An Atlantic Salmon's Journey Toward Recovery - Part 2
The first wild-born salmon documented in the lake for two centuries. Photo by Jaime Masterson, US Fish & Wildlife Service.
Removing a dam makes a big difference for fish habitat, recreation, the local economy and water quality. There are an estimated 442 dams and 13,822 culverts in the Lake Champlain Basin, not including its Canadian tributaries. For the local, state, nonprofit, and federal partners who are working together to bring Atlantic salmon back to the basin, these obstacles have become primary targets for advancing the restoration program toward a goal that once seemed unreachable: natural reproduction. If salmon cannot move up and downstream for seasonal migrations, they cannot complete their natural life cycles. Click here for the second installment in the five-part series that follows an Atlantic salmon on its journey upstream to spawn in a tributary of Lake Champlain.
