River Basin Center: Etowah Initiative

Habitat Conservation Plan for the Upper Etowah River Watershed: Road Crossings - Effects and Recommendations, Fall 2001, Audrey Baggett, Erica Chiao, Tracey Harton (PDF file).
Recommendations for bridge and culvert design to protect aquatic habitat in the Upper Etowah watershed; part of a watershed-wide Habitat Conservation Plan being developed for darters and other aquatic life.

Need:

Anthropogenic sources of sediments (associated with land use practices) greatly impact aquatic habitats in various ways. Road and utility line construction projects are significant sources of sediments and it is therefore important to identify methods for lessening impacts of these activities to aquatic habitats.

Goals:

To review and summarize extant literature that deals with the impacts of road (crossing) construction on the aquatic habitat.
To put this information into a clear format that can be easily disseminated to relevant parties.
To recommend practical and realistic best management practices (regarding construction activities) that help to ensure the integrity of aquatic habitat.
To plan a reasonable and adequate program for monitoring construction sites to see that regulations are being met.
To make sure that everything we recommend is within the law and "pursuant to the Endangered Species Act."

Objectives:

To have best management practices put into place for future road projects and to see that construction crews/companies actually implement best management practices.

Activities:

1. Gather relevant literature: Endangered Species Act (relevant sections), other legal materials, and scientific papers.

2/3. Read and summarize said literature.

4. Identify areas of the watershed where road crossings are being placed.

5. Examine practices being carried out during this development.

6. Project impacts to the aquatic habitat resultant of these activities.

7. Using all knowledge, identify/brainstorm alternative construction methods & possible best management practices.

8. Find construction costs and project costs of change (should be done after brainstorming about BMPs).

9. Come up with ideas for monitoring construction sites.

Workplan (Adobe PDF)

Visit Our Partners:

	Alliance for Quality Growth
	Center for Community Design & Preservation
	Georgia Museum of Natural History
	NARSAL

University of Georgia - Eugene P. Odum School of Ecology

UGA River Basin Center
110 Riverbend Road, Room 101
Athens, GA 30602-1510 USA
Phone: (706) 583-0463
Fax: (706) 583-0612

C. Ronald Carroll, Co-Director for Science - rcarroll@uga.edu
Laurie Fowler, Co-Director for Policy - lfowler@uga.edu

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