Two funding opportunities for fish passage, including one focused on tribes, are now open under the Biden-Harris Administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law: 

• $75 million is available for fish passage projects that will remove dams and other in-stream barriers to reopen migratory pathways and restore access to healthy habitat for fish around the country. Applications are due February 10. 
• $20 million is available for tribal priority fish passage and capacity building. This funding will support tribes and organizations that represent tribes in building organizational capacity and implementing on-the-ground projects that restore access to healthy habitat for tribally-important species. Applications are due February 27. 

Tribes are eligible to apply to both funding opportunities. Contact: Jessica Edwards.

With NOAA funds through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians will remove 12 fish passage barriers at road-stream crossings on their traditional lands. They will also investigate fish passage options for lake sturgeon at two hydroelectric dams. They are leading the regional effort in Lower Northern Michigan to reconnect rivers and streams with barriers to fish passage. Contact: Greer Harewood.

This new video highlights NOAA’s work with Kuleana Coral Restoration, an organization dedicated to restoring Hawaiʻi’s coral reefs and educating the next generation of coral restoration practitioners. To support their work, the NOAA Office of Habitat Conservation is investing about $1 million through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act. The program trains people how to dive and restore coral, incorporating both Native Hawaiian values and western scientific practices. Contact: Shannon Ruseborn.

Join us in honoring military veterans who have served in the United States Armed Forces and learn how NOAA and our partners work with veterans to build a community of habitat restoration practitioners across the nation. Our conservation and veteran corps partnerships recruit, train, mentor, and employ workers to implement habitat restoration projects in support of long-term coastal restoration. Contact: Laurel Jennings.

The Deepwater Horizon restoration Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group, in partnership with the Gulf of Mexico Menhaden Fishery, has completed a project assessing methods for observing sea turtle interactions during fishing operations and determined that electronic monitoring proved most effective. Contact: Christy Fellas.

The Penobscot Nation received multiple grants from the NOAA Species Recovery Grants to Tribes Program to increase habitat connectivity in the Penobscot River watershed to aid the return of Atlantic salmon to Tribal lands. These efforts align with NOAA Fisheries’ broader vision to restore habitats and reopen migratory routes, ensuring fish access to healthy environments.

As a key river habitat warms, researchers race to protect cold water patches critical to salmon survival. Researchers have successfully used cameras operated from a helicopter to map surface water temperatures in Maine’s Narraguagus River. This is an important step toward habitat conservation for endangered Atlantic salmon and other migratory fish.

NOAA  scientists have published a new report, Understanding Resilience in Communities Across the U.S Coastline, which compares different metrics for measuring the resilience of coastal communities across the nation. It builds on a portfolio of efforts in risk management, disaster preparedness, and climate readiness across NOAA by identifying metrics that can be used to better target place-based studies, restoration investments, and adaptation efforts.

The Deepwater Horizon restoration Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group has released its Draft Restoration Plan 4 and Environmental Assessment: Fish and Water Column Invertebrates and Sea Turtles for public comment through December 16, 2024. The draft plan is available for review online and in libraries and other repositories. Public comments can be submitted for 45-days online, through the mail, or by attending one of the two public webinars in November.

Trustees are accepting comments through November 22 on a draft Restoration Plan Amendment/Environmental Assessment for the Ciba-Geigy case on completed restoration activities and a Consistency Evaluation regarding proposed site-specific restoration projects that were evaluated in the 2017 Final RP/PEA. It also includes an evaluation of a new proposed restoration action: feral swine management on state-owned lands, including land that was acquired by the state as a result of the settlement.