A Tribute to Thoreau

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/21/opinion/a-tribute-to-thoreau.html

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To the Editor:

Re “Thoreau’s Distressing Canoe Trip” (Op-Ed, July 12): John Waldman’s lament over the loss of clean, free-flowing streams and the migratory fish that depend on them is timely.

Thoreau’s pleading question — “Who hears the fishes when they cry?” — will be answered next month in Somerset County, N.J., when the Weston Mill Dam is removed from the Millstone River.

This action follows nearly a decade of scientific investigation and advocacy by the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association, and investments by federal and state agencies, foundations and the private sector. Removing the dam will restore natural river flows and migratory routes for fish, improve water quality and remove a serious hazard to recreational boaters.

The Weston Mill Dam was built in 1740, nearly 80 years before Thoreau’s birth, between the towns of Manville and Franklin.

Removing the Weston Mill Dam is a fitting tribute to Thoreau’s bicentennial and the awareness he raised about the unintended destruction caused by dams.

JIM WALTMAN, HOPEWELL, N.J.

The writer is executive director of the Stony Book-Millstone Watershed Association.