AMC to hold info meeting Friday on plans to restore Cold River

CHATHAM — The Appalachian Mountain Club, whose volunteers and members operate Cold River Camp in North Chatham, is beginning to plan the restoration of the Cold River, which borders the eastern edge of the Camp and serves, for a stretch, as the border between New Hampshire and Maine. This rocky, fast flowing stream begins from tributaries in Evans Notch, including the waters of the artificial Basin Pond. It flows under Deer Hill Road and meanders to Charles Pond, which empties to the Old Course of the Saco River in North Fryeburg.

In 1923, four years after the AMC acquired its Cold River Camp property, members built a concrete weir dam in honor of Mabel Chester, an original member of the Camp Committee. For more than a century, the “Chester Dam” has held up a small swimming area and served as the river crossing for accessing the popular White Mountain National Forest trails on the Deer Hills. Now, the weir dam has aged, and stewardship of streams and their habitats for brook trout and other wildlife, calls for restoration of the original free flow of the river. Recent initial hydrology research indicates that removing the dam will restore 40 linear miles of stream habitat for migrating fish – including wild brook trout – reaching into the numerous tributaries upstream of the dam. The AMC, which has been involved in scores of dam removal and restoration projects throughout the region over decades, is excited to see so many miles of streams restored – as are other partners on the project: the Natural Resource Conservation Service of the U. S. Department of Agriculture (NRCS), American Rivers, and The Nature Conservancy.