Sustainable Rivers of North Carolina

Ashley Hatchell, who works in water management out of the Corps' Wilmington office, says the SRP fits perfectly into the Corps’ mission. “The Corps has the responsibility of helping care for our nation’s rivers, lakes, and wetlands. This responsibility goes beyond the narrow focus of flood control and hydropower that many people perceive as our primary mission,” she says. 

During hot, dry months, water on the Lower Cape Fear stagnates, resulting in blue-green algae blooms, which can be harmful to people and animals. Releasing water from Jordan Lake can stir up that water and disrupt the algae blooms. We work on creating a model that gives a better picture of water quality in the Cape Fear River basin. Rhonda Locklear, Environmental Program Manager with the Fayetteville Public Works Commission, has seen benefits from this project because it translates into cost savings. Water treatment for nutrient removal is expensive, and improving water quality is a big benefit for all water consumers.

In spring, anadromous fish, which live mostly in the ocean but come upriver to spawn, get stuck on the river's lower reaches, which are blocked by a series of locks and dams managed by USACE. These fish—shad, herring, striped bass, and sturgeon—can make their way past the locks and dams if there is enough water flow. Timing releases from Jordan for when the fish need to swim upstream can help them make it to the rocky parts of the river further upstream, where they like to lay their eggs. That’s why DeMeester wakes up and checks the water gauges first thing—to see if it is a good day to release water from Jordan Lake. “I watch that river every day,” DeMeester says.

Restoring the Roanoke River Floodplains

TNC has protected over 95,000 acres along the Roanoke, which is also part of the Sustainable Rivers Program. We work on improving water releases from dams, mimicking natural flow patterns to help fish spawning and water quality and restoring floodplains that have been altered by humans. We’re using cutting-edge tools to measure restoration effectiveness and lead the research on how to make dam operation decisions through a climate change lens.

Jean Richter, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who has worked on the Roanoke River National Wildlife Refuge since 1996 is concerned about the change in rain patterns. She is seeing a lot of dead trees because the rain is coming earlier and lasting longer—the climate research will give the USACE, TNC and her organization data to address the issue.

A big part of floodplain restoration and fish spawning is correcting the hydrology altered by road crossings and undersized culverts that hold floodwaters and trap fish.  Aaron McCall, TNC NC land steward, is leading this work, replacing the culverts under the roads with fish-friendly bridges, which allow floodwaters to rise and fall. Instead of being trapped and killed, the fish can continue upstream to spawn as they have been doing for millennia. 

Restoring the flood plain requires intense effort and resources, so we want to ensure it is worth the effort. McCall and TNC Fellow Chase Spicer monitor to see if the restoration is working. They use a combination of sampling tools pre and post-restoration, such as eDNA, fish traps and electrofishing, to detect whether a particular species of fish has passed through the water. You can learn more about this work in our 'Identifying fish species' article.’ Thanks to this research, we know that anadromous fish such as blueback herring and shad, which usually live at sea but come upriver to lay their eggs, are using the now barrier-free waterways.

There is still a lot of work to be done! There are many more barriers along the 140-mile floodplain from the Atlantic to the first dam on the Roanoke, and we are prioritizing critical areas for restoration.