Two derelict dams that block trout passage are being removed this week on the river that runs through Smugglers’ Notch in Jeffersonville.
Smugglers’ Notch Resort owns the dams, and is working with the Vermont Natural Resources Council to remove them.
The Brewster River cuts a steep line through this part of the Green Mountains, and its gorges and pools make the area popular with swimmers and anglers.
Karina Dailey with Vermont Natural Resources Council says the projects will reconnect roughly 10 miles of trout habitat and allow fish to take refuge in cold, high elevation tributaries in the Notch.
“This is going to reconnect the river for fish passage and water quality and flood resilience,” she said. “It’ll allow nutrients to move down the system, to provide cold water and food for fish and other aquatic species.”
This kind of habitat is particularly significant for brook trout, which require cold water to thrive and are poised to see their habitat shrink as the climate changes, according to the Vermont Climate Assessment.
On Thursday, Derrick Sloan of Sloan’s Excavating in East Fairfield hauled massive 150-year-old logs out of the riverbed at the higher and older of the two facilities, called the Morse’s Mill Dam.
At 50 feet long and 6 feet high, the timber crib dam was built in the late 1800s as part of the Morse Lumber Mill, which cut logs in Smugglers' Notch until the late 1930s. It predates the neighboring ski area.
“It provided a lot of the lumber for Burlington development back in the day,” Dailey said. “Morse’s sawmill was actually a really big mill at the time.”
Old black and white photographs of the site show huge log runs on the Brewster River and bald hillsides without trees. Dailey says the original dam was closer to 80 feet long and 20 feet high.
Today, the dam is tucked away in the woods, and all that remains of the mill complex that surrounded it are concrete piles, an old stone wall and a chimney where visitors have piled up rusty logging artifacts.
The mill stopped cutting logs in the 1930s, after the owner died in an accident when brakes on his logging truck failed on the steep and winding road through Smugglers’ Notch, Dailey said.
“It’s been a great project to be involved with,” said Jim Manley, with Smugglers’ Notch Resort. “The hope really is to not change much about the area — to just take the dam out, make it more fish passable and improve the habitat.”
Once the Morse’s Mill Dam is removed, Smuggs plans to install a historical marker on Route 108 with information about the site’s history.
In roughly two weeks, VNRC and Smuggs plan to remove a second smaller dam closer to the current ski area that was installed in the 1950s for recreation purposes. That project will also replace three undersized culverts.
The town of Cambridge uses the resort as its emergency shelter during floods, and Dailey at VNRC said replacing those culverts will help to prevent the access road from washing out during the sorts of heavy rain events Vermont is seeing more frequently with climate change.
VNRC, the Lake Champlain Basin Program, Smugglers’ Notch Resort, Vermont Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provided funding for the dam removals.
When the project is complete, the original pool below the Morse’s Mill Dam will remain, and the surrounding area will be restored as a floodplain so that the Brewster River can move freely there again.
