National

Aquatic Barrier Inventory & Prioritization Tool

Aquatic Barrier Tool

Great Plains & Intermountain West Region

Great Plains & Intermountain West region map
Map of 107,942 inventoried dams and 3,604 road-related barriers likely to impact aquatic organisms in the Great Plains & Intermountain West region.

Includes 9 states with:

107,942 inventoried dams, including:

  • 311 that have been reconned for social feasibility of removal
  • 95 that have been removed or mitigated, gaining 11,445 miles of reconnected rivers and streams

1,032,542 or more potential road-related aquatic barriers, including:

  • 6,401 that have been assessed for impacts to aquatic organisms
  • 3,604 that are likely to impact aquatic organisms
  • 69 that have been removed or mitigated, gaining 550 miles of reconnected rivers and streams
Explore how many dams or road-related barriers there are in a state, county, or watershed.
Identify and rank dams or road-related barriers that reconnect the most high-quality aquatic networks.

Data Sources

Records describing dams and road-related barriers within Montana include those maintained by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks.

Records describing dams and road-related barriers within Utah include those maintained by the Utah Barrier Assessment Inventory Tool.

Information on aquatic barriers in Wyoming is a product of the Wyoming Game & Fish Department, including field data collection in coordination with the Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership.

Statistics by state:

Inventoried damsReconned damsAssessed road-related barriers
Colorado14,11353425
Iowa4,4312710
Kansas22,44221,467
Montana15,585252,096
Nebraska16,78452
North Dakota6,43226176
South Dakota18,2705237
Utah3,59265644
Wyoming10,7241301,354
Total107,9423116,401

6,953 inventoried dams and 467 assessed road-related barriers were not analyzed because they could not be correctly located on the aquatic network or were otherwise excluded from the analysis. You can optionally include these in your download.

Note: These statistics are based on inventoried dams and road-related barriers. Because the inventory is incomplete in many areas, areas with a high number of dams may simply represent areas that have a more complete inventory.


You can help!

You can help improve the inventory You can help improve the inventory by sharing data, assisting with field reconnaissance to evaluate the impact of aquatic barriers, or even by reporting issues with the inventory data in this tool.

Contact us to learn more about how you can help improve aquatic connectivity in the Great Plains & Intermountain West region.