Infrastructure Funds to Restore Endangered Salmon Populations
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) recently announced its grant recipients for the inaugural year for the Culvert AOP (Aquatic Organism Passage) Program. We’ve had our eye on this program since there’s $1Billion allocated over five years to meaningfully improve or restore habitat connectivity for anadromous fish, those species that migrate from freshwater to and from the ocean (i.e. salmon, steelhead trout, lamprey). The program prioritizes reconnecting habitat for species listed as endangered, threatened, as prey for endangered species (such as southern resident orca whales), or identified as climate resilient stocks.
Given the inception of this new program and the magnitude of funding made available, EPIC applauds DOT’s in the selection of Culvert AOP recipients for a multitude of reasons:
The annual award budget was fully allocated! As an agency who typically doesn’t oversee specific grant programs, we’re delighted to see the entire budget of nearly $196M (plus administrative expenses) fully allocated for this initial funding cycle.
Interagency support was leveraged during the review process. We are thrilled to learn that DOT engaged members of the interagency fish passage task force (e.g., US Fish & Wildlife Service & National Marine Fisheries Service) in the review process.
Tribes were well represented! Project proposals submitted by tribal applicants, or with tribal partners included, represented nearly a quarter (23.7%) of the award recipients, 22% of total funding, and nearly a third (30%) of Culvert AOP funded projects. (Table 1)
Recipients have broad geographic distribution. While states with the greatest populations of anadromous fish are well represented, such as Alaska and Washington, the program recipients were well distributed across states and coastlines. (Table 2)
Great balance of State, Local, and Tribal recipients. Awardees represented a diverse mix of applicants from different levels and sizes of government. The 59 applicants awarded will mitigate 169 barriers that limit or prevent anadromous fish migration. (Figure 1)
Awardees include a diverse range of project types and phases. Aquatic barriers are being mitigated with culvert upgrades, bridges, weirs, and tidal gate improvements. Projects are also being funded across varying project phases that include planning, assessment & prioritization, design, construction and post-construction monitoring. Several of these projects are also leveraging other funding sources and partnerships.
This is an unprecedented success on DOT’s behalf - and quite frankly, they knocked it out of the park!
Table 1. This table shows the total number of applicants across state, local and tribal governments that were awarded in FY23 Culvert AOP Program.
Table 2. This table shows the Culvert AOP Program award amounts and number of projects across state, local and tribal governments.
Figure 1. This map shows the geographic distribution of the awardees.
Given these successes, we also see opportunities to build from here, including:
Cost share requirements for impoverished and historically underserved communities could be reduced or removed to lessen the burden on those communities with limited cost-share resources and/or capacity limitations.
The application process could be made more accessible by considering an initial letter of intent (LOI) process, similar to the US Fish & Wildlife Service National Fish Passage Program. This would lessen the initial investment for communities to apply, while offering an initial screening process for eligible projects. The National Fish Passage Portal would be a great resource for applicants to submit LOI’s, and also for agencies to ‘meet applicants in the middle’ for supporting projects and providing program updates. Further, merging the Interagency Fish Passage Portal of where current projects are with places where fish passage barriers could be addressed would inform the prioritization process for funding.
The Culvert AOP program should continue to leverage interagency support for application and permit reviews. There has been initial movement in leveraging the US Fish & Wildlife Service for biological and endangered species reviews, as well as the US Army Corps of Engineers for Clean Water Act Section 404/Waters of the US permitting. We fully support efforts intended to expedite the review process, including but not limited to: programmatic exemptions, self-certification questionnaires, and similar strategies for permit fast-tracking of fish passage projects.
The review and selection process should ideally be streamlined. The application submission-to-announcement period was seven months. Now that the agency has this first round under their belts, future rounds should move more quickly. A few ways to shorten the timeline would be to: 1) evaluate the inter-agency coordination process, and 2) contract external review assistance.
EPIC supports the Culvert AOP Program by providing direct technical assistance for entities interested in applying for this funding opportunity. We work closely with diverse resources that can offer assistance in pursuing this program and others that support habitat connectivity. For further information, please contact our Western Restoration Program Manager, Garrett Altmann, at garrett@policyinnovation.org.
All images from “National Culvert Removal Replacement and Restoration Grant Program Year One [FY 2022] Grant Recipients” at https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/engineering/hydraulics/culverthyd/aquatic/2022recipients.pdf
