US Fish and Wildlife Service
FishAmerica, in partnership with the US Fish and Wildlife
Service’s Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program, provides
funding for fisheries conservation projects in the Northeast
and Southeast United States.
The partnership funds local efforts to restore fish habitat,
enhance fish passage, improve water quality for marine, anadromous,
and freshwater species of sport fish.
For more information on funding availability, please contact
FishAmerica at 703.519.9691.
FAF/USFWS Funded Projects
South Carolina
The Foothills Resource Conservation & Development
Council of Greenville, South Carolina received a $7,500 grant
to restore two miles of cold water fisheries habitat in Cheohee
Creek in Oconee County, South Carolina. The project
will improve circulation of cool water from the bottom of
Lake Cherokee to Cheohee Creek, restoring habitat for trout,
redeye bass and spotted bass.
Virginia
The County of
Franklin in southwestern Virginia received a $42,500 grant
to improve fish passage and water flow in the Roanoke River
watershed in Rocky Mount, Virginia. The project will
remove the Rocky Mount Power Dam along the Pigg River and
reopen access to approximately 63 miles of valuable fisheries
habitat. The project will also provide additional
public access for sportfishing and boating opportunities
along the river. The project is also a catalyst
for watershed-wide restoration efforts involving the VA
RACER program, a partnership of landowners, conservation
groups and governmental agencies working to enhance the
main stem of the Roanoke River and the Pigg River for all
aquatic species.
The Rivanna Conservation Society in Charlottesville received
a $50,000 grant to restore fish passage in the James River
watershed. They will remove the Woolen Mills Dam along
the Rivanna River and to provide access to 17 miles of valuable
upstream spawning habitat. The Rivanna River is the
largest tributary of the James River and provides many recreational
opportunities to boaters and anglers throughout the region.
Restoring fish passage for American shad will reintroduce
a valuable sportfish for recreational anglers and provide
greater access for anglers pursuing bass and sunfish.
Louisiana
The Mississippi River Trust of
Stoneville, Mississippi received a $20,000 grant to restore
75 acres of fisheries habitat in Harris Lake in northeast
Louisiana. The project
will increase the lake’s water level and remove and
control invasive vegetation along the 75-acre oxbow lake
adjacent to Bayou Macon. Oxbow lakes are among world's
most productive aquatic systems. Oxbows, or lakes that
form when the course of the river changes and creates a natural
levee, are the natural lakes for much of the southern US.
When a river floods an oxbow, the main channel brings with
it an influx of fish that remain in the lake and reproduce
as the river recedes. Oxbows are important for replenishing
fish populations like crappie and bass in rivers. (http://agnews.tamu.edu/dailynews/stories/WFSC/oxbow.htm)
Pennsylvanie
Trout Unlimited received a
$50,000 grant to improve fish passage and restore fisheries
habitat along in Pennypack Creek. The project will remove
the Huntingdon Pike Dam to restore access to three miles of
habitat and with improvements to the stream channel, riparian
buffer and riparian wetland. Pennypack Creek is a tributary
of the Delaware River. The watershed provides excellent
recreational fishing opportunities for trout and largemouth
bass and is well documented for its historically important
runs of American shad and other migratory species including
Atlantic sturgeon, hickory shad, alewife, blueback herring,
striped bass, and American eel.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
and American Rivers received a $25,000 grant to improve fish
passage and fisheries habitat in the Delaware River watershed.
The project will remove the Palmerton Dam along the Lehigh
River, the largest tributary of the Delaware River watershed.
The Lehigh River and its tributaries once supported historic
runs of American shad and other anadromous fish species.
The Borough of Lehighton in Pennsylvania received a $25,000
grant to improve fish passage and fisheries habitat in the
Delaware River watershed. They will remove the Heilman
Dam along Mahoning Creek, a tributary to the Lehigh River
in the Delaware River watershed. Mahoning Creek and
the Lehigh River support historic runs of American shad and
other anadromous fish species.
Maine
The Maine Department of Marine Resources
received a $10,000 grant to restore fish passage to spawning
and nursery habitat in the Presumpscot River watershed. The
project will renovate a fishway and install a fish weir to
restore fish passage to 14 miles of upstream habitat and 640
acres of spawning and rearing habitat along Mill Brook and
in Highland Lake. The Presumpscot River watershed has
prime spawning and nursery habitat that historically supported
valuable sportfish species including striped bass and Atlantic
salmon. Mill Brook and the Casco Bay estuary offer plentiful
sportfishing opportunities for trout and salmon, as well as
healthy runs of sea-run alewife, smelt, and striped bass.
Massachusetts
The Town of Duxbury received
a $10,000 grant to improve fish passage in the Cape Cod watershed.
The project will repair or install fish passage at three
locations along Island Creek to restore access to 42 acres
of spawning habitat for river herring. Spawning river herring
and smelt currently populate the creek but spawn in numbers
far below the stream’s potential. The project will
restore an estimated fish run of 40,000 herring and an undetermined
number of rainbow smelt, an important forage base for striped
bass, bluefish, and sea trout.
