The Pacific Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has awarded more than $1.5 million in grants to help water users in Idaho, Oregon and Washington make improvements that will benefit native fish such as salmon and bull trout.
The grants, awarded during August, will help water users install screens on irrigation canals, provide fish passage fish passage
Fish passage is the ability of fish or other aquatic species to move freely throughout their life to find food, reproduce, and complete their natural migration cycles. Millions of barriers to fish passage across the country are fragmenting habitat and leading to species declines. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Fish Passage Program is working to reconnect watersheds to benefit both wildlife and people.
Learn more about fish passage and conduct inventories in 11 watersheds in the three states. The grants were made available through a cost-share funding program created through the Fisheries Restoration and Irrigation Mitigation Act of 2000 approved by Congress. The Service implements the program in cooperation with state, tribal and local partners for improvements at existing water diversions. The partners must provide at least 35 percent of the funding and assume responsibility for operating and maintaining the project.
"Water diversions play an important role in our economy and have many benefits, but nearly 80 percent of the diversions in the Pacific Northwest are unscreened, posing a major risk to our region
