Skip to main content

Meramec Funding Sources

National Fish Passage Program
Bill Duncan

National Fish Passage Program

Aug. 1, 2019
By U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Story summary:

  • Through the National Fish Passage Program, the USFWS provides financial and technical assistance to reconnect aquatic habitats through the removal of barriers.

Quick Facts

USFWS Mission
To conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats 

Program Mission
Improve and remove barrier to fish movement and reconnect aquatic habitats

Eligibility
State governments, Local governments, Tribes, Universities, Nonprofits, Businesses, Individual landowners, Ranchers 

What do they fund?
Inventories, Assessments, Research, Levee breaches, Engineering, Fishways, Fish passage training, Low water crossings, By-pass channels, Culvert replacement, Dam removal, Water diversion, Natural rock ramps 

What don’t they fund
Mitigation, projects required by regulation 

Length of funding
Variable 

Amount of funding
Average funding is $70,000. Could be a few thousand dollars. There is no upper limit.

Match 
Flexible, but strive to achieve 50-50 match

About

The National Fish Passage Program focuses on restoration of waterway connectivity by providing funding and technical assistance to a wide variety of partners.

USFWS funds could be used to enhance a floodplain restoration project or other healthy watershed project when reconnecting waterways is involved.

USFWS can be engaged after a disaster to provide technical assistance, and possible funding, for culverts, fish passage, etc. so that flooding and wildlife benefits can be achieved. See this video about how NFWS helped Vermont in 2011 after a flood disaster.

Contact your Regional Fish Passage Coordinator or Local Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office to initiate a project proposal. It is recommended that you engage the regional coordinator early in the project planning process.

Proposals are reviewed on the following criteria:

  • Show the greatest ecological benefits for trust species
  • Exhibit permanence of fish passage benefits
  • Make use of the most current scientific knowledge and proven technology
  • Evidence of the greatest public support
  • and generate the maximum in matching contributions

 Project Examples

Lower Mississippi River Levee Breach Project

The USFWS worked with the Lower Mississippi River Conservation Committee, the Army Corps of Engineers and Wildlife Mississippi to restore access to wetlands along the Mississippi River. The river was reconnected to a 3.5-mile-long channel with vital fish spawning and rearing habitat by notching a hole in Dike 2 on Island 70.

More Info/Resources

Contact Info

Region 3 – Midwest (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin)

Jessica Hogrefe
Fish Passage Coordinator
5600 American Blvd. West, Suite 990
Bloomington, MN 55437-1458
jessica_hogrefe@fws.gov

General Questions:
Eric MacMillan, National Fish Passage and Aquatic Habitat Coordinator
Eric_MacMillan@fws.gov, 703-358-2435

Consult your community’s attorney and financial advisors prior to moving forward with any of these funding options. Any reference in this website to any person, or organization, or activities, products, or services related to such person or organization, or any linkages from this website to the website of another party, do not constitute or imply the endorsement, recommendation, or favoring of companies or organizations.
©