Welcome to Professor Bauer’s Anthropology 65: Conservation and Development class WordPress site about the proposed Mascoma River Dam. On October 9th, 2015 Grafton Hydropower LLC.–a private hydropower development firm–submitted a permit to the federal government asking for permission to research the feasibility of hydropower development on the Mascoma River in Lebanon, NH.(Click here to see a copy of the submitted permit.) In our class, we have attempted to view conservation and development through an anthropological lens. One way to view a development project (such as this proposed hydropower dam) anthropologically, is to figure out the various stakeholders in the project and try to understand their viewpoints. Through a roundtable discussion with the stakeholders held in our class, and extra stakeholder interviews (our own form of ethnography) we have attempted to gather multiple perspectives on this complex issue. In no way are our efforts exhaustive, nor will we try to offer an answer to the central question: Should this dam be built? But rather we hope that people interested in this dam project can use our site as a jumping off point–offering background information on the case, multiple stakeholder perspectives, supplemental resources to learn even more and questions that remain to be answered. We have learned a tremendous amount from this process, and hope that our site enables you to learn just as much about the proposed Mascoma Dam Project.