Trail Creek Fish Passage
More Miles. More Fish
By connecting Trail Creek to the Big Wood River, we could open up X miles of habitat crucial to growing blue ribbon trout
Project Overview
The sun valley lake dam on Trail Creek has cut off trout between their native spawning habitat and the Big Wood river. Prior to tributary disconnection, trout had acces to over 15 miles of rearing and spawning habitat, allowing native trout to grow to be nearly three times larger than the average fish caught today. The wooden dam was built in the 1930’s and included a fish ladder, so trout could reach their spawning grounds. When Dollar road was built in the 1960’s, the fish ladder was decommissioned. In the 1990’s, the old fish ladder was re-established, but the lake water could not reach levels high enough that were adequate for fish passage. See below for Rainbow trout attempting to migrate to the upper reaches of Trail Creek, just below the Sun Valley Lake Dam.
Project Goals & Benefits
1. Modification of fish passage barriers can be designed to reduce maintenance costs
2. Opportunity to create eco-tourism at Sun Valley Dam site and increase revenue during non-peak tourism season
3. Increase abundance and size of Rainbow trout in the Big Wood River and Trail Creek Basins
4. Increase spawning and rearing habitat for Rainbow trout by providing access to critical habitats, including rare beaver dam pond complexes in Trail and Corral Creek
5. Increased survival of juvenile Rainbow trout, which leads to increases forage for adult size fish and other wildlife
6. Increased size and abundance of Rainbow trout will increase fishing opportunities for tourists throughout the fishing season
Before and After Aerial Images: Restoration Impact
Before:
After: