Verde River assigment part one and two.

Part One:

The dam I chose Whittenton Dam, located on Mill River, in Taunton, Massachusetts. Its location is “Lat 41°53'59", long 71°05'24",” and its geography is “20 ft. upstream from Spring Street bridge in Taunton, and about 0.8 mi upstream from mouth at Taunton River” (http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv/?site_no=01108410). According to Wikipedia the river is 37 miles long.

The reason for building the dam was to provide power to multiple different types of mills.

The reasons for decommissioning the dam is because “Concerns over dam owner liability, public safety, and fish passage prompted its removal. A near failure in 2005 that would have caused catastrophic flooding resulted in the evacuation of 2000 people from downtown Taunton. The issues at the dam provided the catalyst for improved dam safety regulations in Massachusetts. This successful project restored a mile of river and floodplain habitat for fish and wildlife” (American Rivers)

The ecology of the river is interesting. Taunton is a free flowing river, which is not very common in that area and the river is home to many different kinds of fish and provides protection to the land from things such as flooding. The native special animals are the American Eel and the River Herring (Dams Being Removed to Better Mill River Ecology). According to Rachel Calabro the native plants are Golden Hedge Hyssop and Red Maple.   

Its current use appears to just be the growth of biodiversity. I also couldn’t find any current threats to the river. It is coming back into good health after the removal of the dam.  

Works Cited

Calabro, Rachel. "Mill River Restoration." Mill River Restoration. Blogger, 1 Oct. 2013. Web. 08 "Dams Being Removed to Better Mill River Ecology." EcoRI News. EcoRI News, 22 July 2013. Web. 08 Nov. 2014.Nov. 2014.

"Projects." American Rivers. American Rivers, n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2014.

"Taunton River." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Oct. 2014. Web. 08 Nov. 2014.

"USGS Current Conditions for USGS 01108410 MILL RIVER AT SPRING STREET AT TAUNTON, MA." USGS Current Conditions for USGS 01108410 MILL RIVER AT SPRING STREET AT TAUNTON, MA. U.S. Department of Interior., n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2014.

Part two:

For this part of the lab, I chose to use Lynx Lake Dam. 

The drawing below is what I think Lynx would look like if the dam is removed.