In America the Divided, agreement on any difficult issue often seems impossible, so it’s heartening to hear about a creative solution to a knotty, long-running controversy over four hydroelectric dams on the Kennebec River.

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) has offered to buy the dams and is in serious talks with the owner, Toronto-based energy giant Brookfield. It gradually acquired most of Maine’s hydro capacity after paper company owners decided to liquidate assets before shutting down their mills.

The dams have been a target of conservationists and anglers ever since the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in 1999 ordered removal of the Edwards Dam in Augusta, dramatically increasing sea-run fish all the way to the Sebasticook River.

Summers along the Kennebec feature leaps by 6-foot-long Atlantic sturgeon, which were imaginatively represented along downtown Water Street through a public art project. But it was the millions of alewives surging upriver that demonstrated the watershed’s vast potential.

There is a problem, however. Full dam removal could force the Somerset Mill in Skowhegan to close, the only integrated paper mill in Maine operating under its original design. There are 700 unionized jobs with excellent wages; a $418 million expansion is underway.

Three of the dams, in Waterville-Winslow and Skowhegan, could probably be removed without much economic damage, but the Shawmut Dam between Fairfield and Benton is critical to maintaining year-round water levels necessary to operate the mill.

Then there’s the dams’ 47 megawatts of generating capacity, about 6% of the statewide total. Dam removal enthusiasts tend to dismiss this as insignificant, but this is hardly the case.

Dams provide reliable round-the-clock power, unlike wind and solar, the only other major carbon-free forms of generation now available. Barring an unlikely revival of nuclear plants, hydro is the major source of baseload power — essential to keeping lights and computers on.

Still, TNC has deep pockets, and one can foresee an arrangement meeting the mill’s water needs while maintaining renewable power. There’s no question it’s the right organization for the job.

In 1998, when TNC paid International Paper $35 million for 185,000 acres along the upper St. John River, it was the largest single purchase in TNC’s long history.

Although the St. John doesn’t have quite the cachet of the Allagash, and once served as an industrial river in its lower reaches between Maine and New Brunswick, the headwaters are among the wildest parts of Maine.

Unlike the Allagash, there are no dams along the protected section, and road access is minimal. It remains a working forest, though harvested much more sustainably than under its previous “paper plantation” owners.

That combination of vision and pragmatism should serve well as TNC undertakes what’s sure to be complex and lengthy negotiations. It’s the right method, though.

In 2021, Gov. Janet Mills attempted a coup, invoking eminent domain to remove the dams and cancel Brookfield’s ownership. It turned out the Department of Marine Resources didn’t actually have that authority — a legal problem first pointed out by Brookfield’s attorneys, Preti Flaherty.

Brookfield said at the time that the state could buy the dams at market value, but the administration demurred.

There are other signals TNC’s offer is gaining momentum. FERC staff have recommended that the four dams be relicensed, but there’s no push to take up Brookfield’s plan for fish passage.

Removal may be a better option, as suggested by a much-touted compromise on the Penobscot River that scuttled two low dams and improved passage at two others.

That project, completed in 2015, has improved fish numbers somewhat, but has fallen well short of what sponsors expected.

The Kennebec, on the other hand, has exceeded predictions through further dam removal on the Sebasticook, extending runs for alewives, sturgeon, shad and Atlantic salmon — the marquee species. The TNC project, possibly opening habitat all the way to the Sandy River spawning grounds, has immense appeal.

Like the bald eagle, which has been completely restored, salmon are an indicator species generations of anglers have passionately sought. Despite occasional upticks, overall trends have been down, and disappearance of Atlantic salmon from Maine rivers — their last redoubt in the U.S. — could happen in our time.

There’s a sense of urgency as well as enthusiasm behind the efforts to remove dams and restore species. Even for those who don’t fish, there’s profound relief when frequently reckless homo sapiens — us — manages to restore and not destroy.

In a season with dismal climate news all around, it’s a small beacon of hope.