Great question. It can get confusing when you hear about fish barriers and fish passage projects across Wyoming. Though all of our work in fish passage involves removing and improving barriers to allow upstream passages for fish there are a few cases where constructing a barrier is our best management option to effectively manage a fishery.
Unlike hydropower and irrigation dams, these fish barriers’ sole purpose is to block upstream movement of all fish. Reasons these are built include:
It is always best to have passage and interconnected streams, but sometimes barriers are a great tool.
- protecting native fish upstream. We protect them from hybridization and competition with species downstream,
- stopping non-native fish species from expanding their range, and
- restoring native species above the barrier.
Publish Date
Answered By
Nick Scribner
Job Title
Fish Passage Coordinator
Photo
Ask Game ID
60
Node order
245
Parent Node
1135