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Aging infrastructure is creating a pressing national need to align priorities between civil engineering and other interests. Restoring ecological connectivity of river networks that are fragmented by dams and road crossings has become a prominent objective for environmental managers across the country. A mature decision-support framework and newly available data on the condition of dams throughout the Lake Michigan basin offer unique opportunities to test for potential cost-efficiency gains from sharing the costs of removing decrepit dams between environmental and engineering organizations. At sites where these interests align, genuine win-win scenarios could advance both ecological connectivity and infrastructure...
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Online decision support tools are proliferating to serve the needs of environmental managers and conservation practitioners, but most are static after their creation. Aging software components and datasets can lead to rapid obsolescence or inoperable tools. In the Great Lakes basin, the Fishwerks webtool represents years of investment in database, website, and analytical development to support decisions about site selection for removing barriers to fish migrations. The website is approaching a critical juncture where usability assessments and long-term planning are needed to ensure its continued value to the user community. There are also technical needs for website refinement, database customization and management,...
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Conservation planning aims to optimize outcomes for select species or ecosystems by directing resources toward high-return sites. The possibility that local benefits might be increased by directing resources beyond the focal area is rarely considered. We present a case study of restoring river connectivity for migratory fish of the Great Lakes Basin by removing dams and road crossings within municipal jurisdictions versus their broader watersheds. We found that greater river connectivity could often be achieved by considering both intra-jurisdictional and extra-jurisdictional barriers. Focusing on jurisdictional barriers alone generally forfeited <20 (median = 0%) of habitat gains for those who value solely habitat...
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Capacity to prioritize barrier removals in the Great Lakes basin is currently limited by lack of data on the passability of road crossings and dams for both unwanted invasive species and desirable native migratory fishes. Building upon our initial barrier inventory, this project has two key elements. First, we are testing whether our landscape statistical models accurately predict the upstream limits of fish migrations along the Wisconsin coast of Lake Michigan. This involves intensive field work to determine the actual upstream limits of suckers, pike, and steelhead during the spring migration. Second, we are collecting systematic data on the size and condition of dams throughout the Lake Michigan basin. These...
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Ecological connectivity between the Great Lakes and their tributaries is widely impaired, and many agencies and organizations are currently investing in restoring these connections to enhance target fish and wildlife populations. To assist in targeting these investments, we have been developing spatial data on the location and attributes of barriers (dams and road-stream crossings) and fish breeding habitat throughout the Great Lakes basin to analyze the optimum strategy for enhancing connectivity and restoring fish migrations. The proposed work will result in guidance for barrier restoration at scales from individual watersheds to the entire basin, refine methodologies for spatial analysis of barriers, and provide...
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Our goal was to predict road culvert passability, as defined by culvert outlet drop and outlet water velocity, for three fish swimming groups using remotely collected environmental variables that have been shown to influence the passability of road culverts.We generated four boosted regression tree models, one for road culvert outlet drop and one each for the three culvert outlet water velocities, and predicted the probability of impassable road culverts on low-order streams based on the models. Independent variables in the modelsincluded the upstream area draining to the culvert, slope at the culvert, stream segment gradient and stream reach gradient.Gradient of the stream segment was the most important predictor...
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Ecological connectivity between the Great Lakes and their tributaries is widely impaired, and many agencies and organizations are currently investing in restoring these connections to enhance target fish and wildlife populations. To assist in targeting these investments, we have been developing spatial data on the location and attributes of barriers (dams and road-stream crossings) and fish breeding habitat throughout the Great Lakes basin to analyze the optimum strategy for enhancing connectivity and restoring fish migrations. The proposed work will result in guidance for barrier restoration at scales from individual watersheds to the entire basin, refine methodologies for spatial analysis of barriers, and provide...
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A key challenge in aquatic restoration efforts is documenting locations where ecological connectivity is disrupted in water bodies that are dammed or crossed by roads (road crossings). To prioritize actions aimed at restoring connectivity, we argue that there is a need for systematic inventories of these potential barriers at regional and national scales. Here, we address this limitation for the North American Great Lakes basin by compiling the best available spatial data on the locations of dams and road crossings. Our spatial database documents 38 times as many road crossings as dams in the Great Lakes basin, and case studies indicate that, on average, only 36% of road crossings in the area are fully passable...
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Control of invasive sea lamprey recruitment from tributary streams is a major management objective in the Great Lakes, and benefits from barriers that prevent access to spawning habitat. As society moves toward removal of more tributary barriers due to concerns about native migratory fishes, aging infrastructure, and vulnerability to climate-driven flooding, it is important to assess the costs of alternative options for sea lamprey control. This project is integrating cost estimates for application of a lamprey-specific pesticide into cost-benefit optimization models used to support decisions about barrier removals that maximize restoration of habitat for native species. By integrating lamprey control options...
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In many large ecosystems, conservation projects are selected by a diverse set of actors operating independently at spatial scales ranging from local to international. Although small-scale decision making can leverage local expert knowledge, it also may be an inefficient means of achieving large-scale objectives if piecemeal efforts are poorly coordinated. Here, we assess the value of coordinating efforts in both space and time to maximize the restoration of aquatic ecosystem connectivity. Habitat fragmentation is a leading driver of declining biodiversity and ecosystem services in rivers worldwide, and we simultaneously evaluate optimal barrier removal strategies for 661 tributary rivers of the Laurentian Great...
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Mapping of barriers and statistical prediction of their passability is now fairly complete in the Great Lakes basin, yet field assessments of barrier characteristics and passability to migratory fishes are spotty. We will use the Lake Michigan basin as a pilot area for comprehensive field assessment of dam condition, dimensions, and passage technologies. These characteristics will be incorporated into our barrier database, enabling improved estimates of removal costs, watershed cumulative passability, and infrastructure maintenance challenges. In parallel, we will conduct field assessments of passability to spring migrations of Great Lakes fishes in 15 Wisconsin watersheds. Recording the upstream limits of migrations...


    map background search result map search result map Re-establishing ecological connectivity between the Great Lakes and their tributaries: Prioritization in a complex system Integrating lampricide options into a decision support tool for barrier management in Great Lakes tributaries Field Assessments of Great Lakes Barriers Book Chapter 12: Conservation of Migratory Fishes in Freshwater Ecosystems Publication: Restoring aquatic ecosystem connectivity requires expanding inventories of both dams and road crossings Publication: Predicting road culvert passability for migratory fishes Publication: Local-Scale Benefits of River Connectivity Restoration Planning Beyond Jurisdictional Boundaries Publication: Enhancing ecosystem restoration efficiency through spatial and temporal coordination Optimization at the infrastructure-connectivity nexus: boosting cost-efficiency of restoration using dam condition data for Lake Michigan Sustaining the FishWerks webtool: planning for long-term access and  usability to support decisions on connectivity restoration Report: Field Assessments of Great Lakes Barriers Optimization at the infrastructure-connectivity nexus: boosting cost-efficiency of restoration using dam condition data for Lake Michigan Report: Field Assessments of Great Lakes Barriers Re-establishing ecological connectivity between the Great Lakes and their tributaries: Prioritization in a complex system Integrating lampricide options into a decision support tool for barrier management in Great Lakes tributaries Field Assessments of Great Lakes Barriers Book Chapter 12: Conservation of Migratory Fishes in Freshwater Ecosystems Publication: Restoring aquatic ecosystem connectivity requires expanding inventories of both dams and road crossings Publication: Predicting road culvert passability for migratory fishes Publication: Local-Scale Benefits of River Connectivity Restoration Planning Beyond Jurisdictional Boundaries Publication: Enhancing ecosystem restoration efficiency through spatial and temporal coordination Sustaining the FishWerks webtool: planning for long-term access and  usability to support decisions on connectivity restoration