The Nature Conservancy and the United States Army Corps of Engineers in July 2002 formed a partnership to restore and preserve rivers across the country. Under the Sustainable Rivers Project, the Conservancy and the Corps will work together to improve dam management in order to protect the ecological health of rivers and surrounding natural areas while continuing to provide services such as flood control and power generation.

There are 13 candidate sites on nine rivers across nine states. In the future, other dams may also become candidates for this project.

Pilot Project: Kentucky's Green River -- http://nature.org/initiatives/freshwater/work/greenriver.html

The Sustainable Rivers Project began with a collaboration between the Conservancy and the Corps to improve habitat along the Green River in Kentucky, the nation's fourth-most diverse river for fish and mussel species.

Working together, the Conservancy and the Corps identified a more ecologically compatible water-release schedule from the Green River Dam by delaying fall reservoir releases until after the spawning period for certain fish and mussel species.

These changes will provide significant benefits to plants and animals, without sacrificing the dam's primary purpose of flood control. For recreational users, the changes actually extend access to the reservoir by more than a month.

http://nature.org/success/dams.html

Learn More:

About the Sustainable Rivers Project

http://nature.org/pressroom/press/press705.html

About the Conservancy's Freshwater Initiative

http://nature.org/initiatives/freshwater/