POWNAL – The Randall Mill Dam on Chandler Brook, a Royal River tributary located in Pownal since 1796 or even earlier, was removed July 26.

A dam had supported both lumber and grist mills in its day. It had continued to operate into the 1950s. The dam itself had been partially breached in the mid-1990s by high water.

“We are proud to have reconnected three miles of stream habitat to Chandler Brook and the main stem of the Royal River,” Sebago Trout Unlimited President Patrick O’Shea said in a press release. “Fish need to be able to freely move through watersheds to be able to reach spawning, nursery and feeding areas – and survive low water conditions. Even the breached dam was a problem during lower flows.”

“The dam no longer served any useful purpose, and was both a liability and an obstruction to the free movement of aquatic life up and down the watershed, “ said Pownal Selectman Fred Fauver, who owns the property where the dam was located. “The man-made obstruction has been removed, and we all can’t wait to see how Mother Nature details the now free-flowing stream.”

Fauver, who sits on the board of the Royal River Conservation Trust, was inspired to remove the structure after attending a meeting last year to hear discussions concerning the removal of two dams in Yarmouth, said Allen Stearns, executive director of the conservation trust.

“That was really the seed,” said Stearns. “Fred understood the impact he could have and put his energy into it.”

For Trout Unlimited Project Coordinator Steve Heinz , the most gratifying moment was when the heavy equipment was putting the finishing touches on the day of dam destruction.

‘The Royal River watershed has such great potential: it even had an Atlantic salmon run before the lower river was dammed in the 1840s,” said Heinz. “The two head-of-tide dams in Yarmouth are one of the worst things that you can do ecologically to the river system. They are keeping sea-run fish out of the watershed and this impacts everything up stream. We hope the people of Yarmouth will be good stewards and decide that it’s time for those dams.”

In addition to the Sebago chapter of Trout Unlimited and the Casco Bay Estuary Project, Maine Rivers and the Royal River Conservation Trust contributed to the project which cost an estimated $20,000, said Heinz.

The 200-year-old Randall Mill Dam in Pownal has seconds to live as crews finish the demolition process on July 26. The dam was removed as part of an ongoing effort to provide safe passage for fish within the 985-square-mile Casco Bay Watershed. The $20,000 project was spearheaded by two conservation groups, the Sebago chapter of Trout Unlimited and the Casco Bay Estuary Project, as well as with input from Maine Rivers and the Royal River Conservation Trust.