This story appears as part of a collaboration to strengthen investigative journalism in Maine between the BDN and The Maine Monitor. Read more about the partnership .

The Nature Conservancy on Tuesday announced a landmark $168 million deal with Brookfield Renewable to purchase the company’s four hydroelectric dams on the lower Kennebec River, paving the way for their eventual removal.

The sale all but guarantees unfettered access for endangered Atlantic salmon and other seagoing fish from the Gulf of Maine to their historic spawning grounds upstream on the Sandy River for the first time since the Kennebec River was permanently dammed more than a century ago.

The four dams are located in and between Waterville and Skowhegan and are the last impediments between the mouth of the Ke

See Full Page