Fish Passage – Poster Presentations
CLEAN CURRENTS 2026
Time: 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Day: 9/23/2026
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Details about each presentation and the speakers are below:
In this session:
Inspiring the Next Generation: Interactive STEM Education to Build Support for FishSafe Hydropower
Salmon and Hydropower—Can We Have It All? Lessons Learned from Developing a New Diversion Hydropower Project in Alaska
Inspiring the Next Generation: Interactive STEM Education to Build Support for FishSafe Hydropower (Natel Energy)
Presented by Kate Stirr, Natel Energy
For the hydropower industry to thrive, it must proactively engage and inspire the next generation of engineers, scientists, and community leaders. Building long-term, grassroots support for hydropower requires shifting the public narrative away from historical misconceptions and demonstrating how modern facilities can successfully coexist with healthy river ecosystems.
To achieve this, the DOE-funded Stakeholder Outreach for FishSafe Hydropower (SO-FiSH) project was launched to create a highly engaging, science-based framework for K-12 education. Building upon the initiative introduced at Clean Currents 2025, this poster presentation details the successful 2026 field-testing of the SO-FiSH 9th-grade Earth Science curriculum.
To ensure the program is highly scalable, the classroom curriculum brings complex river dynamics directly to students through videos and explainer animations featuring the project's flagship physical stream table. By utilizing these video assets, teachers can deliver engaging critical-thinking science lessons without needing to build or fund their own physical models.
Meanwhile, the physical flagship stream table itself is permanently housed at UMN SAFL, where it serves as a powerful engagement tool for public tours and school field trips. Powered by custom-made software, the SAFL stream table offers a fully interactive experience. Just as Clean Currents attendees test-drove the system at the 2025 conference, SAFL visitors can use the software to step into the role of a hydro operator, making operational decisions to balance reliable energy generation with ecological health.
This poster provides a transparent look at the results of the 2026 classroom testing and SAFL public tours, highlighting how students and teachers engaged with the materials. Attendees will learn how they can access the completed, open-source SO-FiSH curriculum to help inspire critical thinkers and build positive hydro support within their own local communities.
Salmon and Hydropower—Can We Have It All? Lessons Learned from Developing a New Diversion Hydropower Project in Alaska (McMillen, Inc.)
Presented by Audrey Thompson, McMillen, Inc
In many cases of new hydropower development, there is a fundamental assumption that a hydropower dam will disrupt salmon migrations, cause injury and mortality to juveniles, and irrevocably change the natural hydrograph and character of a river system. For these reasons, hydropower projects with dams are often not considered in places with sensitive salmon species such as the Bristol Bay region of Alaska, where salmon are the lifeblood of both the local economy and native culture, heritage, and subsistence.
The unique geological features of the Nuyakuk River, a major tributary to the Nushagak River which has recent annual Sockeye Salmon escapements of more than 1.5 million fish, affords the opportunity to evaluate whether a new non-dam hydropower project (i.e., a run-of-river diversion project) could supply the region with a clean and affordable alternative to diesel generation while protecting the populations of Pacific salmon that rely on habitat connectivity between Bristol Bay and their spawning habitats in the Wood Tikchik State Park to survive.
The Nuyakuk Falls Hydropower Project was conceptualized more than 10 years ago, and an in-depth two-year study program was completed in 2024 as part of the initial FERC licensing effort to evaluate whether it may be possible to construct and operate the project in a way that provides essential hydropower energy while also protecting salmon, salmon habitat, and various other natural resources. These studies integrated 2D hydraulic modeling, fish passage telemetry studies, fish population and habitat assessments, hydroacoustic monitoring, entrainment, impingement and false attraction modeling, life cycle modeling, and integrated risk assessments.
The synthesis and consideration of the results of this study program suggest that it may be possible for the Nuyakuk River to support both hydropower and salmon. At this juncture, indications are that a carefully designed and collaboratively operated project could serve both humans and fish on the Nuyakuk River, and may provide an encouraging example of an innovative path for new hydropower development in a region with both significant potential hydropower resources and important species that rely on habitat continuity to survive.
This talk will describe the development of the Nuyakuk Falls Hydropower Project concept, the process of designing a study program to evaluate its potential effect on fish and aquatic resources, and a discussion of how thoughtfully designed hydropower projects without dams may open doors for hydropower development in places where dams are dealbreakers for salmon.
