Skip to content
Spin & Win — renewable-energy — Cook Up a Storm — Set Your Symphony

Maine's bold $300M plan to bring Atlantic salmon back from the brink

From planting 25,000 eggs to tearing down century-old dams, scientists race to undo a legacy of habitat loss. Can Maine's rivers welcome salmon home again?

,   and  Administrator
2 min read
The image shows a black and white photo of a group of people on a boat in the water, surrounded by...
The image shows a black and white photo of a group of people on a boat in the water, surrounded by horses and carts. In the background, there are trees, hills, and a bridge, and the sky is visible at the top of the image. At the bottom of the photo, there is text which reads "Alaska, Alaska, Alaska - Alaska - Portage of the Salmon River".

Maine's bold $300M plan to bring Atlantic salmon back from the brink

A long-running effort to restore Atlantic salmon to Maine's rivers is making steady progress. For two decades, marine scientist Paul Christman has been planting fertilised salmon eggs in the Sandy River watershed. The latest push involves a $300 million plan to remove or modify four dams on the Kennebec River, potentially allowing salmon to reach their spawning grounds freely within ten years. Atlantic salmon once filled New England's rivers by the hundreds of thousands. But their numbers have plummeted due to habitat loss, dams, and other pressures. The species was listed under the Endangered Species Act in 2000 to prevent further decline.

Christman's work began in 2006, inspired by an Alaskan egg-planting method. In early March 2026, his team placed 25,000 fertilised Atlantic salmon eggs in Avon Valley Brook. They expect around 10,000 juvenile fish to emerge from this batch. Over the years, thousands of juveniles have migrated to the North Atlantic, though only a small fraction return as adults. The broader project focuses on the Kennebec River, where The Nature Conservancy has agreed to buy four dams for $168 million. This purchase is part of a larger $300 million initiative to remove or modify the dams, clearing a path for salmon to swim upstream. The goal is to restore free-flowing conditions from tidewater to the Sandy River confluence. If successful, salmon could navigate the river under their own power for the first time in generations. Nearby, the Penobscot River has already seen progress with a $62 million dam removal project that took out the Veazie and Great Works dams. Meanwhile, the Coast Guard has been breaking ice on the Kennebec River since March 2026 to aid navigation.

The combined efforts of egg planting and dam removal aim to revive Atlantic salmon populations in Maine. The $300 million project could reopen historic migration routes within a decade. Success would mark a major step toward restoring a species once abundant in New England's rivers.

Read also:

Related

Latest