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P/SUNNY Temp: 37 °F Wind: CLM at 0 mph Saturday, April 26, 2003 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend April 18, 2003 ODFW wants out of fish-hauling job Elk Creek Dam will get a trapping and hauling facility to relieve the state’s burden to move salmon and steelhead around the half-built dam By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife plans to pull out of the trap-and-haul program at Elk Creek Dam, saying it has better things to do with employees than haul fish around the unfinished dam. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is in the early stages of designing a permanent facility to trap, and a sorting facility to haul, salmon and steelhead — including threatened coho salmon — past the half-built dam on the upper Rogue River tributary. The Corps has paid the ODFW to run the program since its inception 11 years ago. But now, faced with the prospects of decades of trap and haul, the ODFW would rather see its work force used in fish projects such as habitat improvement or stream monitoring. "We have more meaningful stuff to do, things that are better suited for the public than burning time hauling fish around Elk Creek Dam," said Russ Stauff, the ODFW’s Rogue watershed manager. The Oregon Legislature caps the numbers of seasonal employees the ODFW can hire, regardless of whether the positions are paid for by some other agency. Corps manager David Moriuchi said Thursday that the Corps does not operate any trap-and-haul programs in the Northwest and that the state agency would be "the operators of choice" for the Elk Creek project. "It’s been a good relationship," said Moriuchi, deputy district engineer for project management in the Corps’ Portland District office. "They’re more experts as those types of things than we are. "We’ll have to look at some alternatives, but I don’t know what they are," he said. Stauff said the ODFW will inform the Corps of its decision in a letter. The ODFW has operated the trap-and-haul facility since it began in 1992, and the Corps pays about $150,000 annually for it. The program traps migrating salmon and steelhead at the dam’s base, then trucks them upstream for release at spawning grounds. The hauling is needed because adult salmon cannot swim through the hole in the half-built dam’s base with enough regularity to ensure successful spawning, according to federal studies. The Corps had planned to notch the dam so fish could swim past unimpeded, but the Bush Administration recently told the Corps to abandon that plan. It gave it about $500,000 to begin designing a permanent trap-and-haul facility. The current trap was designed to work up to five years before being abandoned. The Corps expects to have cost estimates for the facility by next spring and complete it by fall 2006. A 1997 estimate on a permanent facility placed the price tag at $8 million, with an initial operating cost of $150,000 a year. The ODFW has no timetable yet on when it will pull out of the Elk Creek project, Stauff said. "We don’t want to be difficult," Stauff said. "It’s not like we’re going to give them two weeks’ notice." Elk Creek Dam originally was one of three planned for the Rogue Basin. It was to help control floods and enhance fisheries by augmenting low summer water flows in the Rogue. The dam’s construction began in 1986 but was halted by lawsuits the following year. In 1995, the Corps notified Congress that it planned to keep the project uncompleted and pushed to notch the dam for fish passage. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2003 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback A D V E R T I S E R S