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Obstacles to fish passage will come out Million-dollar state grant helps pay for work this summer By Mark Freeman Wild salmon and steelhead will find the Rogue River basin more fish-friendly this summer when 15 impediments to fish passage are removed from key spawning streams. The $2.5 million effort, spearheaded by a $1 million grant that is the largest ever issued by the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, will target removal of things like gravel "push-up" dams in the Illinois River and will include repairing fish screens at an old concrete dam on Little Butte Creek. The structures are all at or near the top of a list of 800 artificial barriers that the basin�s anadromous fish face while either migrating upstream as spawning adults, or migrating downstream as juveniles, OWEB officials said. "It�s not just 15 random barriers," OWEB Deputy Director Ken Bierly said Thursday. "Folks in the Rogue basin have been working cooperatively to develop a prioritized system, and this picks off some of the highest priority (barriers) in the system." The barriers are scheduled to be removed this summer and either fitted with different types of fish ladders or stair-like pools that help fish move in and out of the tributaries. "It�s definitely not going to solve all our problems," said Jack Shipley, an Applegate resident who sits on the 18-member OWEB, which funnels Oregon Lottery profits to watershed improvement projects statewide. "But I think this is huge." The projects include installing a new and better fish ladder and screens to a concrete diversion dam at the Little Butte Creek mill, said Rosemarie Davis of the Jackson Soil and Water Conservation District, which is one of 17 government or private partners in the effort. Other projects include creating alternatives to push-up dams � the gravel berms some irrigators build annually in streambeds to help divert water to fields in the summer, Davis said. "We�re not just going to remove push-up dams, but give people alternative ways to get their water," Davis said. Other barriers targeted in the project include one on the East Fork of Evans Creek, one on Sucker Creek in Josephine County and one at the base of Lobster Creek along the lower Rogue in Curry County. When the projects are done, according to OWEB, more than 337 miles of new habitat will be available for salmon, steelhead and trout. The OWEB grant of $1 million is the largest grant issued in the board�s 13-year history and is the cornerstone of the $2.5 million project. Other cash grants include $500,000 from the federal Bureau of Reclamation, $169,000 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, $23,000 from the River Network and $10,000 each from the World Wildlife Fund and the Medford-based Carpenter Foundation. In-kind contributions also will come from agencies like the National Marine Fisheries Service and Medford Water Resources Commission. Bierly said the cooperative effort to find and prioritize fish impediments in the basin will become a model for other regions looking to get the most fish benefits out of the dollars they have available. "We could spend $1 million removing barriers in other places," Bierly said, "and not get as much for our money as we�re getting here." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.