by Art Malm, Friend of the Fox River
June 11, 2025
On June 10th, I found the Illinois Department of Natural Resources doing another in a series of pre- and post-removal fish studies above the former dam site in Carpentersville.
This was electro-fishing from a big jon boat with an Evinrude outboard jet drive.The IDNR team would stun and net the fish, then put them in a large live well.
At the end of their “fishing” run they would identify, count and measure the catch.
Fishing had been good with four new native sucker species not seen before in the impoundment. These critters are clearwater, clean bottom baitfish and work with mussels to clean the riverbed. That’s not to mention the big flathead catfish and fine smallmouth bass they found.
It will take some months for the result of this work to be summarized and released but we thought the news was good enough to break early. The fish have voted and they like their new digs.
Photos by Art Malm
FOTFR Board member Art Malm’s drone video highlights what the river looks like in August 2025, just 9 months after the dam’s removal.
Art Malm takes a look at the history of the Carpentersville dam in an article published in Silent Sports magazine.
The Forest Preserve District of Kane County (KCFPD) and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources worked together to locally advance the state-wide dam removal initiative that focuses on removing the safety hazards created by low head dams and restoring Illinois’ natural resources.
According to the KCFPD, “Multiple state agencies and environmental interest groups have done various scientific studies that identify old low head dams as a primary contributor to significant adverse impacts on the safety, ecology and water quality for natural waterways like the Fox River. The studies also show that the river could be substantially improved if the deteriorating dams and their associated upstream impoundments were eliminated.”
The transformation continues
It will likely take a few years before the landscape in Carpentersville has been fully transformed by the free flowing Fox River.
Watch the FOTFR YouTube channel Free the Fox River playlist to see videos of the dam before and during removal. We hope to add post-dam removal videos soon as we watch the “caterpillar turn into a butterfly”.
The Fox has established her normal low water channel with plenty of depth and room to pass. When the spring rains come we will see the low water channel at the former dam site widen a little further as the river expands over the new beaches for the first time.