Monitoring and Assessment of White Rock and Bradford Dam Removals, Hurricane Sandy

This is an announcement for issuing a single source financial assistance award to the University of Rhode Island. This announcement is for notification purposes only. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is interested in the collection of biotic and abiotic data to evaluate construction projects funded through the Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief Act and completed in 2015-2017. This award is under Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit (CESU), the North Atlantic CESU award number F14AC00282. The primary sites for this funding opportunity are the White Rock and the Bradford dam removal sites, in Connecticut and Rhode Island. The grantee will collect data to evaluate ecological parameters associated with the project goal of improving passage for migratory and resident fish and to comply with potential permit requirements with regard to changes in vegetative community composition and abiotic factors. A monitoring plan will need to be developed and is expected to follow the Stream Barrier Removal Guide (Collins et al, 2007) with monitoring metrics likely to include riparian plant community composition, invasive species extent, and river morphology among other potential variables. This project is not expected to address inundation modelling at the project sites as that will be accomplished independent of this project. This project is authorized by the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013, Public Law 113-2.