Fishways Designs for Trapping of Large Puget Sound Salmon Runs and Pend Oreille Basin Migratory Char and Trout

The Seattle District (USACE) is beginning the design phase for two upstream trapping systems.  The facilities include a replacement trap at a 75-year-old site at Mud Mountain Dam (MMD) on the White River, and a new facility at Albeni Falls Dam (AFD) on the Pend Oreille River.  These facilities will improve upstream passage of adult salmon, trout, char and other resident migratory fish above USACE dams. The AFD facility will complete a network of new trapping facilities connecting several hundred miles of resident fish habitat.  USACE has designed these facilities in collaboration with National Marine Fisheries Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, tribes, and  regional stake holders. The MMD trap is one of the oldest trapping systems in the Pacific Northwest while AFD will be the first mainstem fishway in the USACE Columbia River hydropower system designed specifically for resident migratory fish. The presentation will discuss these unique design problems, with potential solutions for sediment management on a glacial river, passage of sub-adult resident migratory fish, and facility design for up to 60,000 pink salmon in one day.