Idaho Screen Program

1
Idaho Screen Program

• 2006 Update

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Present Status

• Most major river corridors have been treated by
  diversion consolidations, ditch eliminations,
  passage improvements, water conservation, and
  screening.
• After a three year BPA funding cycle of being
  restricted to only installing screens and fish
  passage, we are returning to a tributary wide
  treatment approach.
• Moratorium on new water rights was lifted.

3
Tributary Focus

• Spawning streams for wild steelhead
• Spawning streams for Bull Trout and Westslope
  Cutthroat Trout
• Anadromous juvenile rearing streams
• Provide late summer thermal refuge
• Vital life component for fluvial trout
• Provide flushing flows downstream

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5
Monitoring Evaluation

• Stream Surveys
• PIT Tag Interrogations
• Weir operations
• Redd counts

6
Recent Evaluations

• 30 Stream Surveys.
• Alaska Steeppass ladder evaluation on the
  SChaC-08/8A diversion.
• PIT tag interrogators on lower Lemhi River fish
  screen bypasses.
• Hydraulic and fisheries evaluations on every
  newly deployed structure.
• Limited evaluation of the Gooby Bubbler screen
  using rainbow fry.

7
R D Program

• Twin rotating cylinder solar powered screen with
  a four inch bottle brush cleaner. Attaches
  directly to a pipeline.
• Paddlewheel operated horizontal traveling belt
  screen.
• Double bay concrete paddlewheel driven point of
  diversion wiper screen.
• Additional paddlewheel design work involving
  dimensional analysis.

8
FRIMA Work

• Mahala Ditch project near McCall, Idaho.
• Two rotary drum screens in the Bear River
  drainage in Southeast, Idaho.
• Currently working on a Panther Creek ditch
  consolidation project with the local Model
  Watershed program.

9
Squaw CreekScreens and Passage

• Installed fish screens on all six diversions.
• Improved fish passage at two diversions.
• Eliminated problems with wolves and researchers.

10
Kenny Creek Reconnection Project
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Concerns

• IDWR enforcement of water rights.
• Federal land management agency action response
  times.
• Cost share availability for Federal funding.
• High cost to conserve water.
• Absentee landowners.
• Subdivided lands multiple irrigators.

12
Outlook

• Conservation groups such as Nature Conservancy,
  Friends of the Tetons, and Trout Unlimited are
  energizing locals in SE Idaho to participate in
  fisheries projects.
• Growing group that believe Any screen is better
  than no screen.
• Farm Bill grows larger each year and has more
  funding for conservation including fish screens.
• Cabelas in Boise. Demographics are changing.
  More interest in conservation.