The Trinity River basin has been degraded by human activities for almost two hundred years, leading to a decline in available salmonid habitat and populations. The Trinity River Restoration Program (TRRP) was created in 2000 to restore salmon and steelhead populations. The project also aims to restore the river through flow management, streambank restoration, and riverbed improvement. 

After years of hard work by American Rivers and its project partners, the Bloede Dam in Maryland’s Patapsco River was successfully removed in 2018, restoring 52.5 miles of the river’s natural flow and more than 65 miles of native fish spawning habitat. Removing the dam also strengthened community resilience, improved public safety, and facilitated increased sediment transport to marshes and beaches along the Chesapeake Bay.

The Yakima Basin Integrated Water Resource Management Plan is a 30-year, $3.8 billion plan that restores ecological integrity to the region and provides assurances for meeting agricultural water needs even in the face of ongoing climate change. The plan includes key elements to help protect, mitigate, and enhance fish and wildlife habitat and improve the reliability of the region’s water supply.

Arden Park is along Minnehaha Creek, an impaired waterway that is a tributary to the Mississippi River. This park is in a highly developed suburb just south of Minneapolis (Edina). This project improved the park and restored a section of the creek, improving habitat, water quality, and recreation opportunities. 

The Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) was established in June of 1984. The project aimed to restore the restore spring sources and outflow channels and associated riparian habitats that were previously degraded by agriculture, road-building, and water diversions, and now were dominated by invasive species. 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)–Detroit District and several other partners used Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding to reconnect 340 kilometers of the Boardman River to Grand Traverse Bay of Lake Michigan. This project involved three dam removals over six years, and improved riverine habitat for important species. 

The San Clemente Dam on the Carmel River was no longer useful due to sedimentation of the reservoir, and was declared a public safety hazard in the 1990s. This project removed the dam and restored the Carmel River’s floodplain and habitat. This improved habitat and connectivity for wildlife, including the threatened steelhead.  

Florida’s Charlotte Harbor Estuary was established as national estuary under the 1987 National Estuary Program for its significance to wildlife and local economy. A 20-year Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) was formulated to restore and protect the estuarine system. Restoration activities started in June of 2001

An astonishing 50% of the original Everglades have been destroyed due to changes in the hydrologic regime and urbanization in Florida. In 2000, Congress approved the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) that provides funding for alterations to existing structures and addition of new structures (reservoirs, channels, etc.) to re-create the effect of the original water flow.

The Coonamessett River in Cape Cod has seen declines in fish populations and degradation to aquatic habitat from a history of mill construction and cranberry cultivation. The Town of Falmouth removed one of the dams on the river, restored a bog to wetland conditions, replaced two undersized culverts, and rerouted flows around another dam. 

With a growing push to remove low-head dams due to safety concerns and the potential for ecosystem improvement, Corydon, Indiana was approached by The Nature Conservancy to remove two dams owned by the Town. The dams blocked potential habitat for the endangered hellbender salamander.

Cuenca los Ojos (CLO) is a non-profit that preserves land and restores watersheds in the Sky Island ecoregion of the U.S. and Mexico. Sky Island contains high biodiversity, and CLO’s preserved and restored lands act as wildlife corridors and work to improve watershed health.  

The Heritage Reach is a portion of the Santa Cruz River that runs through a highly urbanized portion of Tuscon, Arizona. This area used to support a variety of wildlife but has severely degraded from urban development. In 2019, Tuscon Water began releasing treated effluent into the Reach to restore river flows. 

In 1992, Congress passed the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act, authorizing the removal of dams to restore the Elwha River's altered ecosystem. The Elwha Dam and Glines Canyon Dam were removed in 2011, allowing water to flow freely from the Olympic Mountains to the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

The Fossil Creek watershed ecosystem has been drastically impacted by a diversion dam that was built in the early 1900s. The restoration of the stream course started in 1999 when Arizona Public Service (APS) signed an agreement to decommission its hydroelectric facilities along Fossil Creek.

A partnership between the California Coastal Commission and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is working to improve understanding of transportation critical infrastructure vulnerabilities to sea level rise and to adapt the transportation system for greater resilience to those changing conditions over the next century. 

Grassy Point is a 100-acre wetland where the St. Louis River meets Lake Superior. It used to be home to several sawmills which unfortunately left debris behind to clog up the waters. This project eventually removed 11,000 cubic yards of wood debris from the site and reformed several channels during 1994-1996.

A partnership between the BLM, Sacramento Water Forum, and USFWS is working to restore spawning conditions and salmonid habitats in the Lower American River downstream of the Folsom Dam. The plan focuses on enhancing gravel habitat, adding woody material, and creating side channels and floodplains for spawning and rearing Chinook salmon and steelhead.

Dams in the Penobscot River have prevented fish passage from the Gulf of Maine for centuries. To restore connectivity, the Penobscot River Restoration Trust built the largest nature-based fish bypass channel in the United States. This project will help restore Atlantic Salmon populations, and the cultural heritage of the Penobscot Nation.  

A collaborative effort among irrigators, conservation interests, regulatory agencies, local entities, and nonprofit organizations is working to restore the declining Colorado River Cutthroat Trout population in Abrams Creek, Colorado that had been impacted by water diversion. The team piped the ditch to improve the irrigation efficiency and conserved 40% of the diverted water.