The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

Map showing the Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam. © The Nature Conservancy

Let’s say you’re an Alabama shad or striped bass. You’ve got a date to go spawning upstream where your kind has been reproducing for – well, forever.

You’ve polished your fins and are on your way up the Apalachicola River. But what’s this hunk of concrete at the Florida-Georgia boundary? You can’t fly over it or walk around; what’s a fish to do? It’s been a problem, but – with help from The Nature Conservancy – Alabama shad populations have increased four-fold in this area!

The Conservancy recently coordinated a surprisingly simple project at Florida’s Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam that is allowing fish to migrate upstream to native spawning grounds. It has no additional operating costs. And it’s having regional repercussions. Find out how you can help this cause.

How Quickly Things Change

For millennia, a pristine river system meandered through Alabama and Georgia, down through northwest Florida and to the Gulf of Mexico. One of the most species-rich basins in the world, it remains a hotspot of North American biological diversity.

In 1957, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began operating the Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam on the Apalachicola River, located at the confluence of the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers. While the lock and dam has served the citizens of three states with hydropower and navigation, it has also blocked migrating species like the Alabama shad and striped bass, federally threatened Gulf sturgeon, and others.

Because of this and similar dams nationwide, both of these species – and others in the world of recreational fishing – are now seriously imperiled. The largest remaining natural populations of Alabama shad and striped bass live within this river system.

Scientists Ask, the Corps Responds

Beginning in 2005, the Conservancy teamed up with multiple local, academic, state and federal conservation partners to track these fish as they attempted to migrate upriver in the Apalachicola. Although Woodruff Dam has been one of the major impediments to the sustainability of shad, bass and dozens of other fishes, research has shown that the existing lock could be used to pass fish upriver where they would successfully reproduce in great numbers. 

Based on these findings, the Corps has opened the gates of the Woodruff lock to allow fish passage twice a day. This corresponds with the natural movement patterns of migrating fishes during spawning seasons – from February through May each year.

As a result, migrating fish in the Apalachicola are able to access over 150 miles of historic river habitat and spawning areas for the first time in more than 50 years. See a video about the fish passage.

This straightforward solution does not require modifications to the dam. It creates no additional operating costs and does not increase or decrease the amount of water available in the river. And, in 2010, scientists found that the Alabama shad had increased four-fold since the start of the project and could increase even more thanks to the effort.

What’s Next? 

Big news: In February 2012 the Conservancy formalized its historic agreement with state and federal partners to practice “conservation locking” on the Apalachicola River. The new memorandum of understanding is already resulting in potential opportunities at other major dams.
“Dams are widely recognized as one of the greatest conservation threats to rivers and their biota in the U.S. and throughout the world,” Herrington continued. “This partnership in the Apalachicola is an excellent example of how agencies and concerned citizens can work together, using strong science and creative methods to significantly restore dwindling fish populations at almost no cost to the taxpayer.”

Domino Effects in Alabama 

Success at the Woodruff Dam resulted in the same technique being used at two Corps dams on the Alabama River system, again with promising results. Lock gates were opened hundreds of times during spawning season at Claiborne Lock and Dam and Millers Ferry Lock and Dam, offering species like striped bass, mullet, paddlefish, and others access to spawning and feeding grounds that had been blocked for nearly 40 years.

“This is a welcomed effort to re-establish the great runs of fish that once swam over 350 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, through the Alabama River to the upland streams of the Cahaba,” said Paul Freeman, aquatic ecologist with the Conservancy’s Alabama program.
The Conservancy supported researchers from Auburn University, Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and other partners to determine how to attract the greatest variety and number of fish possible into these two locks.

You can help us protect freshwater systems in Florida and around the world.

Partnering with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

With more than 600 dams across the nation, the Corps is the nation’s largest water management agency. Since 2002, the Conservancy has partnered with the Corps on dozens of dams to adjust operations and help restore natural river flow patterns.

Leveraging its successful partnership into a permanent, national program would benefit tens of thousands of miles of the nation’s rivers.

“We look forward to continued work with the Conservancy and the other agency and university partners as we explore these options,” said Brian Zettle, a biologist with the Corps.

Project Partners:
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
U.S. Geological Survey’s South Carolina Cooperative Fish Research Unit at Clemson University
National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
Georgia Department of Natural Resources
Alabama Department of Conservation & Natural Resources
Auburn University
University of Florida
Geological Survey of Alabama
Apalachicola Riverkeeper
The Nature Conservancy