Restore Alpowa Creek Fish Passage

This project was sponsored by the Nez Perce Tribe Department of Fisheries Resource Management, Watershed Division, as the project location is within the Tribe’s Treaty Territory. The Nez Perce Tribe restored 100% fish passage to Alpowa Creek at the bridge at milepost 1.3 on Alpowa Creek Road. Walla Walla Community College completed an inventory of culverts and bridges in 2012 (SRFB project #07-1881), and this site on Alpowa Creek was identified as a partial fish passage barrier. Abutments that were left from an old bridge when a new bridge was installed constricted flow, causing an 18 inch vertical drop at high flow that made the stream impassable to fish. The Nez Perce Tribe completed designs for this project in 2014 with funding from Bonneville Power Administration. The implementation portion of the project was funded by this grant and was implemented in September 2017, in partnership with Garfield County.

To correct the barrier, the Nez Perce Tribe and Garfield County placed large boulders in the scour hole created by the old abutments just downstream of the bridge, and built a roughened channel from the abutments downstream approximately 175 ft. Removing this barrier provided unobstructed fish passage to 15 miles of upstream habitat. This project is intended to benefit Snake River steelhead.

Restore 100% fish passage to Alpowa Creek at the bridge at milepost 1.3 on Alpowa Creek Road.