After 14 years, Massachusetts dam removal begins to restore 7 miles of stream

Duxbury, MassachusettsRepresentative image For more than a century, a small concrete dam stood in the way of a river’s natural flow. Built to serve industries that no longer exist, the Temple Street Dam in Duxbury, Massachusetts, had long outlived its purpose. It blocked fish from reaching their spawning grounds, trapped sediment, created a maintenance burden for the town and disrupted the natural hydrology of the South River. In 2012, conservationists began working to change that. Fourteen years later, in 2026, demolition finally started. The removal of the Temple Street Dam is set to reconnect more than 7 miles of stream, restore 6 acres of open water wetland and bring the South River one step closer to the free-flowing ecosystem it once was, as shared by Town of Duxbury Massachusetts' website.A dam with no purposeThe Temple Street Dam, also known as the Boys & Girls Club Dam #2, is located on the South River in Plymouth County, Massachusetts. Like many small dams across the state, it was built to support local industry; in this case, a mill that operated in the 19th and early 20th centuries. But those industries are long gone, and the dam now serves no functional purpose.Ins...