Great Lakes Barrier Assessment

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), Midwest Region, is soliciting proposals to conduct field assessments of aquatic barriers and fish passability in tributaries in Lake Huron, Erie, and Ontario watersheds. Data collected on dams will be incorporated into an already developed barrier database and will enable improved estimates of aquatic barrier removal costs, cumulative passability within watersheds, and infrastructure maintenance challenges. Understanding these challenges helps efforts to modernizes infrastructure (DOI priority 8), and restores trust among the various partners and landowners affected by dams in need of repair or removal (DOI priority 3). By fall 2018, dam assessments will be complete for the entire Lake Michigan and Superior watersheds. The desire is to have a comprehensive assessment and common dam data for the entire Great Lakes basin. As such, any proposal must compliment and collect data comparable to the prior assessments and be incorporated into the existing barrier database. The University of Wisconsin â¿¿ Madison developed a field barrier assessment protocol with the USFWS, the GLFC, and others. This included data collection on infrastructure condition, height and width, and fish passage technologies along with barrier pictures and recording GPS coordinates. The grantee is expected to use this, or a similar protocol (i.e., minimum data collection must match the fields on the existing protocol), for assessments to ensure compatible data is collected.