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Restoring access to fish habitat through the design and construction of two fishways at Huckleberry Mine

British Columbia Mine Reclamation Symposium; University of British Columbia. Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering

Creek M is a short, high-gradient creek located on the south side of Tahtsa Reach in Ootsa Lake (Nechako Reservoir) near Houston, British Columbia. This creek was barren of fish until 1996, when Huckleberry Mines Ltd. implemented a habitat-compensation plan to offset prospective losses of fish habitat associated with mine development. The goal of this plan was to allow upstream passage of fish from Tahtsa Reach throughout the creek to a headwater pond located approximately 425 metres (m) upstream. Compensation structures within the creek consisted of three fishways comprised of log-steps (i.e., weirs) lined with geotextile and anchored with rock fill. Annual fish surveys documented the failure over time of many log-step structures, precluding fish passage. In 2012 and 2013, remedial works were undertaken to re-establish upstream fish passage for juvenile and adult rainbow trout in Creek M. New fishways were designed to be more robust, to function over a range of flows, and to meet specific requirements of migrating rainbow trout.

British Columbia

Text

2014-11-19

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/51122

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/