Wildlife Diversity Program Quarterly Report for July–September 2025
Barrier Removal and Assessment
• Habitat Conservation staff worked with staff from The Nature Conservancy, the US Forest Service (USFS), and other NCWRC staff to evaluate options to remove a wooden dam on the North Mills River in the Pisgah National Forest. This ‘rough fish barrier’ was installed to keep native fishes out of the upper North Mills River at a time when many USFS streams were being cleared of native non-trout species and replaced with non-native trout like Rainbow Trout and Brown Trout. Removal of the dam will enable native fishes such as migratory redhorse suckers to reestablish populations in the river. • The Habitat Conservation Division has established a new 3-year term-lim- ited position to implement a series of grants aimed at assessing barriers to aquatic organism passage in streams across eastern NC. Jacob Freedman was
hired into this position in the summer of 2025 and, along with his new temporary technician, Kendall Proctor, has been busy visiting culverts in the Tar and Neuse river basins, thanks to funding from the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Fish Passage Program. Each culvert is photographed and assessed using a standardized scoring protocol developed by the Southeast- ern Aquatic Resources Partnership (SARP; also a partner in this project) and all data is uploaded into a larger SARP database. During this quarter, 115 culverts have been assessed. The goal is to complete approximately 400 culverts by December of 2026. These data will help inform where barriers to both flow and animal passage are present on the landscape, which will in turn assist in identifying areas for remediation. • Following completion of the identified areas in the Tar and Neuse basins, the team will move to another group of 1500 cul- verts spread across the NC Coastal Plain, applying the SARP criteria with particular emphasis on passage for river herring. This second phase is funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and is also implemented through an agreement with SARP. • Staff have worked with SERPPAS to help coordinate the annual Principals meeting in November in Southern Pines. • Staff provided input for WRC on the 2025 update of the state’s Natural and Working Lands Action Plan.
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