BEAR RUN -- A first-of-its-kind dam removal went off without a hitch on Bear Run in Fayette County earlier this month, restoring one of the state's most prized wild brook trout fisheries to its natural configuration.

In a partnership involving the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and American Rivers, about a dozen ecologists used jackhammers, pick axes, pry bars and sheer muscle power to dismantle two dams near the headwaters of Bear Run, designated an Exceptional Value Coldwater Fishery in the Youghiogheny River watershed.

The stream wends through a 5,000-acre pine plantation lush with rhododendron, mountain laurel and hemlock near Fallingwater, the Frank Lloyd Wright architectural masterpiece.

Bringing in heavy equipment or using explosives to destroy the five-foot-tall sandstone structures would have created too much disturbance in the watershed, according to Fish Commission biologist Dave Kristine.

"To my knowledge," he said, "this is the first hand removal of a dam anywhere in the state."

The Bear Run dams were built a century ago to provide water, first for a campground and later for Fallingwater and the Kaufmann family, which had the house built.

Kristine is supervising the removal of 130 small dams across Pennsylvania that no longer serve their original purpose.

"There are hundreds more [dams] that could be removed," he said. "The trend is definitely going to increase. ... Dams like this are now just liabilities to their owners. Removing them creates short-term impacts -- the water gets muddy and material sediment is transported downstream. But the long-term benefits far, far outweigh [drawbacks]."

In addition to providing expanded spawning habitat for brook trout, which breed in the fall, Bear Run's unimpeded flow will further distribute macro-invertebrates that trout feed on. It also offers areas of refuge for fish in case of extreme heat or environmental disaster, Kristine said.

"One of the reasons this project was vital is, with the dams, if we'd had a catastrophic event there was no way for fish to move upstream. Now they can. That gives us a sense of relief."

Recent surveys show Bear Run has healthy numbers of brook trout and its sediment is free of chemical pollutants. Just prior to dam removal, Kristine and his colleagues clipped tiny portions of the caudal fins of every brook trout they could capture so biologists can return in coming months and gauge how far the fish have moved.

"We should be able to tell relatively soon if fish are passing through the system," Kristine said.

Because it was so low-tech, the dam removals cost just $5,000, some of which was paid with a Growing Greener grant. Although Kristine expected the dismantling to take a week, it was completed in just two days.

A decision was made early on to not cut a channel for the stream, according to Ben Wright, assistant director of freshwater conservation for the Conservancy, which owns the Bear Run preserve.

"We could take our best guess and try to force it back to the channel we think is right," he said, "but the best thing we can do for this stream is let it run its course."

Scott Hanley, a University of Pittsburgh student and Conservancy intern who lent his muscles to the project, couldn't believe how dramatically different the stream looked without the dams. "I don't even recognize it from when we first got here," he said, as he wiped sweat from his brow. "Two days ago, there was a 10-foot waterfall and today there's mud everywhere, including on us."

"We're all kind of sore from pounding at rocks," said Sara Deuling, associate director of river restoration in American Rivers' Pennsylvania field office. "But we're taking them out in the same way they were put in. That's actually an interesting cycle of history."

So visitors can appreciate the stream's evolution, a small portion of one of the dam's wing-walls was left standing.

"They were very nice looking dams," said Wright. "We put it into the plan to leave a section that wouldn't impact flow, for interpretation later on."

Anglers, especially, are in for a treat, said DEP water pollution biologist Vince Humenay, a member of the dismantling crew.

"The water is exceptionally clean. Bear Run is a real gem in a wilderness setting close to Pittsburgh."