The Northeastern States contain over 17,000 dams with most built before 1910 for agricultural and industrial water power uses. A few have been built more recently for flood control, recreation, water supply, and energy generation. In many cases, the dams have outlived their expected life expectancy and use, but continue to block the passage of migratory fish species, such as American Shad, river herring, American Eel, Rainbow Smelt, and Atlantic Salmon, to and from their historic upstream spawning grounds. Additionally, the fragmentation of stream systems by dams have reduced Brook Trout populations in some locations. Progress is being made on this impairment as over 67 dams were removed during 2010 to 2014 in the Northeast Region. [...]
