Interagency Agreement between the Federal Highway Administration and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Georgia Ecological Services

The purpose of this agreement is to develop and test methods for assessing effects of transportation projects on stream habitat connectivity so that the net gain in the barrier removal process can be maximized and impacts of new transportation projects on habitat connectivity can be minimized. There is significant value in using multiple tools and approaches to evaluate potential effects of barriers so that managers can use the best supported decision when deciding how to proceed. Thus, multiple methods of quantifying effects of transportation projects on habitat connectivity will be employed and evaluated in three watersheds harboring Endangered Species. Results will not only serve managers that aim to build new transportation projects, retrofit, and/or remove existing barriers, but they will also serve as a template for assessing habitat connectivity in other transportation districts and watersheds.The goals of this project are to develop and test methodologies for determining the effects of new and existing barriers (including transportation projects) to fish movement on stream habitat connectivity using a landscape context. This will be completed through the following tasks: (1) Quantification of habitat fragmentation; (2) Quantification of habitat quality; (3) Prioritization of barriers for removal; (4) Evaluation of the effects of new barrier placement or barrier removal; (5) Evaluation of the benefits of financially expensive but high-resolution (field-based) data and the benefits of including biologically relevant information into passage assessments; and (6) Present results and methodology to the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) personnel to demonstrate the implementation of the methodology and use of the data products developed from the previously mentioned deliverables.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $203751.00
• Contract Numbers:

  DTFH61-12-X-30024

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Federal Highway Administration

  Office of Planning, Environment and Realty (HEP)
  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Project Managers:

  Ruth, Michael

• Performing Organizations:

  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

  Contract and Grant Services
  1875 Century Boulevard, Room 310
  Atlanta, GA  United States  30345
• Start Date: 20120719
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 20140719
• Source Data: RiP Project 33035

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Decision making; Endangered species; Fishes; Habitat (Ecology); Interagency relations; Project management; Streams; Watersheds
• Uncontrolled Terms: Barriers; Transportation projects
• Subject Areas: Hydraulics and Hydrology; Transportation (General); I15: Environment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01466550
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Federal Highway Administration
• Contract Numbers: DTFH61-12-X-30024
• Files: RIP, USDOT
• Created Date: Jan 3 2013 3:19PM