Next New England

Dams clog rivers and streams all over New England. Environmentalists want to take many of them down to improve habitat for fish, but some entrepreneurs want to put them back to work doing their original jobs: making power. Plus, with the Trump Administration’s voter fraud commission meeting in New Hampshire this week, we revisit our conversation about the wacky political world of the Granite State. And, we take trips to two places that are trying to attract tourists: the factory site of a controversial gun magnate, and a mythical wonderland that takes shape just over the border in Québec. Built about 150 years ago, Mill Pond Dam in Colchester, Vt., is currently breached, but still creating a small swamp upstream. Photo by Kathleen Masterson for VPR What Do You Do With an Old Dam? The rivers and streams of New England are littered with thousands of dams. Many of them were used to produce the energy that sparked industry, but they’re now doing little more than than clogging waterways. Conservationi