Native fish are back above a broken Swannanoa dam
With Lake Craig Dam open after Hurricane Helene, smallmouth bass and russet darters are upstream of it for the first time in more than a century. Asheville will not repair the barrier.
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Hurricane Helene broke an opening in Lake Craig Dam, and fish used it. The Biltmore Beacon reported on October 7, 2026, that smallmouth bass and russet darters have been found upriver of the dam for the first time since it was built more than a century ago. Monitoring by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and Warren Wilson College is what turned the fish up. The city of Asheville will not repair the dam, so the passage can stay open.
The paper called that a better outcome than racing to close the gap. It is early evidence that two species have moved upstream, not a full inventory of the river and not a claim that the habitat has finished healing.
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