Craig TussThe Gold Hill Irrigation District operates a diversion dam on the Rogue River near the town of Gold Hill. The principle fish passage impediment at this facility is to downstream migrating, young salmon, steelhead, and Pacific lamprey. As these fish pour out of the upper parts of the Rogue Basin each spring on their journey to the Pacific Ocean, some proportion of them gets diverted along with irrigation water at the irrigation district’s diversion structure. Over the past 98 years, these diverted fish lived in a ¼-mile long canal for days to weeks. In this canal, they were subject to warm and shallow water –conditions that left them susceptible to stress and high rates of predation by bird and mammal predators. Similarly, a canal spillway located well downstream of the dam attracted adult migrating fish away from the river and into a shallow, debris-filled deadend. Attracted away from the protection of the deep, cool Rogue River, these adult fish were also easy prey for large predators.
On August 18, 2014, the Gold Hill Irrigation District initiated construction to replace the ditch with a pipe. This project will decrease the number of fish that are diverted into the district’s facilities, will quickly move any fish that do get diverted back into the Rogue River (where they belong), and will eliminate the attraction of adult migrating fish into the canal bypass area. These improvements will increase the survival of young salmon on their way to the ocean and the number of spawning fish that reach the upper Rogue each year.