Project Overview

FTR is working with the Trail Creek Sprinkler Company (TCSC) irrigators to improve fish passage and water delivery at an existing fish ladder at the Trail Creek Sprinkler diversion. For the past decade, the Trail Creek fish ladder has not effectively functioned to pass fish. There are multiple design elements to the original headgate that create a barrier to fish passage, an impediment to irrigation water delivery, as well as safety concerns, that can be solved with improvements and retrofits to the existing structure. A new fish ladder will open upstream connectivity and passage for native Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout to 8 miles of spawning and rearing habitat in Trail, Moose, and Mike Harris Creeks. Restoring passage at this point of diversion will increase YCT populations in Trail Creek (WY/ID) and in the Upper Teton River, while also creating a win-win for irrigators who want to meet the needs of their shareholders and the native trout fishery. This project is the highest-ranked priority fish passage project in the Teton Watershed.