In Saturday’s Portland Press Herald I wrote an update on the ongoing dispute over the future of sea run fish in Maine’s Kennebec River and the survival of endangered Atlantic Salmon in the United States. The development: four conservation groups have filed a notice of intent to sue Brookfield over alleged violations of the Endangered Species Act at the four dams they own on the lower Kennebec, dams that block salmon, shad, and other species from accessing prime habitat in the Sandy River, a tributary of the river.
Brookfield, a $600 billion asset management entity in Toronto, owns thousands of dams worldwide and has resisted calls to remove some of the dams or present an engineered solution that would protect the fish runs. For additional background, consider this story I wrote on the controversy in the first days of the year.
COLIN WOODARD is a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist. He is the author of six books that have been translated into a dozen foreign languages and inspired an NBC television drama. He is currently Director of Nationhood Lab at the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Affairs at Salve Regina University. As State and National Affairs Writer at the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram he won a 2012 George Polk Award and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2016. He is a contributing editor at POLITICO and his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, Smithsonian and dozens of other major publications.