There is an ongoing project to reopen the Eel River in Whitley and Wabash counties for human safety and fish migration. After three years of waiting, the final problematic piece has been removed.
On Thursday, the relaxing noise of the Eel River was drowned out as crews removed the fourth low-head dam from the channel.
Jerry Sweeten, the senior ecologist for Ecosystems Connections Institute, has been working on the project for a number of years.
In 2017, a 31-year-old Warsaw man was killed when his kayak capsized and he was unable to escape the roiling water at the base of the dam.
“We’re very pleased to see the dam removed, not just for human safety but for the ecological benefits that come from removing dams,” Sweeten said.
Sweeten says about 80 percent of the river’s 52 varieties of fish migrate upstream. The dams, over 100 years old and placed there as part of saw mills or grist mills, get in their way.
“Warm water fish need to go upstream as part of their life history," Sweeten said.
With the placement of a fish ladder at the last remaining Eel River dam at Stockdale, the passage is unencumbered for fish migration.
"We at least have a passageway to allow the fish to go," Sweeten said. "By our calculation, by removing the Collamer dam, that has reconnected the main stem of the river, (and all the tributaries), over 1,000 stream miles. It's just a remarkable story."
A similar project is underway on Cedar Creek in Allen County, with a similar dam scheduled for removal later this year.
