May 3, 2022 — The owner of hydroelectric dams in Maine said Monday it’s going to make changes to some of its operations to try to help save the final remaining wild Atlantic salmon in the United States.
The country’s last wild populations of the fish are found in a few Maine rivers. Salmon counters found fewer of the fish on one of those rivers, the Penobscot, last year than in any year since 2016.
Brookfield Renewable U.S. said Monday that it has begun shutdown procedures for dams on the lower Kennebec River to help the salmon migrate. The company is a subsidiary of a larger Canadian company that owns many dams in Maine.