What happens to the fish community when a dam is removed? While dam removals are becoming more common and necessary as aging dam structures become unstable and the importance of river connectedness is better understood, we don’t always get to see the “before and after” of how the river recovers. The story of the Maple River is unique because we were able to collect data on fish communities and other biological variables both before and after dam removal to understand how the river and its biological community responded. We’ll show that trout began moving back into restored upstream waters in the first year after dam removal and what happened to these populations five years later. The lessons we learned can help us understand how fish communities respond to barrier removals in other watersheds and how best to predict and monitor dam removal effects in the future. 

About the Speaker: Amy Schrank is the Extension Program Leader and an Associate Extension Professor in Fisheries and Aquaculture at the University of Minnesota Sea Grant. Her current research includes understanding the effects of dam removal on stream fishes, what impact invasive, hybrid cattail has on fish communities in inland lakes, and how to produce fish for seafood and bait more sustainably in indoor aquaculture systems. Her outreach work involves collaborating with fisheries and aquaculture researchers, managers, and other interested groups to transfer research to application and effectively communicate water science to communities.