Detailed plans for restoring salmon and steelhead habitat along part of the Trinity River will be unveiled by federal and state officials Wednesday in Lewiston.
The plans are the latest in a round of fixes aimed at migratory fish, who are blocked from their historic spawning beds.
Brandt Gutermuth is a biologist with the US Bureau of Reclamation’s Trinity River Restoration Program. He said construction of the Lewiston and Trinity dams changed conditions for wildlife forever.
“And when the dam was put in and closed in the early ’60s, all the sediment, or the gravel flow and fine sediment and wood and all these things that are really important to rivers and their functioning, was cut off,” he said.
Additional gravel and a wider, slower moving river will help adults spawn successfully and help young fish flee hungry predators.
Work has been underway for a decade, with some success. Gutermuth noted a measurable increase in the percentage of wild fish compared to hatchery-raised fish in the river.
The meeting is scheduled for 6:30 Wednesday evening at the Moose Lodge in Lewiston.