The Great Works Dam project starting this morning is the largest-ever river restoration in eastern North America, and could be a model for the rest of the world.

After 13 years of legal, political and engineering work, the largest-ever river restoration project in eastern North America begins Monday morning when a 40-ton excavator aims its percussion hammer at the defunct concrete fishway of the Great Works Dam on the Penobscot River.

After 13 years of legal, political and engineering work, the largest river restoration project in eastern North America begins Monday morning when a 40-ton excavator aims its percussion hammer at the defunct concrete fishway of the Great Works Dam on the Penobscot River.

Jon Hinck was 24 and out of work in Seattle when a newspaper help-wanted ad caught his attention: “Sell advertising for a good cause.”