News - GA-ACT

2024 Spring Meeting Agenda

March 1, 2024

Please fill out the pre-meeting survey! Oakfuskee Conservation Center, La Grange, GA (Map)Wednesday, March 6th DRAFT Attendees Schedule (Eastern time zone) 8:30 Coffee and Mingle8:55 Welcome to Oakfuskee Conservation Center – Henry Jacobs 9:00 GA ACT: Past, Present and Future – Jay Shelton9:15 Team Project Updates 10:00 Break10:15 Team Project Updates Continued 11:10 Work Plan and Subcommittee Discussion 11:45 Overview of Langdale, Crowhop & Riverview Dam Removal Projects – Patrick O’Rouke, Courtenay O’Mara 12:00 Award Presentation from GA AFS Meeting…

American Rivers National Dam Removal Community of Practice

January 5, 2024

American Rivers has created a resource for dam removal and river restoration practitioners that includes monthly webinars this quarter on topics around AR’s goal of 30,000 dam removals by 2050. Sign up for the group or just the webinars at the link below.

Lisa Perras Gordon hiking along the Oconaluftee River

Third Southeastern Dam Removal Handbook Completed!

March 6, 2023

Read more about GA-ACT team member Lisa Perras Gordon’s work to complete the third of three dam removal handbooks in southeastern states – it all started right here in Georgia!

https://www.fws.gov/media/and-after-blue-lick-run-culvertjpg

Fish show up after infrastructure ‘glow-up’

January 13, 2023

Written By Anna Rehkopf (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) Across the country, people are working to transform and replenish the landscape—creating opportunities to connect with nature and improving safety around tributaries. In some ways, we are attempting to turn back the hand of time. We want to give nature a chance to be itself again. When we remove a dam, or take out other barriers along a waterway, we give nature a chance to revert to its true form, to…

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Seeks Project Applications for $38 Million in Fish Passage Funding

November 18, 2022

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is seeking project applications for $38 million in fish passage funding. Projects will be part of a five-year, $200 million Bipartisan Infrastructure Law investment to restore aquatic ecosystems, through the National Fish Passage Program. Selected projects will address outdated, unsafe or obsolete dams, culverts, levees and other barriers fragmenting our nation’s rivers and streams. Learn more here: https://fws.gov/service/us-fish-and-wildlife-service-seeks-project-applications-38-million-fish-passage-funding

A man casts his line below the Robinson Dam in Robinson, Kentucky

The ‘drowning machine’: Aging ‘low-head’ dams dot Kentucky and the US, killing hundreds

October 28, 2022

Sarah Hume For the Courier Journal Holbert’s death was one of the hundreds of cases of Americans who have died after getting sucked into a “low-head” dam, a style used in the late 1800s to power mills and distilleries.More than 10,000 were built around the nation and remain in place. They are not very tall, which gives them their name, reach from bank to bank and can be difficult to see from upstream. Many are no longer needed, but they…

GA Tech Researchers Studying a Dam Failure in South Carolina

Dozens of Georgia dams don’t have critical safety plans in case of breach, investigation finds

October 4, 2022

With all of this rain and flooding in Florida, Channel 2 Action News has learned dozens of privately owned Georgia dams are missing critical safety plans to protect residents in case of failures. Channel 2 investigative reporter Ashli Lincoln found out that the state took enforcement action against nearly 70 dam owners, and neighbors may have no idea they’re downstream from a potentially deadly dam. See more here: https://news.yahoo.com/dozens-georgia-dams-don-t-220740189.html

USFS FY22 IIJA Legacy Roads and Trails $65M project selection announcement

August 29, 2022

The USDA has announced the first round of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL/IIFA) funding for projects in National Forests across the US, many of which address Aquatic Organism Passage issues. See the links below for more info: Press Release Legacy Roads and Trails Site – projects selected are listed by state at the bottom of the page and the Georgia listings are copied below. Towns Creek OHV Trail: Improvement of a national forest system trail. Project will improve trail resilience and…

Two Fish Passage Funding Opportunities Open Under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law

June 15, 2022

Up to $65 million in funding is available through the NOAA Restoring Fish Passage through Barrier Removal Notice of Funding Opportunity. This funding will support transformational projects that reopen migratory pathways and restore access to healthy habitat for fish around the country. This funding will support the locally led removal of dams and other in-stream barriers. Projects selected through this opportunity will support sustainable fisheries and contribute to the recovery of threatened and endangered species. They will also provide community and economic…

A fish-friendly culvert in Wasilla, Alaska

Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Supports Fish Passage, Recreational Opportunities, and Flood Prevention Projects Across the Country

April 18, 2022

Here is the list of fish passage projects being supported in FY22 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Fish Passage Program’s first grants under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 Read more here: https://www.fws.gov/story/2022-04/fish-passage-restores-rivers-protects-wildlife-and-rebuilds-economies