WEST DOVER — Most of Vermont's 1,100 or so dams are privately owned and no longer serve a purpose, with many of them filled with silt and boulders washed down from upstream.

Just above Handle Road in West Dover, Jack's Brook tumbles under a walking bridge before flowing over a concrete dam built in 1913 to collect drinking water for a nearby home.

Below the dam, the water scurries down steep rock and under a tall tree anchored to the bank, where it pools in a small swimming hole before cascading down to the North Branch of the Deerfield River.

After four years of planning, the physical work of removing the dam began on Wednesday. On Thursday morning, swarmed by mosquitos and doused in insect repellent, Ron Rhodes, director of programs at the Connecticut River Conservancy, watched as For

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