WADSWORTH, Nev. (AP) — U.S. and tribal officials are celebrating completion of a $34 million fish bypass system at a Nevada dam that will allow threatened trout to return to some of their native spawning grounds for the first time in more than a century.
Construction of the fish-friendly side channel is a major step toward someday enabling the Lahontan cutthroat trout to make the entire 100-mile trip upstream.
They would journey from a desert lake on tribal land northeast of Reno to Lake Tahoe before Derby Dam was built in 1905. It's a joint project involving Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, two federal agencies and the Farmers Conservation Alliance.