Dover Gets Piece Of First-Ever Federal Fish Culvert Grants

By Hadley Barndollar, New Hampshire Bulletin

Part of a $196 million federal package to improve fish passage in waterways by fixing or removing culvert barriers is heading to a project in New Hampshire.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s new culvert grant program will send $421,600 to the city of Dover for the Bellamy River Fish Passage Restoration Project to advance design and permitting activities to ultimately replace a culvert on Bellamy Road. The project is expected to enhance five fish species and open 5.2 miles of stream habitat connectivity.

Fifty-nine tribal, state, and local governments received funding to fix or remove 169 culvert barriers that are outdated and impeding fish passage, leading to declining populations of species such as native salmon, river herring, and lamprey. While culverts carry water under a road, they can block or fragment fish habitats, hindering necessary movement for fish to complete their life cycles by cutting off breeding grounds and food sources.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration, there are roughly 68 million culverts beneath roadways that, built with design approaches from the 1950s, didn’t consider the needs of aquatic organisms to move up and downstream.

Together, the federally funded projects will improve approximately 550 miles of stream habitat nationwide.

The Bellamy River is a 15-mile-long tributary of the Piscataqua River. In 2019 and 2020, two dams on the river were removed as part of an effort to restore the river and eliminate public safety hazards. In May 2020, scientists from the state’s Fish and Game Department observed river herring had migrated upstream, past the two former dam sites for the first time in more than 100 years.

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