Success Stories
Maine: NOAA Fisheries Helps Re-open the Saco River to Atlantic Salmon
In Maine, NMFS, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Maine state resources agencies, conservation groups, and FPL Energy signed the 2007 Saco Fisheries Assessment Settlement Agreement, which enhances access for migratory fish at multiple hydropower dams over approximately 80 river miles on the Saco River from its mouth to the Maine and New Hampshire border. NMFS’ involvement helped turn license negotiations for one of the Saco’s dams into a watershed-wide conservation agreement. The Settlement is an ecosystem approach to river management that protects habitat necessary for the survival of migratory fish. The Settlement’s approach provides upstream and downstream fish passage for Atlantic salmon, American shad, alewife, blueback herring, and American eel at the river’s lower six hydropower projects; includes studies to evaluate fish passage and management needs at specific dams; enhances stocking efforts for Atlantic salmon throughout the Maine portion of the Saco watershed; and will help educate the public about migratory fish and the need for their passage at dams.
Oregon: Marmot Hydropower Dam Removal
NMFS played a key role in the removal of the Marmot Dam, a hydropower project on the Sandy River in Oregon. The Marmot Dam is the largest dam removed in Oregon and the tallest removed in the Pacific Northwest in 40 years. The Marmot Dam has impeded both upstream and downstream fish passage for 3 Endangered Species Act species: Lower Columbia River Chinook salmon, coho salmon, and steelhead. The dam diverted water that severely decreased remaining downstream habitat for migratory fish. Once completed, the removal will result in opening roughly 90 miles of previously inaccessible fish habitat. The dam’s removal is the culmination of over 10 years of NOAA Fisheries work, as the dam owner, Portland General Electric (PGE), begins to remove this 95-year-old dam that was first licensed in the 1960’s. When PGE began project relicensing in the mid-1990’s, it realized that the project would not be economical. NMFS worked closely with Federal and state agencies and other stakeholders to reach a negotiated decommissioning settlement with PGE. As part of its decision to decommission the project, PGE agreed to dam removal. NMFS worked with PGE to ensure fish passage continued during the removal and for ten years after, as sediments work their way downstream. An extensive monitoring program is in place that will help biologists and hydrologists across the country working on other dam removals. Decommissioning will make the Sandy River free-flowing from its glacial source to its mouth on the Columbia River and onward to the Pacific Ocean, with multiple benefits to fish, wildlife and public recreation.
California: Fish Habitat Expands in the Feather River
In 2007, NMFS took a successful cooperative approach to ensuring access to fish habitat past hydropower dams on the Feather River in California. Through the Feather River Habitat Expansion Agreement, NMFS creatively worked with energy companies, conservation groups, other federal agencies, and state resource agencies to develop a consensus approach to providing both migratory fish passage and energy generation. The Agreement will provide Endangered Species Act-listed Central Valley Spring-run Chinook salmon and Central Valley steelhead more habitat for spawning, rearing, and other critical life stages. The Agreement was created to collectively resolve blockages to migratory fish passage at the Oroville, Poe, Upper North Fork Feather River, and Rock Creek-Cresta hydropower dams.
South Carolina: NMFS works in South Carolina to provide passage to migratory fish past hydropower dams and restore access to historic spawning and rearing habitats. Continued efforts to provide fish passage at hydropower dams will result in long-term benefits to fish populations, habitats, and local economies that rely on healthy, intact ecosystems. The Columbia Hydropower Project Fishway on the Broad River, the first fishway installed in South Carolina, reopens historic upstream river passage for sturgeon, shad, striped bass, and herring to 24 miles of habitat for the first time since the 1800's. NMFS worked cooperatively with state, NGO, and industry partners in planning and building the fishway to help restore the Santee Basin's migratory fish populations while providing hydropower generation. Fish passage measures at the Santee Cooper Hydropower Project will restore access to over 300 miles of historic habitat in the Santee Basin to sturgeon, shad, striped bass, and herring.
