Location
UMass Amherst
Start Date
29-6-2011 1:35 PM
End Date
29-6-2011 1:55 PM
Description
The most long-term, self-sustaining way to provide fish passage for multiple native species and multiple life stages is to remove dams. However, many fish passage practitioners consider dam removal projects to be too difficult due to both design challenges and social issues that can often be contentious. Nevet1heless, more than 880 dams have been removed around the country, and as dams continue to age and deteriorate, opportunities for dam removals have been accelerating. American Rivers has been working for more than a decade to make the dam removal process easier from both technical and policy levels. Based on primary data, American Rivers staff will describe the status of removing dams in the United States, including growth in the overall number of completed projects over time and a summary of project costs we have gathered from cost information on 225 projects. We will describe our roadmap for removing more dams, including brief ideas on leadership, dam safety programs, project management, regulatory clarity, funding and momentum-building. Our role at American Rivers has been as a broker for fish passage, providing whatever is most needed, from active project management to state-level assistance to policy advocacy to project funding. Everywhere that we work, that role has been dependent on critical partnerships with state and federal agencies. We will describe examples of how those partnerships have functioned, including how together we have leveraged technical assistance and project funding. We will show our decision-making process for applying that funding to the most effective fish passage projects, which are more and more turning out to be dam removals.
Session C8- Status report on dam removal in the U.S. and American River’s role
UMass Amherst
The most long-term, self-sustaining way to provide fish passage for multiple native species and multiple life stages is to remove dams. However, many fish passage practitioners consider dam removal projects to be too difficult due to both design challenges and social issues that can often be contentious. Nevet1heless, more than 880 dams have been removed around the country, and as dams continue to age and deteriorate, opportunities for dam removals have been accelerating. American Rivers has been working for more than a decade to make the dam removal process easier from both technical and policy levels. Based on primary data, American Rivers staff will describe the status of removing dams in the United States, including growth in the overall number of completed projects over time and a summary of project costs we have gathered from cost information on 225 projects. We will describe our roadmap for removing more dams, including brief ideas on leadership, dam safety programs, project management, regulatory clarity, funding and momentum-building. Our role at American Rivers has been as a broker for fish passage, providing whatever is most needed, from active project management to state-level assistance to policy advocacy to project funding. Everywhere that we work, that role has been dependent on critical partnerships with state and federal agencies. We will describe examples of how those partnerships have functioned, including how together we have leveraged technical assistance and project funding. We will show our decision-making process for applying that funding to the most effective fish passage projects, which are more and more turning out to be dam removals.
Comments
Brian Graber is the Northeast Region Director of the River Restoration Program for American Rivers. He is a fluvial geomorphologist and water resources engineer and has worked on all aspects of more than 35 completed dam removal projects from restoration design to community outreach. He instructs courses and workshops around the country on various aspects of dam removal and has led project manager trainings in Massachusetts, Vermont, Pennsylvania, New York, and Connecticut. He was previously the River Restoration Scientist for the Riverways Program in the Massachusetts Department of Fish & Game, where he led the development of the state’s River Restoration Priority Project Program. Brian has also worked as a stream restoration consultant and as the coordinator of Trout Unlimited’s Small Dams Program. He has co-authored several publications on river restoration and small removal including “Dam Removal Success Stories” and has published journal articles on both the ecological impacts of dams and community involvement strategies at restoration projects. Brian holds Masters degrees in Civil Engineering and Geography, both from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Geography and Mathematics at Dartmouth College.