Fish Ladders allow Bonneville - The News-Examiner

4 - August 17, 2011 - The Bear Laker - Supplement to The News-Examiner, the only newspaper in the whole world that cares about the Bear Lake Valley
Fish Ladders allow Bonneville
Photos and article by Valerie Hayes
News-Examiner staff writer
The completed pool-weir designed fish ladder in Georgetown
Canyon looks like this.
Bonneville cutthroat trout are the only native trout in the Bonneville Basin,
which encompasses most of Utah, a little bit of Idaho and Nevada. They are
big, fish-eating piscivores that are very uniquely adapted to the desert environment.
They can withstand high stream temperatures, yet they also live in
areas that are extremely cold in winters. Some of the coldest temperatures are
recorded right here in the heart of the Bear River Water Shed.
In the past few years, two major areas in the Bear Lake Valley have been
identified for a watershed-wide Bonneville cutthroat trout restoration effort to
restore connectivity and habitat for the trout.
The first area was a spawning tributary to Bear Lake for migratory
Bonneville cutthroat trout called Fish Haven Creek. The trout come out of
Bear Lake to spawn in this tributary. For many years, cutthroats have not been
able to spawn naturally here because of barriers to the creek.
A lot of reconnection and restoration was done on Fish Haven Creek to
allow the cutthroats to come up and spawn naturally in some of the historic
spawning grounds.
In late 2009, a 300-foot long box culvert that was a migration barrier to
about 98 percent of the migrating fish was removed from the creek. It was
replaced with a structure called a “bottomless arch culvert.” The culvert is 12
feet wide and 230 feet long. It has
concrete footings that are poured 3
feet deep below both sides with a
keyway. The arch was dropped and
locked in place and grouted in. The
weight of the structure holds it in
place.
Spring of 2010 was the first time
in approximately 60 years that fish
were able to get up into the Fish
Haven Creek system and spawn
naturally.
The second area identified was
Georgetown Creek which is an
important tributary of the Bear
River for Bonneville cutthroat trout.
The diversion headgate at the
mouth of Georgetown Canyon traditionally
blocked upstream cutthroat
trout migration, so it was
determined that a “fish ladder”
needed to be built to give the fish
access to the upper part of the
drainage.