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 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 Clackamas River is a tributary to the Columbia River that has been degraded by beaver removal, logging, mining, overgrazing, and urban development. This disconnected the floodplain from its river and negatively impacted fish populations. This project restored habitat to help threatened and endangered salmonids. 

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.

Sandstone glades of the Southern Cumberland Plateau are rare and unique plant communities exhibiting some of the richest endemic floras in the eastern United States. As a part of larger conservation initiative to rehabilitate and reconnect glade patches with the surrounding forest ecosystem, USFS at William B. Bankhead National Forest conduct a pilot project on a 3-acre glade.

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 Fort Sheridan Restoration Project restored 84 hectares of ravines, riparian woodlands, coastal bluff, beach, dunes, and lacustrine habitat along the coast of Lake Michigan. This project aimed to connect coastal habitats, restore native plant communities, and increase resilience along the coast. 

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.

Led by USACE, the Bosque Wildfire Project was initiated to restore bosque habitat and wetland function around Albuquerque, New Mexico. Key features of restoration included constructing wetlands and swales to support moisture-seeking plants and animals, creating high-flow channels and bank terracing to enhance hydraulic connectivity within the bosque, and revegetating with native plants.

Horner Park is a 14-acre restoration area along the north branch of the Chicago River. This is a part of a larger goal to reconnect sustainable habitat along the Chicago River. Hydrogeomorphology, native plant communities, and riparian buffers were restored at this site. 

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.

The Southeast Arizona Collaborative Grassland Workgroup was created in 2010 to develop a southeastern Arizona Regional Pronghorn Strategy to increase pronghorn population numbers, distribution, and connectedness. The project aimed to improve habitat connectivity and access to available water sources through strategic fence modifications, and improve habitat quality through grassland restoration and addition of water sources.

The Lower Boulder Creek Floodplain was degraded by gravel mining. This creek’s natural stream geomorphology was restored by adding riffles, pools, and large woody debris. The creek was reconnected to its historic floodplain, creating vegetated seasonal wetlands, improving water quality, and reducing flash flood risk. 

This project aims to clear dead trees and debris deposited by Hurricane Andrew in 1992 from mangrove tidal passageways in Matheson Hammock Park on Biscayne Bay. In a five-year effort to prevent further damage to this sensitive habitat, the debris are removed by volunteers using canoes and manual labor instead of large machinery.

This project removed three aging dams and replaced a fourth on the Mill River in Taunton, Massachusetts to increase the area’s ecological and community resilience and reduce flooding. These efforts reconnected more than 48 kilometers of rivers and streams linked to Narragansett Bay. 

After the 2011 Missouri river Flood event, the sponsors of Levee L-575 pursued the Nonstructural alternative (NSA) of a levee setback under the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Disaster Operations Public Law 84-99 program. This setback relocated a segment of the levee from its current alignment to a location farther back from the banks. 

Local ranchers drove the restoration of semi-dessert grassland to create diverse and connected habitats for pronghorn, quail, and other grassland species, as well as improve rangeland productivity for cattle on private lands and state trust lands. The project focuses on mechanical removal of mesquite that has reduced nesting habitats and cover of forage for wildlife and caused habitat fragmentation.

The North Simpson Habitat Restoration Project aimed to improve the riprarian habitat on the floodplains of a near-perennial riparian area that came into existence since the 1970s as a consequence of municipal effluent discharge. Numerous native tree, shrub, grass, and forb species were planted in shallow water-harvesting basin to facilitate self-sustaining recovery.

Salt marsh near Venice, Louisiana, on a northern portion of the Mississippi River Delta is experiencing high rates of sea-level rise, subsidence, fragmentation, and disturbance from oil and gas exploration. Dredged material was placed on the marsh to restore elevation and provide opportunities for emergent marsh to recolonize fragmented areas.