Habitat Restoration Partnership Trout Unlimited NOAA Kennebec - PDF document

Habitat Restoration Partnership Trout Unlimited – NOAA Kennebec River, ME

Restoration Needs • Salmon populations and their habitats have been declining for many decades. • Causes include habitat impairments like sedimentation, migration barriers, and degraded riparian areas. • Research has shown that more than 200 populations are at risk of extinction and another 106 stocks are already extinct in California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.

NOAA Open Rivers Initiative • Provides funding and technical expertise for small dam and river barrier removals • Funding of up to $6,000,000 expected for project grants in FY 2010. Typical awards range from $200,000 to $750,000. • NOAA has removed more than 90 dams and stream blockages, opening more than 1,700 miles of high quality river habitat for migratory fish. Contoocook River, NH

NOAA Community-Based Restoration Program • Began in 1996 to support local efforts to restore marine, estuarine, and riparian habitat. • Emphasizes collaborative strategies built around improving coastal and marine resources and the quality of life in the communities they sustain. • 1,200 on-the-ground restoration projects in 26 states. Thompson Creek, Oregon

Trout Unlimited – NOAA Partnership • 70 habitat projects in 11 coastal states. • Partnerships with timber companies, dam owners, and others • 232 miles of reconnected or restored river and stream habitat, • Return of salmon and steelhead to nine watershed areas where they had been extirpated New alcove, Thompson Creek, OR

Edwards Dam Removal, Kennebec River, ME • Height, 24ft.; Length 917 ft; impounded:19,000 acre/ft • Built 1837; removed 1999 • 17 miles of prime habitat on the Kennebec River

Penobscot River Dam Removal Restoring salmon habitat in Maine’ ’s largest watershed s largest watershed Restoring salmon habitat in Maine

Penobscot River Restoration Project is on track: $25M raised; dams purchased; next step removal

“Are they all this size?”

North Coast Coho Project, California • 411 Road Miles Decommissioned or Upgraded • 274 Instream Structures Installed • 374,503 Cubic Yards of Sediment Prevented Entering Streams � (or about 37,000 dump trucks worth of sediment) • 7 Migration Barriers Removed • 12 Miles of Stream Reopened to fish

Little Waldron Fish Passage Site • Replaced a failing, undersized culvert with a bridge. • Reconnected over 1 mile of habitat for coho and Chinook salmon and steelhead trout. • Sediment savings of over 1,000 cubic yards of sediment.

Standley Creek Sediment Reduction • Removed collapsed log spanner bridge and associated backfill • Sediment savings of over 8,000 cubic yards of sediment (800 dump trucks) • Reconnected 0.5 miles of habitat for coho and Chinook salmon and steelhead trout

South Fork Ten Mile River Large Wood Instream Habitat Enhancement Project • 330 pieces of large woody material introduced at 138 sites along 9.4 miles of stream