In 2020, Ohio removed a dam from the once-polluted Cuyahoga River; it reopened 39 km of habitat

An 18-metre concrete dam on Ohio’s Cuyahoga River once stopped migrating fish from reaching important spawning areas for more than a century. Today, aquatic life is quickly returning to the river. Researchers from the US Geological Survey, working with state biological agencies, have released new long-term monitoring data showing a major ecological recovery. After the Brecksville Diversion Dam was removed in 2020, scientists found 15 fish species that had not previously been detected in the lower Cuyahoga River, a major tributary that flows into Lake Erie.The study, titled "Beyond barriers: Fish assemblage recovery following dam removal on the Cuyahoga River, a Lake Erie tributary", was published in the journal Restoration Ecology (DOI: 10.1111/rec.70436) and is available through the USGS Publications Warehouse. Lead author Matthew Ross Acre and a research team from several agencies studied fish populations using four decades of survey data collected from 1984 to 2024. Removing the Brecksville Dam immediately reopened 39 kilometres of connected, free-flowing river habitat linked directly to Lake Erie. Removing the barrier more than doubled the amount of open river available to migr...