Fish now have a new bypass in the Yellowstone River in Montana.
Thanks to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a new fish bypass channel project near Glendive, Mont., has been completed, according to an April 20 Bureau of Reclamation news release.
“The opening of the fish bypass channel is a great example of interagency partnership success,” Ryan Newman, Reclamation’s Montana area manager, said in the release. “Since the early 2000s, Reclamation and USACE have been working to address passage and entrainment issues associated with the Lower Yellowstone Project. In addition to protecting pallid sturgeon, Reclamation is committed to continuing the viable and effective operation of the Lower Yellowstone Project for local irrigators.”
“The bypass channel supports the recovery of the pallid sturgeon and will allow passage at the Intake dam and irrigation headworks project on the Yellowstone River,” Carlie L. Hively, P.E. project manager, Civil Works Branch, USACE, Omaha district, said in the release. “It is exciting to see this project come to fruition; to arrive at a tangible result of years of hard work and partnering of multiple agencies for the benefit of the pallid sturgeon.”
The pallid sturgeon is cited as "one of the rarest and largest freshwater fish in North America," by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It is named as a species of concern in Montana and was classified as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1990.
The news release reported the contractor will rehabilitate sections of Road 551, located off State Highway 16, and Canal Road, both on the north side of the Yellowstone River at Intake, Mont. Joe’s Island is anticipated to stay shut down during the fall of 2022 when all activities pertaining to the construction will be finished.
