Maine Currents 6/1/21: “Celebrate Progress for the Penobscot River” – River Restoration Reflections

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

9 years ago we covered the removal of the Great Works Dam on the Penobscot River. It was one of the dams removed from the river as part of an effort that had taken years and much coalition building. On May 20th of this year, some of those involved in the Penobscot River Restoration project got together to talk about how the river ecosystem has changed over the years since the dams were removed. We’ll hear the panel, titled “Celebrate Progress for the Penobscot River” today, but first we take a quick trip back to June of 2012..

Panelists:
John Banks, Director, Department of Natural Resources, Penobscot Indian Nation
Laura Rose Day, Former Director, Penobscot River Restoration Trust
Kate Dempsey, State Director, The Nature Conservancy in Maine
Pete Didisheim, Advocacy Director, Natural Resources Council of Maine
Andy Goode, Vice President, U.S. Programs, Atlantic Salmon Federation

WERU thanks the Natural Resources Council of Maine for making the recording of the “Celebrate Progress for the Penobscot River” panel available for broadcast. It was edited by Amy Browne to fit this format and time slot.

About the host:

Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices and Maine Currents, she also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and the First Place 2017 Radio News Award from the Maine Association of Broadcasters.