



Rivers provide important benefits like drinking water, irrigation, and more. As homes for fish, plants, and wildlife, rivers are essential for the survival of many species—including our own.
Roughly 3.5 million miles of rivers and tributaries in the United States connect us to the sea, even if we live far inland. Most Americans live within a mile of a river or a stream. Rivers provide our communities with economic, ecological, and cultural value.
River habitats vary from high, stony streams, to flowing channels for ships and boats, to shallow wetland deltas. Rivers have striking regional differences that create distinct habitats. Compare the rapid, rocky Colorado to South Carolina’s sleepy, green Santee, or the forested, winding Ohio. A river bed may be stony or soft, lush with underwater vegetation, murky or clear. Each type of river provides an ideal environment for different species and different life stages.
Rivers have three distinct habitat areas:
Rivers provide important benefits—called ecosystem services—that impact our day-to-day lives. They provide drinking water, irrigation, transportation, and more. They also provide habitat for important fish species.
Communities depends on rivers and streams for:
Rivers are home to abundant fish and wildlife, including:
Different areas of rivers provide habitat for different types of species. Trout thrive in highland streams, while catfish lurk near the bottom of slow-moving water. Migrating fish, like salmon, swim up to cooler, stony beds to reproduce. Floodplains provide calm shallow waters, allowing fish to grow larger before swimming out to sea.
Even the smallest fish play an important role in the ecosystem. “Forage fish” like river herring swim upstream to multiply. They then head out to sea, providing food for important recreational and commercial species, such as cod, haddock, and striped bass.
People have harnessed the power of rivers throughout history. We’ve built dams for power and levees for shipping, dredged channels for navigation and canals for irrigation. We’ve built towns and cities along banks and washed their wastes downstream. These uses can all take a toll on a river’s health.
Dams, culverts, and other barriers block migratory fish from returning to their historic spawning grounds. When fish can’t reach their habitat, they can’t reproduce and maintain or grow their populations. Dams also alter the amount of water and sediment traveling downstream, changing living conditions above and below the dam.
Structures like levees can control flooding in one area, but may increase flood risk in another. Disconnecting rivers from their floodplains increases the risk of extreme flooding and landslides.
Human activities can degrade or destroy important river and floodplain habitat. For example:
Outdated farming methods can cause fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides to contaminate rivers and streams. Excess nutrients and toxic chemicals can then concentrate in waterways, causing algal blooms and “dead zones” where underwater life is unable to survive.
Combined stormwater and sewage systems can overflow and pour untreated human waste into rivers. These overflows create disease risk and add nutrient pollution. The resulting algae overgrowth can be toxic to fish and people.
NOAA works to protect and restore river habitats through a wide variety of programs and partnerships. We provide scientific expertise to community, state, and partner organizations that monitor water and wildlife. We also provide technical assistance and fund projects that restore healthy habitat. Our process builds community support and attracts multiple sources of funding to ensure ongoing commitment to healthy habitats.
NOAA monitors and studies rivers nationwide to protect vital habitat for a variety of species, including people. Our work includes:
The Office of Habitat Conservation’s NOAA Restoration Center provides funding and technical assistance to habitat restoration projects across the country, including in and near rivers and streams.
Where river habitat has been disrupted by human activity, we work to repair damage and prevent further harm by:
We build consensus, broaden our impact, and leverage our efforts by working with non-profit, academic, corporate, and government partners at every level. This work includes:
Demolition begins on the Benbow Dam in California. Credit: NOAA Fisheries.
The Eel River watershed was once the third largest producer of salmon and steelhead in California. Salmon numbers have declined alarmingly since the 1950s. As the longest salmon run in the state, the Eel is a high priority for successfully rebuilding salmon stocks. Coho, Chinook salmon, and steelhead are all listed on the Endangered Species List.
The NOAA Restoration Center has taken a watershed approach to restoring the Eel River. To do so, we partnered with Humboldt County Resource Conservation District, Ducks Unlimited, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the California Conservation Corps, the Eel River Watershed Improvement Group, Mendocino Redwood Company, Pacific Watershed Associates, and other regional and local groups.
Together, we have:
As a result of these efforts, NOAA has documented increased numbers of juvenile salmon and steelhead trout using the estuary. This improves their survival in the ocean, helping ensure that they grow up and return to their spawning habitat. We will continue to focus on additional high-priority actions that improve habitat in the Eel River and support a healthy population of wild fish.
Santee Dam on the Santee River in South Carolina. Credit: South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.
The Santee River Basin, in North and South Carolina, supports some of the largest populations of migratory fishes on the East Coast of the United States. However, population levels remain depleted compared to historical levels. Several fish species in the southeastern U.S.—including endangered sturgeon, eels, and river herring—face threats including barriers to migration, poor water quality, habitat loss, and competition from invasive species.
Through the NOAA Hydropower Program, NOAA helps make previously-blocked upstream habitat accessible to fish, allowing them to breed and complete their life cycles. These efforts aid in the recovery of threatened and endangered species and contribute to the sustainability of economically important commercial and recreational fisheries.
To address the threats facing fish species in the Santee River Basin, NOAA worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and resource agencies in the states of North Carolina and South Carolina to develop the Santee Basin Restoration Plan.
This plan takes a unique approach toward restoring migratory fish by planning for the entire watershed rather than addressing one project at a time. A basin or watershed plan offers an opportunity for management agencies to coordinate restoration activities, balance competing needs in the watershed, and maximize funding for mutual restoration priorities. The Santee Basin Plan provides several objectives to improve fish habitats including: improving water quality, increasing river flows, providing fish passage, and enhancing monitoring.