A lot of the dam removal pressure is activist not scientific - people who have come to believe dams are evil because they aren’t natural. Some of it is cultural - with upstream tribal lands where people cannot practice traditional life or activities like fishing without returning fish each season. Some of it is practical - we don’t do a good job maintaining old dams and new replacement projects are expensive. But I do worry that the new dam removal movement is sacrificing renewable energy and flood control and navigable rivers for little gain, when they could find solutions that keep the dams and help upstream environments.

Well designed ladders work efficiently. Fish don’t have to over exert themselves, make jumps (actual leaps to the next step) no bigger than they would naturally (with no dam), and have lots of resting spaces across the ladder where they can regain energy in gentle waters before continuing swimming and jumping upstream. They slowly gain elevation moving across spacious concrete tiers until they reach either a natural release point upstream enough that the strong flow into the dam doesn’t take them, or they end up in a hatchery.

I feel like hatcheries are underrated. Sure the upstream habitats are not the same without the fish and associated ecosystem. But if you have the right equipment, staffing, funding, and all that (basically a good government) the hatcheries could be made to churn out more fish than would be naturally possible. That’s because the trip upstream naturally is hard and many fish won’t make it anyways.