Bear Creek Fish Passage Project

This aquatic organism passage project is located on Bear Creek on the Mt. Hood National Forest (MHNF) within the Hood River Ranger District. Bear Creek is spring-fed, making it an important cold, clearwater tributary to the often glacial silt-laden Middle Fork Hood River. The existing road-stream crossing at the project site is a 52-foot long, 11-foot wide corrugated metal pipe arch culvert. The proposed project is needed to 1) create unimpeded fish passage to 2.7 miles of upstream habitat for ESA-listed winter steelhead, bull trout, and coho, as well as Spring Chinook salmon, Pacific lamprey, native rainbow trout, and cutthroat trout, and 2) improve hydrologic function by accommodating 100-year flood events and allowing normal transport of sediment and wood.
The Hood River Watershed Group (HRWG) has a final design for the project and approximately $500,000 in matching funds from MHNF for construction. The project will replace the culvert with a precast concrete bridge and footings and restore the stream channel under the new bridge. Project partners are HRWG and the MHNFs Hood River Ranger District. HRWG will oversee all aspects of project construction and the Hood River Ranger District staff have secured all necessary permits.

The project goals are to create unimpeded fish passage to 2.7 miles of upstream habitat for ESA-listed winter steelhead, bull trout, and coho, as well as Spring Chinook salmon, rainbow trout, and cutthroat trout, and improve hydrologic function by accommodating 100-year flood events and allowing normal transport of sediment and wood. A primary benefit of this project is to allow unimpeded movement for juvenile salmonids up and downstream of the stream crossing. The current road stream crossing is an undersized, slightly perched culvert, which creates a velocity barrier for juveniles and a vertical barrier for early-stage juveniles. Replacing the culvert with a bridge will also improve access for all life history stages of salmonids. Bear Creek is spring-fed and provides important cold, clearwater refuge from the glacially-influenced Middle Fork Hood River, to which it is a tributary.