Sessions


General Information

The Organizing Committee is requesting proposals for sessions starting on September 1, 2025, with a deadline to submit on October 15th and acceptance or denial notification on November 17, 2025. Potential topics of interest are listed below and the Organizing Committee welcomes others not listed that fit under the fish passage umbrella. There will be four tracks aligned to the conference themes of restoration, revitalization, remediation, and reintroduction.

Potential Session Topics

  • Fish passage as part of restoration
  • Dam or barrier removal
  • Road/stream crossing remediation
  • Fishway hydraulics and design
  • New technologies and innovations
  • Telemetry
  • Fish passage science, research, and modeling
  • Traditional fishways
  • Monitoring and evaluation
  • Reintroduction above high-head dams
  • Natural barrier passage
  • Lateral and longitudinal connectivity
  • Tribal engagement and involvement
  • Barrier effects on rivers and fish
  • Fish passage project implementation and lessons learned
  • Education
  • Cooperation, coordination, community outreach, and/or interdisciplinary approaches
  • Community revitalization
  • Social and economic aspects of fish passage
  • Politics, policies, and management
  • Watershed vs smaller scale approaches
  • Fish screening and entrainment reduction
  • Swimming physiology and behavior
  • Climate change impacts on fish passage


Session Details

The sessions will be conducted Tuesday afternoon (May 5th), and all day Wednesday and Thursday (May 6th and 7th). Presentations will be 15 min long plus 5 minutes for Q & A and speaker changes. There will be 4 presentations in each 80-minute block and the blocks will be noted as early morning, late morning, early afternoon, and late afternoon. Session organizers will need to ensure that their sessions will take place in a fully “in-person format”. Therefore, all presenters will need to be in person at UC Davis to participate in a session.

Your Responsibilities as a Session Organizer

All proposed sessions must have a chairperson who serves as the main point of contact for the Organizing Committee. We would like you to name at least two co-chairpersons. The co- chairpersons will assist with session planning, but do not have to attend the conference. 

We will provide on-site support for all sessions. However, the conference is not able to provide any travel or accommodation assistance, registration subsidies or waivers, or any other forms of support. All organizers and presenters will be required to register for the conference. 

Session organizers are responsible for being the main point of contact with their invited speakers throughout the process. Organizers will need to help ensure that all of their speakers submit abstracts before the specified deadline and that all of their speakers register for the conference. Speakers who fail to register by this date may be excluded from the conference
program. Organizers should proactively communicate with their speakers about any updates or changes affecting their session.

Sessions organizers are also responsible for arranging moderators for their session.

Addressing cancellations and filling gaps
If a presenter from your session cancels, withdraws, or fails to register for the conference before the deadline, please find another speaker to replace them. If you are unable to do so or do not have enough speakers to complete your session, the Organizing Committee may assign an appropriate speaker to your session from the general pool of contributed abstracts. We will
make every effort to coordinate with you and obtain your approval if this occurs.

Please do not submit a proposal unless you will be able to fulfill your obligation to organize and deliver the proposed session. Once a session has been accepted, scheduled, and announced, any subsequent cancellations are extremely disruptive and potentially preclude other delegates from participating in the conference program.

Proposal Submission Guidelines

All proposals must be submitted online, using the link below, by midnight US pacific time on
October 15, 2025.

All proposals must be submitted in English.

In the interest of opening the conference to wider participation, individuals may only submit one proposal for a session. However, there is no limit to the number of proposals for presentations which an attendee may submit. Session organizers may ask for the minimum number of presentation time slots, which is four (or one block) or can choose from eight, twelve, or sixteen time slots (up to four blocks total).

Please note that the Organizing Committee may schedule your session for any time during the conference and may or may not be able to accept special scheduling requests. Please let your presenters know this before they agree to participate.

Session Proposal Format

All of the following information must be provided on the submission form.

  1. Session chairperson name, affiliation, phone number, and email address
  2. Co-chairperson names, affiliations, phone numbers, and email addresses
  3. Session title (25 words max)
  4. Fish passage topic that best encompasses the session
  5. Abstract – a brief summary of your session (400 words max)
  6. Brief description of how this session fits with the themes of the conference (100 words
    max)
  7. Number of blocks needed (a block is four presentations – four blocks max)
  8. Number of confirmed presenters

Evaluation Criteria and Process

Session proposals will be evaluated based on how well the session meets the following criteria:

  1. Clear relevance to the field of fish passage
  2. How well the proposal fits the themes of the conference: Restoration, revitalization,
    remediation, and reintroduction
  3. New fish passage projects or research - innovation, novel perspectives, or cutting-edge
    developments
  4. Tribal engagement and involvement
  5. Cooperation, coordination, community outreach, and/or interdisciplinary approaches
  6. Broad applicability in the field of fish passage
  7. Submission of a well thought out and interesting proposal
  8. Percentage of confirmed presenters

Please consider these criteria when composing your abstract.

All submitted session proposals will be peer-reviewed by members of the Organizing and Advisory committees. The Organizing Committee’s aim is to accept all relevant session proposals, but may need to deny some proposals based on available space. Session proposal acceptance or denial email messages will be sent to session organizers on November 17, 2025.