A plan to help anadromous fish return to the South Fork Tieton River near Rimrock Reservoir during the fall recently received a $400,000 boost from the U.S. Department of Interior.
On Friday, Shannon Estenoz, assistant secretary of Fish and Wildlife and Parks, gathered with local stakeholders at the site near Rimrock Lake to announce the funding, which is part of $200 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that's being invested into fish passage improvements over the next five years to address barriers fragmenting the nation's rivers and streams.
Estenoz said the collaboration between various stakeholders — the Yakama Nation, state and county officials — makes the project a win for everyone.
"I was certainly impressed by the work that's being done there," she said. "I've been doing river restoration my whole career and investments likes these tend to have great returns."
The South Fork Tieton project will consist of building a new bridge on Tieton Reservoir Road and returning the river to its natural channel.
When the bridge was built more than 35 years ago, it forced the re-channeling of the river due to a weak west bank and slow-moving slide. A new channel was cut into a rock spur with the bridge built over top and the natural channel was filled.
Downstream of the new channel was a 40-foot drop that becomes a waterfall when the reservoir is drawn down from September to April, making fish passage and spawning nearly impossible.
But a $5.2 million project aims to fix that, said Joel Freudenthal, water resource strategic manager for Yakima County.
So far, the project has received $2.9 million, including the funds from the Department of Interior.
Of that, $700,000 has come from the Bureau of Reclamation and $1.8 million is being provided by the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan, a multi-agency project that seeks to improve water storage, availability and fish restoration throughout the Yakima Basin, Freudenthal said.
Fundraising continues and an additional $1 million will be sought for project monitoring and to establish a reserve, he said.
The project has the potential to benefit the entire basin by helping steelhead, chinook, sockeye and kokanee return to natural spawning grounds and allow migration of juvenile fish.
"We want to make sure that the kokanee can get up there and get in and that the sockeye can get up in there and trout to spawn," Freudenthal said.
A new 130-foot bridge will be built about 400 feet away from the existing one, he said.
Bids for the work are expected to go out next year in the fall, he said.
A construction timeline has yet to be established, but the project should unfold smoothly, Freudenthal said.
"It's fairly simple too, the construction," he said. "Once you get a foundation in, it will be stacking pieces on top on each other."
