31 Mar 2025

Army Corps of Engineers with GLRI funding building critical fish passage in Niagara River

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Buffalo District, in a cross-agency partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is continuing to build on the success of a project to help one of the Niagara River and Lake Erie’s most important fish thrive despite decades of manmade impacts to the ecosystem. With funding from the EPA’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, USACE is beginning work to build a 700-foot-long fish passage at the City of Buffalo’s Freedom Park to help emerald shiners overcome the velocity of the Niagara River and move upstream after spawning, providing a critical food source for larger fish and wildlife, offering sustenance for the local community, and contributing to goals for delisting the Niagara River as a Great Lakes Area of Concern (AOC).

24 Sep 2024

Army Corps of Engineers and EPA building critical fish passage in Niagara River

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Buffalo District and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are building on the success of a project to help one of the Niagara River and Lake Erie’s most important fish thrive despite decades of manmade impacts to the ecosystem. With funding from the EPA’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI), USACE will build a 700-foot-long fish passage at the City of Buffalo’s Freedom Park to help emerald shiners overcome the velocity of the Niagara River and move upstream after spawning, providing a critical food source for larger fish and wildlife, offering sustenance for the local community, and contributing to goals for delisting the Niagara River as an EPA Area of Concern (AOC).

9 Aug 2022

USACE Buffalo District Constructs Emerald Shiner Passage Structure

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has completed construction of a novel fish passage structure along the Niagara River at Broderick Park in Buffalo, New York, and early monitoring results indicate preliminary project success in helping emerald shiner move upstream. The project, known as the Emerald Shiner Demonstration project, was built between November 2021 and February 2022 to overcome an obstacle to the passage of emerald shiner, a very small but critically important preyfish.

12 Jul 2021

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to construct fish passage demonstration project in Buffalo

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Buffalo District, on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, awarded a $1.6 million contract to Bidco Marine Group on June 23, 2021 for a Great Lakes Restoration Initiative fish passage demonstration project along the Niagara River, adjacent to Broderick Park in the City of Buffalo, NY. The emerald shiner is a small prey fish and a critical component of the Niagara River and Lake Erie food web. Hardened shorelines along the Niagara River create high water velocities that strictly limit the ability of emerald shiner to migrate into Lake Erie, posing a threat to populations of these prey fish and the larger fish and wildlife populations that depend on them.