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In Quebec, the fluvial dynamics of the Escoumins River have been disturbed by the forestry industry for over a century. Most specifically, a dam was built near the mouth of the river in 1846 and dismantled in 2013. These disturbances had significant repercussions on the equilibrium of the river and Atlantic salmon habitat. This study therefore proposes to characterize the fluvial dynamics of the Escoumins River and to analyze the impacts of the dam dismantling from the perspective of restoring hydrogeomorphological processes and improving Atlantic salmon habitat. The results suggest that the trajectory of the river evolved differently depending on the fluvial style and the grain size composition of each of its homogeneous segments. However, log drive activities in river and dam removal appear to have been the most important controlling factors on the evolution of the stream trajectory. The dismantling notably allowed the restoration of hydrogeomorphological processes and the free movement of salmonids. A better procedure for dam removal and monitoring should be put in place in Canada to encourage this practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seeing Like a State (1998), anthropologist James C. Scott's critique of twentieth-century development and the ideology of "high modernism" that animates it, has shaped the writing of Canadian history, as it has in so many other fields. Environmental historians of Canada, particularly those who study hydroelectric development in the postwar period, have found it especially useful because it links social and environmental change to political power, putting nature at the core of the project of modernization. This article reviews some of that literature to illustrate and critique Scott's key concepts and arguments. Specifically, it takes issue with Scott's contention that high modernist development pitted local knowledge against the expertise of the state's agents. The article also challenges the declensionist narrative offered in the book, which portrays the nature of high modernist change solely in terms of degradation. Finally, it suggests that adopting the very way of seeing that Scott criticizes - an imperial, encompassing, reductive vision - has, and can hold out, the promise for a better kind of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]