A dam in Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County will be removed in May to help restore the habitat and migration route of the Formosan landlocked salmon, park director Chen Mao-chun (陳茂春) said.
Check dam No. 1 in Cijiawan Creek (七家灣溪), one of 10 built on the river to reduce channel erosion and prevent sediment from filling a downstream reservoir, creates a barrier that prevents the fish from migrating upstream, Chen said.
Wang Ching-ming (汪靜明), a professor at National Taiwan Normal University who has studied the species for 25 years, said the dam’s removal would be as -significant for Taiwan’s ecology as “man’s first step on the moon.”
Photo: CNA
He said the dams have blocked and isolated the landlocked salmon’s habitat, preventing them from mixing among different groups and causing water quality in the separate areas to be uneven.
That lack of exposure to different salmon is believed to have diminished the genetic diversity of the species and increased its risks of extinction.
Environmental and ecological changes have also narrowed the habitat of the fish to 1,700m to 1,900m above sea level, from a previous range of 1,500m to 2,000m, Wang said, making the breakdown of barriers within the habitat even more important.
The cold-water species, a holdover from the last ice age, needs unpolluted waters to survive and is now found only in the county’s Cijiawan Creek and Gaoshan Creek (高山溪) in the upper reaches of the Tajia River (大甲溪).
Previous efforts have been made to conserve its habitat by tearing down dams. One dam was removed from the upper reaches of Gaoshan Creek in 1999, and three others were removed in 2000 and 2001.
However, this was the first time Taiwan had conducted a truly thorough assessment of a dam removal before embarking on the project, Chen said.
The decision to remove the 15m by 3m dam, which has now lost its ability to collect silt, was made after two years of rigorous assessment by hydraulic engineering and conservation experts from several academic and government institutions, Chen said.
Even considering the dam’s small size, its removal will not be easy because of bureaucratic challenges and engineering problems, said Lee Hong-yuan (李鴻源), soon-to-be minister of the Public Construction Commission.
Lee said the project would involve extensive communication and cooperation among various government ministries and would have an effect on the area’s environment, but he hoped it could set an example for future plans to phase out smaller dams in the country.
Environmental Protection Administration Deputy Minister Chiu Wen-yen (邱文彥) said he hoped the removal of the dam would be a starting point for the natural recovery of local rivers.
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