A check dam is a hydraulic structure, which is constructed in order to limit river sediment transport. A sedimentation reservoir is created upstream from the body of the dam, where river sediment is constantlyaccumulated. These structures were constructed starting in the early 20th century in upstream parts of mountain streams in the Polish part of the Carpathian Mountains. At present, the reservoirs of most check dams are already fully filled with sediment and the impact of these structures on the ecosystems of streams is unfavorable. Moreover, the dams that have not been renovated are in poor technical condition. In the paper two cases of check dam lowering and restored is discussed and the one hypothetical case of gradual check dam lowering is presented and discussed as well. The cases of Krzczonówka and Trzebuńka, where the method ofremoving sediment from reservoirs was different, showed that the sudden change of „established" hydrodynamic conditions for decades is not favorable for the stream. The results of hypothetic simulation of gradual check dam lowering for the case of Isepnica Stream leads to the conclusion that lowering the construction of check dam and removing sediment from its reservoir in a way that does not have a ...
