Osprey looking for alewives along the Sebasticook River in Maine. The removal of two dams has allowed migratory fish to return. Murray Carpenter

Migration, an ageless natural phenomenon, can be all the more spectacular when we remove its constraints:

‘One Of The Best Nature Shows’: A River Transformed After Dams Come Down

Sea lamprey making a spawning nest in the Sebasticook. Murray Carpenter

Along central Maine’s Sebasticook River, the first thing you’ll notice are the birds. Eagles are everywhere, wading on gravel bars and chattering from the trees.

“A whole bunch of birds, they’re bald eagles, those are all bald eagles!” says conservationist Steve Brooke.

A recent count found nearly 200 bald eagles along the Sebasticook. This one has caught an alewife. Murray Carpenter

It’s a dramatic sight, as the bald eagles swoop to catch fish from the river. And it’s a sight that Brooke predicted for this region, more…