People Behind a Stronger Coast: Julie Devers

These three corrugated metal culverts outside of Centreville, MD, at a road-stream crossing are a severe barrier to fish migration, says Julie Devers, fish biologist. Water flows through the crushed and rusted pipes to drop into a shallow pool at the outlet. If fish were trying to swim upstream to their spawning grounds, they would be forced to jump, an impossible task for migrating fish species found in this watershed. Credit: Steve Droter

Communities are safer if culverts are correctly designed and installed. During storms and flash flooding events, such as Hurricanes Irene or Sandy, Devers says “the water flow [was] so high that it was going up and over the culverts and was wiping out the roads… So we’re trying to set states up to have the data [they need] so in the event we are replacing culverts for routine maintenance or if there’s a fish barrier, we’re putting the right size in.” Credit: Steve Droter

The North Atlantic Aquatic Connectivity Collaborative (NAACC) is a network of individuals from universities, conservation organizations, state and federal natural resource and transportation agencies focused on improving aquatic connectivity in 13 states from Maine to West Virginia. The funding they received after Hurricane Sandy from the Department of the Interior created common protocols for measuring road stream–crossings to identify high priority bridges and culverts for upgrades and replacement to improve coastal resiliency and fish passages. Credit: Steve Droter

“Even if they are not what we have historically considered migratory species, all fish need to be able to move freely within a given stream,” says Phil Herzig, a fisheries biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “The goal” explains Devers “is to maintain connectivity for species like brook trout so that we don’t cut a population off so that it doesn’t have genetic mixing with other downstream populations.” Credit: Stever Droter

Out of the more than 30,000 road-stream crossings in Maryland, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and partners have assessed approximately 1,000. With an average of one road-stream crossing every 1.3 miles in the Northeast, the ability to prioritize which crossings are the most severe inhibitors to safety and fish passage allows for the best distribution of resources. Credit: Steve Droter

At the base of this road-stream crossing is a scour pool. When culverts are undersized for high flow events, water comes through like a firehouse. This can widen and/or deepen the downstream area as it cuts through the banks. These scour pools destabilize stream banks and lead to an increase of sediment sloughed off into the stream. Credit: Steve Droter

“There’s a brook trout stream near my house,” says Devers, “A culvert in the stream has been replaced twice and the road repaired because of flooding and if they would just put it back the right size, there could be an opportunity for brook trout passage. I wish the public knew that some of these resources that they care about could be helped if we got the engineers to make the culverts the right size” to handle these high flow events. Credit: Steve Droter

Just outside of Centreville, Maryland, you can find Julie Devers waist deep in water on the side of the road. With measuring tape in hand, she is assessing one of more than 30,000 road-stream crossings in the state.  The particular culverts she is examining are known to be a severe barrier to fish passage. Safety for people and connectivity for fish and wildlife can be enhanced by simply repairing and redesigning these crossings.

Devers is a fish biologist with the Maryland Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office. By partnering with the Maryland State Highway Administration, NOAA Fisheries and Maryland Department of Natural Resources, they have been assessing road-stream crossings to develop recommendations of which culverts and crossings should be prioritized for repair. “Highways have a maintenance schedule,” says Devers, and through their recommendations, “the SHA could replace [the culverts] when they redo the highway.”

Entire roads can be wiped out if they are undersized or poorly designed.  “What we saw in the Northeast during Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee is that undersized culverts really caused a lot of damage,” says Devers. Flooding from storm surges are not able to pass through these barriers and can cause thousands of dollars of damage to roads and property. As we mark the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Sandy’s devastation of the Atlantic Coast, it is important to keep in mind the impact that these climate events can have on our communities.

For species of river herrings like alewife, blueback herring and American shad the difference between a fish-friendly passageway and a severe barrier is more than a safety concern; it’s about life or death. These species are vital to the food web. Alewife have been known to be eaten by nearly anything throughout their transition in habitat; ranging from cod, halibut, fox, and eagles.

These migratory species travel from saltwater to freshwater to lay their eggs. If there are blockages along the way, they won’t be able to complete their journey. Even for nonmigratory species, such as brook trout, the inability to travel upstream could leave entire populations separated causing a genetic bottleneck. The brook trout stream near her home, one of the last in Anne Arundel County, says Devers, is considered a “relic” to the locals.

Across the whole Northeast, there are an estimated 210,000 bridges, culverts, and dams spanning 280,000 miles of river. Many of them, you are passing on your morning commute and are throughout your community. While many of these dams and bridges serve important purposes, old and inadequate designs make them a risk.

After Hurricane Sandy, funding through the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013 has supported dozens of projects to restore rivers and streams and remove barriers to connectivity. With this funding, projects throughout Maryland have been able to better protect their communities and coastline through increases resiliency. Groups like the North Atlantic Aquatic Connectivity Collaborative were able to utilize this funding to create a map and database for biologists like Devers and for the public to use. These tools provide information about the assessed barriers in a region and rates how bad they are for fish passage or safety.

Through the work of biologists like Devers, we are able to make our communities more resilient. By working to identify the features in our communities that could pose a risk to people and wildlife, she is giving stakeholders the tools to create the change needed to make us #StrongerAfterSandy.

This is the second in a five part series of photo slideshows highlighting the people who have been working to defend their coastal ecosystems against storms in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Last week, we looked at Matt Whitbeck and Miles Simmons in Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. You can view the continuation of this series and other news regarding our restoration and recovery projects on our website.