Project planning and design to restore year-long fish passage at the CTUIR’s adult collection facility located approximately two miles upstream of Union, Oregon near RM 43.

Project planning and preliminary design would conducted beginning late fall with completion in mid-2022.  The facility is operated by the CTUIR to collect adult spring Chinook salmon for the Catherine Creek supplementation program. Adult summer steelhead are also enumerated at the site.

The fish collection facility consists of a picket weir which is attached at the bottom sill of a full channel width pool and Denil ladder. The picket weir is typically installed the first week of March in order to enumerate summer steelhead. Trapping of adult summer steelhead and spring Chinook is accomplished by directing adults into a fish ladder and off channel trap with a fyke opening and holding area that is 25 feet long and 6 feet wide. The depth is operated at about 6 feet (900 ft3). The designed adult Chinook holding capacity is 90 using 10 ft3/adult. There is also a recovery area in the ladder above the trap that the fish can remain in until ready to continue upstream. Trapping occurs March through July to collect data and adult brood stock for the Catherine Creek Chinook supplementation program. An ODFW juvenile screw trap is located immediately upstream of the project to sample juvenile Chinook and steelhead during out-migrating seasons.

The site includes a POD that services four water rights. The POD head gate is controlled by backwater provided by the concrete weir and diverts irrigation and stock water into an historic Catherine Creek side channel. The approximate 1,200 foot side channel includes two small fish ladders, two culverts, and an additional irrigation gate in the upper segment of the side channel to provide water to adjacent farm fields.

The ODFW recently installed pit tag arrays in the ladder and adjacent side channel to evaluate fish passage and use which will help inform project planning (personal communication with Ted Sedell, May 17, 2021).

Project objectives, as they are preliminarily defined, include:

1. Meet the operational and facility needs of the adult collection facility that are integral to a successful supplementation program.

2. Restore year-long fish passage for all life stages of native fishery resources.

3. Improve sediment transport through site, minimizing need for annual sediment removal.

4. Evaluate POD and water right infrastructure and opportunities for improvements.

5. Evaluate and develop off-channel rearing habitat enhancement opportunities.

6. Evaluate and develop improvements for fisheries monitoring.