ABSTRACT: For much of the 20th century, the United States built thousands of large dams and other water projects to meet the nation’s growing need for water, food, flood risk reduction, hydropower and navigation. Since their construction, the operations of very few public dams have been fully reviewed and updated to meet environmental needs. Dams and other river infrastructure disrupt natural flow patterns that are critical to the health of rivers and the flora and fauna that depend on them. Seasonal patterns of high and low flows support animal and plant lifecycles, preserve water quality and maintain diverse habitats. By artificially stabilizing river levels across the seasons, dams can set off cascading effects that negatively impact whole freshwater ecosystems and the diverse array of benefits they provide to people. Science has shown that altered rivers systems are a major factor in 40 percent of the nation’s fish species and 70 percent of freshwater mussel species being listed as imperiled, and why many commercial fisheries have been decimated. To help address these negative impacts, The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers—the largest water manager in the nation—launched a collaborative effort to find more sustainable ways to manage river infrastructure to maximize benefits for people and nature. Known as the Sustainable River Program (SRP), the program has grown to include 66 federal dams on 16 rivers in 15 states. This presentation will provide a history and overview of SRP.
