FRANKILIN COUNTY (WSLS 10) - The sound of flowing water on the Pigg River is music to the ears of those who longed to see the current moving the way it did before a power dam was built in the early 1900s. That dam that was torn down in 2016.
"The pool from the dam came back to 2.2 miles past the power line there," pointed out Dave Byrd with the U.S, Fish and Wildlife Service as he propped a map of the river on the back of his car.
Byrd explained that a dam not only creates a small lake, but also clogs the river. A portion of the dam is still there, so you can see what it looked like, looming about 25 feet above the water now flowing through the breach.
Right now, that current is dirty and filled with silt, but the river will eventually dig to its natural rock-and-gravel bottom. That's where the endangered Roanoke logperch becomes a part of the story.
The little fish is native to the Roanoke River and a few of the other smaller rivers in the region, including the Pigg River. Removing the dam was exactly what the fish needed to survive and prosper.
"It's helped the logperch in several ways," explains Byrd. "The logperch has an interesting feeding habit in that it uses its snout to move particles whether it's little pieces of gravel or rock to try to find food items underneath that rock. So it needs clean sediment in order to find those food items."
It won't happen overnight, but Byrd says the current will wash away sediment until it becomes a clear, running stream.
He compared the project to a home renovation. First, you have the tear-out phase, then the chaotic time when workers have your home all torn up and it appears more like a construction zone. He says that is where the dam removal project is now. It may be five years before it looks like a natural river with vegetation along the banks and a clear flowing stream bed.
The project will help other species as well, but biologists are pleased that the logperch, a fish which already faces many challenges, will now have a better shot at survival.