Nov. 26, 2024
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For information, please contact:
Jim McCarthy, WaterWatch of Oregon, jim@waterwatch.org
Scott Wright, River Design Group/SWCA Environmental Consultants, scott.wright@swca.com
Pomeroy Dam, West Side Road culverts before and after images here:
https://tinyurl.com/3ebb76cm
Please credit photos to Crystal Nichols/Dustin Saigo
Rogue River Basin’s Highest Priority Barrier to Native Fish Comes Down
Ongoing multi-barrier collaborative effort benefits salmon and steelhead, improves road and irrigation infrastructure, increases resiliency to climate change.
Cave Junction, Oregon — Work crews have finished demolition of a 10-foot high, 270-foot wide concrete diversion dam as part of a larger collaborative effort to restore access to habitat for native salmon and steelhead in the Illinois River, a major tributary of the Rogue River. Pomeroy Dam, listed in Group 1 of the 2019 Statewide Fish Passage Barrier Priority List by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), becomes the second priority fish-impeding dam — after the Takelma Creek Dam — to be removed from the Illinois River subbasin in two years.
The multi-faceted first phase of the Pomeroy project opened access to approximately 100 miles of formerly blocked spawning and rearing habitat for salmon and steelhead, replaced the dam’s water diversion function with two fish-friendly, screened, and metered pump diversions constructed approximately two miles downstream, replaced two fish blocking Josephine County culverts on West Side Road with safer, fish friendly culverts, and began decommissioning the two miles of leaky earthen water delivery canal between the former dam and the new diversion pump sites.
For the first time in 126 years, the 56 miles of the mainstem Illinois River is now entirely free-flowing from its beginnings within Illinois River Forks State Park to its confluence with the Rogue River near Agness. Prior to drawdown of the Pomeroy Dam reservoir and the commencement of structural demolition, ODFW led fish salvage operations at the site, assisted by staff from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), as well as local volunteers.
Project construction will continue into 2025 and will primarily include improvements to private on-ranch irrigation and road infrastructure that also correct barriers to native migratory fish.
“This is great news for salmon and steelhead, and the many people who love the Illinois River,” said Jim McCarthy, Southern Oregon Program Director for WaterWatch. “The accelerated pace of river restoration in the Illinois is a great credit to the many partners who came together to get the work done, and demonstrates the need to maintain the federal and state programs that make these projects possible.”
Pomeroy Dam did not have a constructed fish ladder to provide unhindered access to the 100 miles of quality fish habitat upstream. As a result, state and federal agencies identified correction of fish passage at the dam as important to the recovery of Southern Oregon/Northern California Coast Coho salmon, listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. In addition to Coho salmon, the Illinois River tributaries upstream provide spawning and rearing habitat for fall Chinook salmon, winter steelhead, cutthroat trout, Pacific lamprey, and Klamath smallscale suckers.
“This win-win-win project is an amazing result of strong collaboration between the private landowners, public agencies, and non-profit organizations all working towards the goal of improving fish passage,” said CalLee Davenport, Oregon State Coordinator for the USFWS Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program. “This is a big win for the dam owner. They now have a much more reliable way to get water for irrigating their property in a far safer way than placing dam boards to divert water into the old leaky ditch. Additionally, by removing the dam, and capping the head end of the ditch, there’s no need for the landowner to have to install a cumbersome fish screen to keep fish out of the irrigation ditch. Secondly, it’s an obvious win for juvenile and adult salmonids, lamprey, and other fish species that now can now easily migrate through the area. Lastly, it’s a win for all the partners that have collaborated to restore natural stream processes in the river itself, as well as in a few adjacent tributaries where other fish passage improvements have been implemented.”
“As an avid steelhead fisherman raised fishing on the Illinois in Josephine County, it is deeply satisfying to be a part of this collaborative effort to restore salmon and steelhead to this beautiful river and its tributaries,” said Scott Wright, principal engineer for River Design Group/SWCA Environmental Consultants and lead engineer and project manager for the project. “Removing these barriers creates an unhindered pathway for salmon and steelhead between the ocean and prime freshwater spawning and nursery habitat, and increases this watershed’s overall resiliency against the harms of climate change.”
WaterWatch previously secured barrier removal and restoration agreements from the three private landowners within the approximately 2,000 acre, five-mile long restoration project footprint, which ensured removal of barriers to native fish at no cost to them. Since then, the group partnered with ODFW, USFWS, USFS, NOAA Fisheries Restoration Center, the office of U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley, Native Fish Society, Resources Legacy Fund, Rogue Basin Partnership, and The Conservation Alliance to secure funding for the project. Engineering firm RDG/SWCA provided field studies, design, and construction oversight services. RDG/SWCA, USFWS, and BLM provided permitting services for this project. Grants Pass-based construction contractor Dietrich Construction performed the dam demolition, culvert replacement, riparian blackberry removal, and stream restoration.