MNN - Mother Nature Network

 

Let’s say you’re an Alabama shad or striped bass. You’ve got a date to go spawning upstream where your kind has been reproducing for – well, forever.

 

You’ve polished your fins and are on your way up the Apalachicola River. But what’s this hunk of concrete at the Florida-Georgia boundary? You can’t fly over it or walk around; what’s a fish to do?

 

Not to worry. The Nature Conservancy recently coordinated a surprisingly simple project at Florida’s Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam that is allowing fish to migrate upstream to native spawning grounds. At no additional operating cost, it may increase certain populations by up to five times. And it’s having regional repercussions. Find out how you can help this cause.
 

For millennia, a pristine river system meandered through Alabama and Georgia, down through northwest Florida and to the Gulf of Mexico. One of the most species-rich basins in the world, it remains a hotspot of North American biological diversity.

 

In 1957, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began operating the Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam on the Apalachicola River, located at the confluence of the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers. See map. While the lock and dam has served the citizens of three states with hydropower and navigation, it has also blocked migrating species like the Alabama shad and striped bass.

 

Because of this and similar dams nationwide, both of these species – and others in the world of recreational fishing – are now seriously imperiled. The largest remaining natural populations of Alabama shad and striped bass live within this river system.
Scientists Ask, the Corps Responds

 

Beginning in 2005, the Conservancy teamed up with multiple local, academic, state and federal conservation partners to track these fish as they attempted to migrate upriver in the Apalachicola. Although Woodruff Dam has been one of the major impediments to the sustainability of shad, bass and dozens of other fishes, research has shown that the existing lock could be used to pass fish upriver where they would successfully reproduce in great numbers.

 

Based on these findings, the Corps decided to formally support opening the gates of the Woodruff lock to allow fish passage as part of its operational plan. This includes operating the locks twice a day to correspond with the natural movement patterns of migrating fishes during spawning seasons – February through May each year.

 

As a result, migrating fish in the Apalachicola are able to access over 150 miles of historic river habitat and spawning areas for the first time in more than 50 years. See a video about the fish passage.

 

This straightforward solution does not require modifications to the dam. It creates no additional operating costs and does not increase or decrease the amount of water available in the river. And, scientists estimate that populations of species like the Alabama shad could increase five-fold thanks to the effort.
 

"The Corps is continuing to work with the Conservancy and our many partners and will support fish passage operations at Woodruff for at least the next four years," said Steve Herrington, Ph.D., the Florida program scientist who initiated the project. "They are currently updating their water control manual for the basin, which will hopefully incorporate fish passage as a permanent operation."

 

"Dams are widely recognized as one of the greatest conservation threats to rivers and their biota in the U.S. and throughout the world," Herrington continued. "This partnership in the Apalachicola is an excellent example of how agencies and concerned citizens can work together, using strong science and creative methods to significantly restore dwindling fish populations at essentially no cost to the taxpayer."
 

In 2008 the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) received $500,000 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to conduct a 5-year study of fish passage efforts at the Woodruff Lock and Dam. Focused on the Alabama shad, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey’s South Carolina Cooperative Fish Research Unit at Clemson University are using innovative technology like 3-D imagery and sonar to track fish movement at the dam.

 

Early results are promising: Significant numbers of shad have been seen in the Flint River, as far as 100 miles upstream from the Woodruff Dam. If this trend continues, the DNR study could be used to encourage similar fish passages. You can help us protect freshwater systems in Florida and around the world.
 

Success at the Woodruff Dam resulted in the same technique being used in spring 2009 at two Corps dams on the Alabama River system, again with promising results. Lock gates were opened hundreds of times at Claiborne Lock and Dam and Millers Ferry Lock and Dam (see map), offering species like striped bass, mullet, paddlefish, and other fishes access to spawning and feeding grounds that had been blocked for nearly 40 years.

 

"This is a welcomed effort to re-establish the great runs of fish that once swam over 350 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, through the Alabama River to the upland streams of the Cahaba," said Paul Freeman, aquatic ecologist with the Conservancy’s Alabama program. "We’ve received approval from the Corps for at least two more years of fish lockages at both Claiborne and Millers Ferry."

 

This spring the Conservancy will support researchers from Auburn University, Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and other partners to determine how to attract the greatest variety and number of fish possible into these two locks.
 

With more than 600 dams across the nation, the Corps is the nation’s largest water management agency. Since 2002, the Conservancy has partnered with the Corps on dozens of dams to adjust operations and help restore natural river flow patterns.

 

This collaboration, called the Sustainable Rivers Project, includes efforts to aid fish habitat, spawning and migration. And, it illustrates innovation with vast potential for the future. Leveraging the success of the current project into a permanent, national program would benefit tens of thousands of miles of the nation’s rivers.

 

"We look forward to continued work with the Conservancy and the other agency and university partners as we explore these options," said Brian Zettle, a biologist with the Corps.

 

Project Partners:
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
U.S. Geological Survey’s South Carolina Cooperative Fish Research Unit at Clemson University
National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
Georgia Department of Natural Resources
Alabama Department of Conservation & Natural Resources
University of Florida
Apalachicola Riverkeeper
The Nature Conservancy