DESCRIPTION
This project examined restoring fish passage, installing a fish screen and addressing the need for improved base flow in Buck Ck. The irrigation dam on Buck Creek at the outtake for the White Salmon Irrigation District is a 67% (100% w/ flashboards installed) fish passage barrier, and the diversion itself is unscreened. Additionally, WSID overflow water currently going to White Salmon River may be returned to Buck Ck. SRFB funding was used to assess feasibility of project alternatives and develop 70% designs for the preferred option. These designs will provide fish passage restoration and screening in Buck Creek, and irrigation system overflow improvements.
The project focused on providing fish passage at a 2.5ft dam (3.65' with flash boards installed) and screening the irrigation outtake in Buck Creek. These improvements will restore access to 1.3 miles of upstream spawning and rearing habitat to resident cutthroat, rainbow trout, anadromous populations of Threatened bull trout, sea-run cutthroat, ESA listed Mid-Columbia steelhead, spring and fall Chinook, and Coho, all which are anticipated to recolonize and use Buck Creek now that passage is restored at the former Condit Dam site. Additionally, the project focused on returning irrigation overflows, which currently flow to the White Salmon River, back to Buck Creek. This could be accomplished via piping the irrigation system and/or piping the overflow portion back into lower Buck Creek.
Instream and riparian ecological conditions will be improved for focal fish species, aquatic organisms, and wildlife by restoring passage, eliminating fish entrapment in the irrigation ditch, and improving base flows in Buck Creek should this design be funded in the future.