WVII Reports on $6M NSF Grant to Study New England Dams
WVII (Channel 7) reported on a new $6 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s EPSCoR program that will fund a four-year study examining the future of dams in New England. The project marks an expansion in partners and scope for the New England Sustainability Consortium (NEST), adding Rhode Island to the existing partnership between Maine and New Hampshire. The study will look at strengthening connections between scientists and decision-makers on a number of options including maintaining existing hydropower dams, expanding hydropower capacity, and removing aging dams in order to restore fisheries, according to the report. The NEST team says solutions to sustainability challenges require a collaborative approach in which researchers from the natural sciences, social sciences, engineering and humanities combine their expertise. UMaine researchers on the project include David Hart, Sharon Klein, Bridie McGreavy, Darren Ranco, Sean Smith and Joe Zydlewski.