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	Podcast:		Local Features by WXPR
	Episode:		Worth The Pain? Twenty Years After Merrill Lake Drained, State Remains A Leader In Dam Removal
	Category:		Government & Organizations
	Duration:		00:05:42
	Publish Date:		2019-11-21 06:14:00
	Description:		In the late 1990s, when Patrick Taylor moved back to his Merrill hometown, he bought a house on the water. It was one of more than a hundred homes on a mill pond created by the old Ward paper mill dam. “It was a great area for duck hunting,” Taylor said. Other people on the water fished, swam, or canoed. Then, Taylor learned the water was about to disappear. “The day after we closed on the house, they announced the removal of the dam,” he said in an interview this week. Twenty years later, the Prairie River meanders through Prairie Trails Park in what used to be the lakebed. The park features a trout stream, lush native grasses, and miles of walking trails. But the park only got there after the DNR removed the century-old dam and mill pond on the site, a move that sparked protests, lawsuits, and even death threats. It was one a piece of an ongoing statewide project that’s made Wisconsin a national leader in dam removal. In 1990s, International Paper, the Merrill dam’s owner, had left
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