Damn dam

 

In use it looks like a flood control dam but it isn't. It's a dam alright but it's for recreational use only. With the gates in place the Springbank Dam controls water flow, turning the Thames River into a small reservoir—a reservoir with enough water depth to float small cruise boats and support a rental paddle boat business. But today the gates are not in place and the river supports turtles and rich mix of birds. The rental paddle boats are just a memory.

The engineers said the new dam with huge, heavy gates lifted into place by hydralics was a great improvement over the ancient dam it replaced. The old dam used simple stop logs. In time the logs would begin to rot and need to be replaced. Not so the new gates. The new gates will last indefinitely.

There was only one thing wrong with the new design. It didn't work. Never did. Failed before it was even officially in use. But the engineers did get one thing right. The new dam was a big improvement over the old, functioning dam. The river, left to flow free, left to be a true river and not technically a reservoir, was a healthier river. Turtles, one endangered, are back. Fish and amphibians and birds and mammals are all flourishing thanks to the cleaner, faster moving river.

It is even possible that the one mammal that seemed to benefit most from the old dam, the human animal, may be surprising everyone and learning to love the undammed river. 

Walks along the river are popular and kids find it exciting to spot a heron overhead, a deer in the woods or a fox darting across the path running from one wooded area to another.

Some folk have even learned that canoes and kayaks don't need all that much water. Recreational paddlers are often spotted in the river starting in the spring and not to disappear until late fall.