed to help improve the wildlife in and along the waterway.

Save the Sound wants to use federal grant money from a contamination settlement to remove the Clark Brothers dam in Southington and the Carpenter dam on the Cheshire-Meriden line, a move that the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection says could help restore the populations of migratory fish such as salmon, shad, alewives and herring, according to MyRecordJournal.com.

Because of the four- to five-foot high dams, some of those species cannot migrate from the coastline of Long Island Sound.

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In addition to opening up the waterway to fish, the removal of the dams also will improve recreational options, especially for kayakers, according to the report that can be found here.

Photo: the Clarks Brothers dam. Credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service New England Office.