ACFHP & 3 Habitat Restoration Projects Receive NFHP Funding for 2015

The Atlantic Coastal Fish Habitat Partnership (ACFHP) received funding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service through the National Fish Habitat Partnership for ACFHP operations and three habitat restoration projects.  Two habitat restoration projects receiving FY15 funding are fish passage projects, and one is a fisheries enhancement project. The Town of Surry has been granted funds to be put towards Renewing Diadromous Fish Passage in Patten Stream, Surry, Maine. This will be accomplished by installing a nature-like fish passageway in Patten Stream to restore access to 20 stream miles and 1,200 alewife spawning acres. The Cotton Gin Mill Dam Removal and Fish Passage Project, Satucket River, East Bridgewater, Massachusetts will be led by The Nature Conservancy and will consist of a dam removal to allow river herring access to 124 acres of spawning habitat.  The Cape Fear River Watch has been granted funding toward a Cape Fear River Fisheries Enhancement Project in Elizabethtown, North Carolina that will enhance 0.5 acres of sturgeon and American shad spawning habitat and allow for multiple years of post-installation biological monitoring. ACFHP selected these projects for funding because they contribute to the conservation of coastal, estuarine-dependent, and diadromous fish habitat.