The North Yakima Conservation District, with support from the Yakima Basin Tributary Access and Habitat Program (YBTAHP) participants, used this funding to implement fish screen design and improvements on Ahtanum Creek. Specifically, this project removed a fish passage barrier, screened an irrigation diversion, set back a flood control berm, and established riparian habitat. The district built nine vortex rock weir structures to provide irrigation diversion control and fish passage at all flow levels. The project also included construction and implementation of a 10 cfs rotary drum fish screen and a set back of an eight foot push up berm approximately 75 feet from the stream bank to allow for reconnection of the floodplain and restoration of the riparian vegetation community. This project had been identified by YBTAHP as a high priority early implementation project. Ahtanum Creek lies partially within the Yakama Nation, and it currently supports steelhead and bull trout, as well as Chinook and coho salmon, making it a high priority stream for fish passage and screening improvements. This unscreened diversion lay approximately 11 miles upstream from the confluence with the Yakima River and three miles downstream of the Ahtanum Irrigation District (AID) and the Wapato Irrigation Project (WIP) screen diversion. It was the last unscreened gravity diversion remaining on the Ahtanum Creek. All other diversions on the creek had been screened or converted to screened pump diversions. Cooperative work among the Ahtanum Irrigation District, the Wapato Irrigation Project, and fish management agencies have helped to maintain minimum fish passage water levels in the lower 14 miles of Ahtanum Creek.
SPONSOR: North Yakima Conservation District
