Warner Basin Assessment

RDG is assisting a stakeholder group including the Lake County Umbrella Watershed Council, two water user groups, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and local landowners with a fish passage planning effort intended to improve watershed connective for Warner suckers, a federally-threatened fish species endemic to the Warner Basin in central Oregon. Three projects are associated with the Warner Basin Fish Passage Projects . First, RDG completed a design and oversaw construction of a technical fishway on Twentymile Creek. The Dyke Diversion is a concrete weir and pool with orifices fish ladder that provides passage over a low head diversion weir. RDG has worked with ODFW and BLM to evaluate hydraulic conditions and sucker passage in the ladder. Collected monitoring data have been presented at multiple conference and will be used for future technical fishway designs.
RDG is currently completing a final design and 60% designs for three additional diversion weirs in the Warner Basin. A box culvert and bypass channel will address the Robinson Dam located downstream from the Dyke Diversion on Twentymile Creek. Two rock ramps and weir modifications are scheduled for two diversions on Deep Creek. RDG is assisting a project partner with a fourth diversion weir passage project on Honey Creek near Plush, Oregon.

RDG is also facilitating a strategic action plan for the Warner Basin. The SAP will be useful for prioritizing and acquiring funding to implement fish passage plans in the basin.