You may already that there has been an initiative around the country to remove old , unnecessary dams from many of our streams and rivers returning the rivers back to their natural state and improving native fish stocks. In the past several years there has been much talk about the removal of the dams along the Cape Fear River. As the Cape Fear is no longer used for barge traffic the locks are no longer needed and simply are an unnecessary expense for the Corps of Engineers to maintain the locks. The removal of Locks 1 and 3 is not feasible as Wilmington and Fayetteville draw water supplies from the pools created above the dams. However, Representative Margaret Dickinson as introduced legislation ( H1813)that would create fish weirs at 1 and 3 making in possible from the return of Stripers, Shortnosed and Atlanic Sturgeon, and Shad species to the upper portions on the Cape Fear River. All this could make Fayetteville as popular a fishing destination as Weldon on the Roanoke and help these critcial fish stocks recover.
The following link is a n article by Mike Zlotnicki of the News and Observer that provides some very interesting details about the possible future of the Cape Fear River.
newsobserver.com | A rapid cure for Cape Fear