Healthy Rivers, Communities, and Economies

Barriers in streams such as dams and undersized culverts can inhibit or block the ability of fish and other aquatic organisms to carry out their lifecycles and access key habitats. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Fish Passage Program works with partners across the country to identify, assess, and remove fish passage fish passage
Fish passage is the ability of fish or other aquatic species to move freely throughout their life to find food, reproduce, and complete their natural migration cycles. Millions of barriers to fish passage across the country are fragmenting habitat and leading to species declines. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Fish Passage Program is working to reconnect watersheds to benefit both wildlife and people.

Learn more about fish passage barriers on a voluntary basis. Since 1999, the Program has worked with partners to remove over 3,500 aquatic barriers and reopen 64,000 stream miles to passage.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) is a once-in-a-generation investment in the nation’s infrastructure and economic competitiveness. We were directly appropriated $455 million over five years in BIL funds for programs related to the President’s America the Beautiful initiative.

Learn more about Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was signed into law on November 15, 2021, and included $1.2 trillion for projects like new roads and bridges, passenger rail, and broadband development. It also provided $200 million to the Service for restoring fish and wildlife passage by removing in-stream barriers and providing technical assistance through the National Fish Passage Program. Program projects funded to date under the Law have been diverse, and include dam removals, fishway constructions, and replacement of road culverts. These projects reopen waterways for fish, mussels and other aquatic species and also provide key benefits to the surrounding human communities, including both short- and long-term economic benefits, as well as quality of life improvements.

This report will explore these short- and long-term benefits provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding through an analysis of project expenditures and a closer look at a set of projects. These case studies illustrate how meaningful these projects can be for their communities.