Aquatic Habitat Restoration

Providing technical assistance to parks in the design and conduct of aquatic habitat restoration projects is another active component of the National Park Service's Fisheries Program.

Large mountainous parks are usually located at the top of their watersheds and often their aquatic habitats have been little disturbed physically. However, many parks are at lower points in the watershed and can be greatly influenced by alterations to the rivers, streams, or lakes that occur both within and outside of the park. In addition, some areas within parks were altered prior to the area being designated as a national park unit. Therefore, many parks have a need to implement aquatic habitat restoration projects in order to return these areas to their natural condition.

Aquatic habitat restoration projects have included such actions as restoring stream access for salmon and steelhead spawning migrations in Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, Point Reyes National Seashore, and Redwoods National Park; recreating cover and woody debris in streams which have lost this valuable fish habitat due to logging and removal of streamside vegetation in Olympic National Park and Redwoods National Park; reestablishing natural stream bed channels and meanders in Glacier National Park, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, St Croix National Scenic Riverway, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park; dam removal, culvert replacements, and stream bank erosion control in Rocky Mountain National Park, Gettysburg National Historical Park, and Fort Laramie National Historic Site; and, reducing the hydrological and ecological impacts of commercial oyster farming at Point Reyes National Seashore.