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Forest City Dam
Acquisition
The St. Croix International Waterway Commission (SCIWC) is pleased to announce that on (date), 2026, we have successfully acquired ownership of the International Forest City Dam. As the dam owner, we will have direct oversight of the dam, while Woodland Pulp LLC will continue to operate and maintain the dam through an Operations, Access, and Maintenance Agreement (OA&MA). The acquisition and subsequent surrender of the dam's Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) license ensures the dam will no longer be operated for hydropower purposes, and will instead be managed for the purposes of fisheries, wildlife conservation, recreation, and flood protection. This will be done with a bi-national focused approach, aligned with the organization's mission to protect and enhance the natural and recreational values of the St. Croix International Waterway.
To ensure the dam will continue to be operated in a safe and secure manner, the SCIWC, the Province of New Brunswick and the State of Maine have formed a Technical Oversight Committee (TOC), which will seek to provide the SCIWC with technical advice and guidance in dam operations and management.
About The Forest City Dam
The Forest City Dam is an international dam spanning the outlet of East Grand Lake, located between Forest City, Maine, and Forest City, New Brunswick. It consists of a 55-foot-wide gated timber crib dam with three manually operated gates. There are small earthen embankments built on either side of the dam, and a vertical slot style fishway located on the Canadian side.
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​The Forest City Dam was originally built on the outlet of East Grand Lake in 1840 for log driving. Forest City gets its name from the "city in the forest" as there was no road access until much later after its founding. Following the construction of the dam, a tannery was built by lumbermen from St. Stephen in the late-1860's on the U.S. side of the Forest City Stream, which was later purchased in 1869 by F. Shaw & Brothers who later owned tanneries in nearby Vanceboro, Brookton, and Grand Lake Stream. The dam was used to facilitate water for Spring log-drives to lumber mills located much further downstream in the Baring/Upper Mills and St. Stephen/Calais areas of the river, and also to the Woodland Paper Mill following its construction in 1905. The dam also provided steady water releases to be used by the tannery. Following the bankruptcy of the Shaw Brothers firm in 1883, the Forest City Tannery was run by trustees until 1897 before closing.
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The location of the original Forest City Dam was further downstream from its current location, and was very close to the current border crossing in Forest City. The dam was later rebuilt in 1949, and then in 1965 by the Georgia Pacific Corporation to its current configuration, and to this day it is a key piece of infrastructure due to the critical role it plays in water level management, ecological stability, and recreational access along East Grand Lake and Mud and Spednic Lakes downstream.
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In 2016, Woodland Pulp LLC applied to surrender its FERC license because owning and operating the dam under the FERC license was deemed not economically viable. This surrender application proposed to remove the two gates present in the United States, which would have effectively lowered the lake level in East Grand by up to 6.5 feet. The removal of this dam would have resulted in drastic water level changes leading to the loss of fishery resources, loss in property values, as well as, greatly affecting recreational activities like boating, canoeing/kayaking, and camping on East Grand and North Lake. It also would have affected citizens in both countries, which sparked international controversy over the proposal. Following extensive consultations, negotiations, and meetings which spanned years, the SCIWC, State of Maine, and Province of New Brunswick worked with Woodland Pulp to help facilitate a surrender of the FERC license, and a subsequent transfer of ownership to the SCIWC.​
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​Plans for the Dam​
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While the FERC license is gone, the International Joint Commission (a federal bi-national commission), still has regulatory authority over the Forest City Dam through the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty between the United States and Canada. The IJC has the following orders of approval for the Forest City Dam which were set in 1965:​
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​Minimum discharge from the dam of 75 CFS (cubic feet per second).
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Maximum lake elevation of 434.94 feet.
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Minimum lake elevation of 427.94 feet.
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The vertical slot fishway at the dam is also subject to regulation by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO).
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In addition to these regulations, the SCIWC alongside its government partners will also strive to achieve the following "soft-target" parameters:
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Maintain lake elevation at a stable level as is reasonably possible during the bass-spawning window and loon-nesting window in consultation with Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (IF&W) biologists.
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Complete fall drawdown of the lake by mid-October each year, in order to protect spawning Lake Trout (Togue) grounds from dewatering. Also maintain the lake elevation above the level recorded on October 15th each year until April 1st to protect incubating and hatching Lake Trout.
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Maintain lake elevation during summer and early fall at acceptable levels for recreation in consultation with local stakeholders.
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The SCIWC will also continue to allow public access to both sides of the dam for recreation purposes including the launching of paddle-craft, swimming, fishing, and picnicking.