Posted on February, 26 2020

Disused splash dams continue to disrupt and fragment freshwater habitats and must be removed to allow migratory fish such as the endangered Danube salmon (huchen huchen) to survive. WWF-Ukraine with support from WWF-Netherlands has launched a Splash Dam Removal Project along the streams and rivers in Verkhovynskyi National Park. The Park is located in the Ivano-Frankivsk Region, next to the Ukrainian-Romanian border. They need your help to achieve this.
   
Industrial-scale logging began in the Ukrainian Carpathians at the end of the 19^th century under the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The kermaniches, lumbermen involved in log driving, floated Carpathian spruces down rivers bundled in log rafts. Since rivers are shallow in the mountains, splash dams were constructed across them to increase water depth allowing the timber rafts to more easily float downstream. An upstream dam trapped water in a reservoir which the kermaniches would open and let violent torrents of high water rush down and carry timber rafts from the high mountains into valleys. The last spruce log raft was floated down a Carpathian river in August 1979. The dams have gradually decayed over time, though they still serve as artificial obstacles for migratory fish. According to WWF’s New Deal for Nature and People, habitat loss and human-induced extinction must be halted by 2030. The removal of these obstacles would contribute to that goal in the Green Heart of Europe.
  There are five dilapidated splash dams within Verkhovynskyi National Park that need to be removed. This long-term project is beginning with the removal of the Lostunets Dam (47° 51'07.1"N 24° 49'25.5"E ) that was constructed across the Lostun Stream sometime between 1880-1890. The Lostun is one of the Chornyi Cheremosh River's feeders. It is essential to remove these dams in order to allow brook trout and endangered Danube salmon to migrate upstream to their spawning areas. The Danube salmon is endemic to the Danube basin where the remaining population is threatened primarily by habitat and overfishing.
 
Please contribute to the crowdfunding campaign to collect the necessary 16,000 EURO for their project to come true, and so that the Carpathian rivers may flow freely again! Even 20 EURO is a tangible contribution!
   
Thank you!
 
For more information:
Marc Pollock
Freshwater Communication Officer,
WWF-Ukraine
Tel: +380996459331 
mpollock@wwf.ua
 
A New Deal for Nature and People is urgently needed. We have received warning after warning highlighting a crisis of accelerating nature loss. Science has never been clearer on the impact of human activities on nature and the consequences we will be facing. Freshwater ecosystems are particularly at risk. This is why all of us, local communities, business leaders, civil society organisations, the financial sector, governments and Heads of State must pledge to achieve: