Incredible! France is going to act seriously in favour of Atlantic Salmon!

After more than 20 years of lobbying, several NGO such as Loire-Vivante, NASF and WWF managed to obtain the decomissioning of Poutès dam, close to the Allier river's springs! This means that the last salmons of the Loire river will manage to reach their ancient spawning areas (755 fish ran through in 2011, 1000km away from sea!). The river will be considered free and this is a major issue as without it, all the efforts to restore salmon population on river Allier would be uncertain. About 200ha of spawning grounds are going to be re-open to migratory fish by the end of 2014. Next fight is recovery of high quality water to allow growing of parrs in the best possible conditions, and even if it will be long once again, there is hope.
démantèlement du barrage de Poutès
Accueil | LOGRAMI
(sorry, in french)

More over, the destruction of two dams on river Sélune, in Normandy, is expected but government is reluctant to take final decision as local representatives are acting strongly to preserve their noxious dams... NASF and WWF are again on the front line.
http://www.wwf.fr/s-informer/actuali...une-on-efface-!

Congratulations, and good luck.

Good news, well done to all involved.

Here you are:
Google Translate

Great news, really well done. Good luck in restoring the spawning beds and water quality.

Excellent news even 10'ish time zones to the West. Pulling dams has become a major 'reality' here in the Pacific Northwest (USA). Save for one (RM 157) all the dams have been removed (or breached) on the entire Rogue River system. Several more (PNW) have already been removed, or are in the process of being removed.

End game is approximately 500 miles of (additional) river(s) are now free flowing fish habitat. A good thing!
fae

__________________
"The problems we face today are there because the people who work for a
living are now outnumbered by those who vote for a living." -- Anonymous

It's done! Government announced today that "La Roche qui Boit" and "Vezins" dams onto river Sélune (West Normandy) will be decomissioned within 6 next years.
It seems it is long delay but we were very afraid that they would change their mind at last minute, under local politicians' pressure. Moreover, due to technical difficulties it will need long time to work with caution as all sediments behind the dams are highly contaminated and their removal will need specific procedures. Some provisionnal economic and touristic compensation also justify the delay, to allow good transition.
We can expect better salmon fishing here by the beginning of 2020, more probably later on. This river has been well known for its big springers, and their population has not disapperead, few hundred of big fish are still running every year... When ther is life, there is hope. Man can help and sometimes cancel his mistakes.

Anyway, for those who know a little bit about our country, the road will be long and hard to recover some parts of our past salmon richness. Situation remains critical everywhere the fish did not disappear, whatever are the causes (specialy dams in Massif Central and the Pyrenneans, agriculture in Brittany, dams and pollution everywhere and you can add now the behavior of anglers towards these relictual populations wich is not helping).

Raphael, good to hear the positive news. Do you have any photos of the dams so that we can have some idea of the scale of the job ahead?

You can find some information (if you can read french) there:
Communiqué de Presse et Plaquette Sélune (Page 1) / Le grand salon / Forum des Saumoniers

There are some pictures all along this post.

Salut Raphael,

good news indeed. For our English friends there is some more info here :


with a picture (click to enlarge) of the barrage de Vezins.

Best regards,

__________________
Johan Janssens

Raphael.
Excellent. Pendant les années 70 j'ai peché l'Allier a coté de Molompize ...
pas un seul parr, mais tant de vairons, délicieuses.
Evidement, ou on casse les barrages on gagne des zones maternelles.
On a effectué le meme traitement ici en Angleterre a la riviere Wye et les saumons font l'ascendence directement. Cette automne passé, pour le 1ere fois en 120 ans les saumons sont arrivés a notre petite riviere a cote de la frontiere Gallois.
Bon chance