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Abstract: The ageing of Kansas impoundments and resulting habitat deterioration necessitates habitat improvement projects to maintain quality fishing opportunities. Kansas Department of Wildlife & Parks (KDWP) fisheries biologists often partner with other agency divisions, sportsman groups, and volunteer groups to complete projects. These partnerships have provided access to heavy equipment that is not currently included in the KDWP Fisheries Division’s inventory. Skid steer loaders with tree saws and grapple buckets greatly increased output of habitat projects involving placement of tree and brush piles. The increased efficiency in tree cutting and loading of habitat barges quicky exposed the next bottleneck. Heavy equipment allowed larger trees to be utilized for habitat, but these larger structures were difficult to safely deploy from the barges. Commercially produced dump barges were explored and skyrocketing boat prices prevented timely acquisition of new equipment. Upgrading of existing habitat barges with hydraulic dump decks was the best option to meet the goals of increased safety, increased capacity, and increased efficiency of habitat structure deployment while operating within current budget allowances. Two KDWP barges have been upgraded in SE Kansas with slightly different designs.