Jenny Creek Man-made Barrier Removal
Project Lead: Trout Unlimited
Location of Project: 41.953187, -122.382346
Description of Project:
Small dams have been installed across the United States for storage, water irrigation, and flood protection. Over the years many of these dams have become inoperable. Without the dams being removed they can prevent fish from moving upstream or downstream, thus resulting in losses of spawning and rearing habitats, fragmented population and decreased population resilience. On Jenny Creek in California a man-made concrete barrier has been abandoned but not removed and likely prevents fish passage during low flows. In 2024 Iron Gate Reservoir will be removed and the Klamath River and Jenny Creek will see the return of Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytcha), coho salmon (O. kisutch), and steelhead (O. mykiss) for the first time since 1964 when Iron Gate Dam was constructed. Removing the barrier on Jenny Creek will increase the spawning and rearing habitat for anadromous fish up to the natural water fall barrier 1.95 miles from Iron Gate Reservoir.
Jenny Creek is the largest tributary in the hydroelectric reach, and PacifiCorp estimates that between 30 and 500 CFS enters Iron Gate Reservoir. In 2020, habitat surveys were completed in Jenny Creek to classify habitat units. These habitat surveys were used to estimate that the creek could potentially support 18,100 summer rearing coho and 51 redds (Ramos 2020) (O’Keefe 2022). Jenny Creek contains predominately moderate to high gradient riffle habitat, but there were several large pools that could be optimal for salmonid rearing. Multiple braided channels are present providing some slower water habitat. The barrier is located 1.05 miles upstream from Iron Gate Reservoir. The largest set of waterfalls on Jenny Creek is a complete barrier, located 1.9 miles upstream from Iron Gate Reservoir. An additional .5 miles of creek habitat will be recovered when Iron Gate Reservoir water level is drawn down. The extension of the anadromous habitat is especially important to Coho Salmon because of declining populations. Losses to the Coho Salmon population and habitat have constitute listing Coho Salmon in California under the California Endangered Species Act and nationally under the Federal Endangered Species Act.
The Jenny Creek Barrier Removal was identified in the Klamath Reservoir Reach Restoration Prioritization Plan (K3RP), in the Klamath Integrated Fisheries Restoration and Monitoring Plan (IFRMP), in the Recovery Strategy for California Coho Salmon and in the Jenny Creek man-made concrete barrier is also list in the California Fish Passage Assessment. The K3RP is a summary of habitat conditions and potential restoration actions for the mainstem Klamath River and tributaries between Iron Gate Dam and Link River Dam. K3RP ranked potential restoration actions in the hydroelectric reach from low to high priority. The removal of the concrete dam in Jenny Creek ranked as a high priority project. The IFRMP also support the project to remove fish passage blockages. The IFRMP ranks removing or altering minor fish passage blockages as part of their fourth highest priority in the Mid Klamath River. The Recovery Strategy for California Coho Salmon report (project number KR-IG-02) similarly supports the Jenny Creek Barrier Removal. The report lists protecting and restoring tributaries that provide cold water, improve mainstem Klamath River water Quality, and provide thermal refugia for Coho Salmon as a high priority in the Middle Klamath River above Iron Gate Reservoir. The California Fish Passage Assessment (PAD ID number 764931) listed the Jenny Creek barrier as a concrete dam structure that spans the entire channel.
