“Conservation Locking”: Opening the Door to Fish Passage in the Southeastern U.S

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is the central coordinator of the Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam Fish Passage Partnership, a collaboration among the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), and states of Georgia and Florida which provides passage for migrating fishes arriving at Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam (JWLD) in the Apalachicola River Basin.  Since 2005, every March until the end of May, the USACE has used the lock at JWLD to pass these fishes in the exact same way it passes barges and boats.  This “conservation locking” provides access to over 150 miles of historic fish spawning grounds at almost no additional cost to JWLD operations.  Research has confirmed that Alabama shad –currently listed as a NMFS “Species of Concern” –  spawn successfully upriver of JWLD, and recent population estimates suggest that the population may be increasing since beginning fish passage operations.  Because of this success the USACE is further partnering with TNC and providing conservation locking at two other projects on the Alabama River in Alabama.  In this presentation we will describe the history of this project and attributes which have made it successful.