The Ashland Mill Dam in Hanover County, Virginia is being removed. The project started in September and is nearly completed. This will allow native fish spawning and rearing. The fish include hickory shad, American shad, blueback herring, alewife herring, striped bass, and sea lamprey. The dam was failing due to age and storms.
This will open 38 miles of river and over 108 miles of streams for fish to do their thing. Apparently the dam was preventing or delaying the upstream migration of juvie American eels.
The old dam was 13 feet tall and stretched 210 feet across the river.
If you already posted this, please let me know and I'll delete it.
Edit to add: please explain why the lamprey is necessary.
Here is a photo of such
Ugh, they scrape other fish up with their nasty mouth, parasitic. There is one seen in a better position in the photo. Also called the vampire fish, just in time for Halloween.