{"id":28545,"date":"2026-07-06T22:28:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T02:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=28545"},"modified":"2026-07-06T22:47:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T02:47:12","slug":"wheelwright-dam-removal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2026\/07\/06\/wheelwright-dam-removal\/","title":{"rendered":"Freeing The Ware River"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What does it mean to remove a dam that\u2019s constrained a river for more than a century? What does it look like to loose the bindings that have impeded the flow, stymied cold water trout, reshaped the river banks?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This spring the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game\u2019s Division of Ecological Restoration, in collaboration with the East Quabbin Land Trust, was removing the Wheelwright Dam from the Ware River, spanning Hardwick and New Braintree in central Massachusetts. I\u2019ve been working on a documentary about the effort. \u201cIt\u2019s a 500-foot-long dam. It\u2019s the largest dam in Massachusetts to be removed,” State Restoration Specialist Joseph Gould tells me. \u201cIt will also reconnect over 100 miles of mainstem and tributary habitat which is the most stream miles reconnected, to date, by a dam removal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Kayaking
Kayaking through the open Wheelwright Dam, April 26 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Historically dams have been engines of industry, powering mills and factories, that whole communities were built around. Now so many dams continue to obstruct our waterways long after their purpose has disappeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cynthia Henshaw, president of the land trust, tells me, \u201cWheelwright Dam was a timber-frame dam with rocks in the middle, then added concrete on the downstream side to hold it in.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Removing Wheelwright Dam looks like growling, clanking earth movers digging out steel and wood and tons of rocks and dirt. It is taking care of freshwater eastern elliptio mussels and rare Alasmidonta undulata \u201ctriangle floater\u201d mussels and rare Strophitus undulatus \u201ccreeper\u201d mussels. It is planting along newly exposed shores. It is daylighting, exposing a tributary to the Ware River, that\u2019s long been buried under an abutting airfield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gould says Massachusetts took down 15 dams last year, the most ever removed in a year in the state, or anywhere in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we find ourselves amidst a miraculous trend to take down barriers that have constrained our rivers and our wild friends who depend upon them for decades, a trend to reimagine our relationship with our places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Special thanks to Josh Reynolds, who is kindly collaborating with us by doing drone photography and video, and to Kari Percival, for science expertise, for our ongoing Wheelwright Dam Removal documentary project.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures, and nature that you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And\u00a0sign up for our free, occasional newsletter<\/a>\u00a0so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. Follow us on Instagram<\/a> and tell us what you really think on Facebook<\/a>. (All content \u00a9 Greg Cook 2026 or the respective creators.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Drone
Drone view of Wheelwright Dam, April 26. 2026. (\u00a9 Josh Reynolds photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Earthmover
Earthmover reshapes the riverbank at the Wheelwright Dam, June 9, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Cynthia
Cynthia Henshaw, president of the East Quabbin Land Trust, on riverbank at the Wheelwright Dam, June 9, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Upstream
Upstream side of Wheelwright Dam, April 26 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Downstream
Downstream side of Wheelwright Dam, April 26 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Earthmover
Earthmover reshapes the riverbank at the Wheelwright Dam, June 9, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Kayaking
Kayaking toward the Wheelwright Dam, April 26, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Hawk
Hawk glides above the budding maples upstream of the Wheelwright Dam, April 26, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Beaver
Beaver lodges can be found upstream of the Wheelwright Dam, April 26, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Painted
Painted turtles upstream of Wheelwright Dam, April 26, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Mussels
Mussels grow in the muddy riverbanks upstream of the Wheelwright Dam, April 26, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"R.J.
R.J. McDonald Inc. \u201cwashed stone\u201d and sand plant just upstream of the Wheelwright Dam. State staff have worked with the company to maintain its access to draw water from the river. April 26, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Wheelwright
Wheelwright Dam, April 26, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The
The Ware River bends around to the temporary dam installed so that the old Wheelwright Dam behind it could be removed, June 9, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Much
Much of the Wheelwright Dam is gone, June 9, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Joseph
Joseph Gould, Restoration Specialist for Massachusetts Division of Ecological Restoration, on riverbank at the Wheelwright Dam, June 9, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Earthmover
Earthmover reshapes the riverbank as little of the Wheelwright Dam remains, June 9, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Butterfly
Butterfly just upstream of the Wheelwright Dam, June 9, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Earth
Earth mover moves timbers from the Wheelwright Dam, June 9, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Pile
Pile of timbers removed from the Wheelwright Dam, June 9, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Abandoned
Abandoned section of the Wheelwright Dam, June 9, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Bumpy
Bumpy airport runway that will be removed, and a stream underneath daylighted, across from Wheelwright Dam, June 9, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Downstream
Downstream of the Wheelwright Dam, the Hardwick Pond Road bridge in Ware is a popular spot for fishing, April 26, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Downstream
Downstream of Wheelwright Dam, boys caught a rainbow trout at Hardwick Pond Road bridge, Ware, April 26, 2026. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What does it mean to remove a dam that\u2019s constrained a river for more than a century? What does it look like to loose the bindings that have impeded the flow, stymied cold water trout, reshaped the river banks? This spring the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game\u2019s Division of Ecological Restoration, in collaboration with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28518,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[1453,1449,1450,1448,1452,1451],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28545"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28545"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28559,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28545\/revisions\/28559"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}