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.
As sea level rises, wetlands and marshes must move inland, or drown. Conservation groups in the San Francisco Bay region sought to preserve the shoreline of the 1000-acre tidal marsh. They designed a modelling tool to visualize changes in tidal marshes and bird population under various sea levels and sediment supply scenarios.
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.
Valley Electric Association (VEA) and USFWS worked together to construct a wildlife-friendly solar power generation facility in the Mojave Desert near Pahrump, Nevada. VEA set solar panels higher above the ground (42 inches) relative to the industry standard (24 inches) and placed openings every 260 feet along the perimeter fence to allow wildlife passage.
In the last decade, landowners and conservation partners have increased research and restoration efforts along the Upper Bear River to rebuild irrigation diversions for water-rights holders and improve fish passage conditions and habitat. Push-up dams (river substrate berms) used as irrigation diversions have resulted in sediment accumulation, lack of riparian plant cover, and loss of fish due to channelization.
In 2021, the Vermont Land Trust, the Nature Conservancy Vermont (TNC), and Habitat Restoration Solutions, Inc. implemented a process-based restoration project in Crooked Creek. They worked with student volunteers to install 9 beaver dam analogues (BDAs) and 15 post-assisted log structures (PALs) to slow water, trap sediment, and reconnect the stream with its floodplain.
Three wildlife overpasses and adjacent funnel fencing were constructed along United States Highway 93 (US93) to promote habitat connectivity for bighorn sheep and reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions. The project team spent two years monitoring GPS data for sheep distribution and trans-highway movements before construction.
Levees and dams within California’s Central Valley have diminished crucial fish habitat, causing a decrease in native salmonid populations. The Big Notch Project reconnected the floodplain habitat and improved the fish passage by cutting “notch” into the Fremont Weir and install a new gated headworks structure.
To restore the rare riparian wetlands at the Rio Yaqui Basin, USFWS purchased conservation easements to protect water resources and increase connectivity of riparian and upland habitats. USFWS built trust with a local coalition of ranchers who support private land conservation. Two conservation easements were purchased: the 7,000-acre 99-Bar Ranch and the 13,713-acre Bar Boot Ranch.
To restore the endangered Silvery Minnow, the Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Save Our Bosque Task Force worked closely with a local landownerto restore approximately 0.8 river miles of critical habitat along the Rio Grande River. The project involved mechanical bank lowering and the creation of side channels and embayments.
