The Science of River Restoration
Open Rivers Fund follows a path carved, in large part, by the current scientific understanding of river health.
Thanks to decades of dam removal data, scientists and engineers can increasingly predict what will happen when a dam is removed. The hydraulics of dam removal are well understood.
The greater scientific challenge, at this point, is in better understanding how river biology changes when barriers, large and small, are removed from rivers and streams.
To this end, Open Rivers Fund supports projects and organizations conducting research on river conditions before and after removal. Longitudinal data is best for assessing change, but even a single baseline survey is a valuable starting point.
We respect and support the work of Native American Tribes in restoring rivers and watersheds. Traditional Ecological Knowledge practiced by Indigenous communities for millennia is an important strategy for restoring river life.
Citizen Science Benefits Rivers and Communities
Multiple Open Rivers Fund projects involve investments in citizen science efforts to monitor river conditions, boost community understanding of science, and build community support. Growth in this field is important – and remarkable.
Local organizations are successfully engaging volunteers of varying levels of scientific knowledge and experience: scientists with advanced degrees, high school students, seniors, and all kinds of people in between. At the outset of any citizen science project, volunteers are developing processes and protocols to ensure accurate data is collected and analyzed in formats sharable with regulators and the public. In many cases, data quality standards are ratcheting upward.
Monitoring river conditions can be expensive. Volunteer citizen scientists expand the capacity to collect valuable data and document change following dam removal. As importantly, this work can create a lifelong connection to the river and the life it supports. Citizen scientists on the river often become life-long advocates for river health.
Resources
Below are links to studies, reports, manuals, and other documents that advance the science of dam removal and river restoration.
Removing Obstacles to Dam Removal in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Regulation of Hydropower Projects
This report examines how FERC’s regulation of hydropower projects impacts decisions to remove dams and identifies eight regulatory obstacles, organized from greatest to least impact on dam removal, and proposes policy solutions to address each obstacle.
Get ResourceBarrier Removal is a Strategy for Climate Resilience
This paper from Utah State University finds that removing aging, unsafe, and obsolete dams and barriers can help communities across the country become stronger and safer in the face of extreme weather.
Get ResourceWater, power, homeland: restoring and re-storying the Eklutna River
Beginning in 1929, the Eklutna River in Southcentral Alaska was largely de-watered for hydropower production without the consent of the Eklutna Dena'ina. This paper focuses on the ways in which the Native Village of Eklutna and partners exemplify multifaceted tribal leadership in dam removal and river restoration.
Get ResourceOne-quarter of freshwater fauna threatened with extinction
This report presents the results of a multi-taxon global freshwater fauna assessment for The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species covering 23,496 species, finding that 25% are threatened with extinction. Prevalent threats include pollution, dams, agriculture, invasive species, and more.
Get ResourceRiver Response to Removal of a Small Dam and Replacement with a Roughened Channel
This study provides a baseline description for future study of the removal of Nelson Dam in Washington and replacement with a roughened channel.
Get ResourceEstablishment of terrestrial mammals: Elwah River dam removal
Following removal of two large dams on the Elwah River (Washington, U.S.), scientists used camera traps to examine seasonal use of two former reservoir beds by the mammalian community. Their presence can shape ecosystem recovery, signal restoration of ecosystem function, and influence food web dynamics and nutrient transfer.
Get ResourcePatterns, drivers, and a predictive model of dam removal cost in the United States
Scientists have analyzed more than 650 dam removal projects over 55 years in the United States totaling $1.52 billion inflation-adjusted dollars to develop a tool to better estimate the cost of future dam removals.
Get ResourceDecision‐Support Framework for Dam Removal Planning
Given the several thousand dam removals expected over the coming decades, a systematic approach to plan future dam removals holds potential for aligning and delivering multiple benefits. This research presents a decision-support framework to prioritize dam removals based on opportunistic factors, hydro-ecological variables, and socio-cultural considerations.
Get ResourceFacilitating Tribal Co-Management of Federal Public Lands
This paper responds to calls from environmental advocacy organizations and Tribes to explore the obstacles of Tribal co-management on federal lands and propose solutions.
Get ResourceEnvironmental DNA is an effective tool to track recolonizing migratory fish following large-scale dam removal
This study uses environmental DNA (eDNA) to assess the effectiveness of dam removal to restore fish passage on the Elwha River in Washington State.
Get ResourceManual for community science and dam removal
Produced by the UC Davis Center for Community and Citizen Science, this manual is written specifically for citizen science efforts linked to dam removal and watershed restoration.
Get ResourceUSGS Dam Removal Portal
A tool to explore trends about dam removal science and query scientific studies that evaluate environmental response to dam removals.
Get ResourceEvery Tribe Has A Wound, Can Tribal Government-to-Government Consultation Help Mend It?
Thought-provoking reflections on the historical and legal underpinnings of government-to-government Tribal consultations and their importance in advancing the environmental conservation efforts of Tribes and healing from historical inequity.
Get ResourceIndigenous Systems of Management for Resilient Pacific Salmon Fisheries
Through generations of interdependence with salmon, Indigenous Peoples developed sophisticated systems of management. These systems and practices showcase pathways for sustained productivity and resilience in contemporary salmon fisheries.
Get ResourceDam Removal and River Restoration
This paper discusses dam removal by focusing on the importance of rivers as providers of vital ecosystem services like food, energy, and water. Dams are the most prevalent agents of change to the world’s rivers. The vast majority of the world’s estimated 16 million dams are relatively small, less than 10 meters in height.
Get ResourceElevating Freshwater Ecosystems in 30x30
The impairment of California’s freshwater ecosystems not only places native freshwater species at a higher risk of extinction compared to their terrestrial counterparts, it also threatens the valuable ecosystem services and cultural resources that freshwater ecosystems provide.
Get ResourceReconnecting the Elwha River: Spatial Patterns of Fish Response to Dam Removal
The removal of two large dams on the Elwha River was completed in 2014 with a goal of restoring anadromous salmonid populations. Using observations from ongoing field studies, this paper compiles a timeline of migratory fish passage upstream of each dam.
Get ResourceThe Threats of Our Aging Dams
This fact sheet, part of Open Rivers Fund's Barrier Removal Educational Series, explains how many of America's dams are at risk of catastrophic failure due to their age, poor maintenance, and structural inability to handle extreme weather events, as well as what can be done to mitigate the risk of failure.
Get ResourceRemoving America's Obsolete and Problematic Dams
This fact sheet, part of Open Rivers Fund's Barrier Removal Educational Series, explains how dam removal can boost local economies, improve recreational opportunities, advance public safety, and reduce risk to communities.
Get ResourceCulverts 101
This fact sheet, part of Open Rivers Fund's Barrier Removal Educational Series, explains what culverts are, what purposes they serve, and why it is critical that we fix our nation's old, outdated, undersized, and often failing culverts.
Get ResourceThe Danger of Low Head Dams
This fact sheet, part of Open Rivers Fund's Barrier Removal Educational Series, defines "low head dams" and explains why these seemingly innocuous structures are major safety hazards that also disrupt ecological functions.
Get ResourceThe Growing Flood Insurance Gap
This fact sheet, part of Open Rivers Fund's Barrier Removal Educational Series, explains how dam removal can alleviate flood risk and potential financial loss for downstream communities, an increasingly prevalent problem as dams age and participation rates in flood insurance decline.
Get ResourceDam Decisions: Dam Alternatives and Their Benefits
This fact sheet, part of Open Rivers Fund's Barrier Removal Educational Series, explores how modern solutions and new technology make it possible to replace problematic dams with new systems that preserve—and even expand—the benefits dams once provided.
Get ResourceBureau of Reclamation: Aquatic Connectivity and Watershed Health Funding Programs
This fact sheet, part of Open Rivers Fund's federal funding program series, provides information about funding programs administered by the Bureau of Reclamation that support dam and barrier removal, including the WaterSMART Environmental Water Resources Project (EWRP) and Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration Program (AERP).
Get ResourceCulvert Aquatic Organism Passage Program
This fact sheet, part of Open Rivers Fund's federal funding program series, provides information about a funding program administered by the Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration that supports dam and barrier removal - the Culvert Aquatic Organism Passage (AOP) Program.
Get ResourceFEMA Rehabilitation of High-Hazard Potential Grant Program
This fact sheet, part of Open Rivers Fund's federal funding program series, provides information about a funding program administered by the Department of Homeland Security Federal Emergency Management Agency that supports dam and barrier removal - the Rehabilitation of High-Hazard Potential Grant Program.
Get ResourceNOAA Fisheries Aquatic Connectivity Funding Programs
This fact sheet, part of Open Rivers Fund's federal funding program series, provides information about funding programs administered by NOAA Fisheries that support dam and barrier removal, including the Community-Based Restoration Program, Office of Habitat Conservation, Pacifica Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund, and Atlantic Salmon Recovery Fund.
Get ResourceUSFS Aquatic Connectivity Funding Programs
This fact sheet, part of Open Rivers Fund's federal funding program series, provides information about funding programs administered by the U.S. Forest Service that support dam and barrier removal, including the Collaborative Aquatic Landscape Restoration Program and Non-Hydro Dam Removal Program.
Get ResourceUSFWS National Fish Passage Program
This fact sheet, part of Open Rivers Fund's federal funding program series, provides information about a funding program administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that supports dam and barrier removal - the National Fish Passage Program.
Get Resource