Undammed: Freeing Rivers and Bringing Communities to Life

Free-flowing rivers in the United States are an endangered species. With more than 500,000 dams in place, we’ve dammed and diverted almost every major river, straightening curves and blocking passage for fish and other aquatic animals, pushing many to the brink. Now a heartening new movement is helping to demolish harmful or obsolete structures and restore new life to rivers and the communities that depend on them. In doing so, it offers a pathway to undoing environmental harm to nature—and to ourselves.

In Undammed, environmental journalist Tara Lohan takes a clear-eyed look at the unexpected benefits of dam removal after centuries of dam-building. In helping to restore rivers, she argues, we’re protecting our own communities by improving water quality, enhancing public safety, and boosting fish populations that feed people and restore rights for Native American Tribes. Lohan chronicles the removal effort of four dams on the Klamath River in northern California and southern Oregon, the largest dam-removal and river-restoration project in the world. In the Northwest, she walks readers through the politically heated debate over potential removal of dams on the Lower Snake River in Washington to help restore salmon and orcas. And she visits the Kennebec and Penobscot rivers in Maine where time is running out to save Atlantic salmon. In the Southwest, Lohan considers the need to rethink the concrete monoliths on its largest rivers in the face of longer droughts, higher temperatures, and overallocated resources. And in Ohio, she highlights how removing unneeded dams is helping the once lifeless Cuyahoga River bounce back, benefitting urban communities in innumerable, tangible ways. In other efforts across the country, she shows why removing deadbeat and small dams can have big impacts and is helping drive action beyond our borders. In Europe, where river barriers occur almost every half-mile, the US movement is spurring a rival effort to restore natural flow to rivers degraded by obstructions.

Undammed is an inspirational look at our changing relationship with the natural world, showing the cascade of benefits that come when we no longer turn our backs on rivers. And in helping to restore rivers, we’re helping ourselves.