fish screens….saving the native fish
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
AJ spent a windy day last week working on a solar power system at the Hog Creek Canal, east of Tetonia in the Teton Valley. Friends of the Teton River built a fishscreen at the entrance to the irrigation canal to keep fish in the main creek. Hog Creek and the rest of the South Leigh Creek drainage is one of only a few watersheds in the valley that still support a healthy Cutthroat Trout population, but when the irrigation canals run, the fish get swept out of the creek and end up in farmers’ fields.
The screens are pretty cool–they’re built similar to a conveyor-belt so that as they revolve, the debris that would otherwise clog up the screen gets cleaned off. As part of our membership in 1% For the Tetons and 1 % for the Planet, Creative Energies is donating our labor to build a system that provides solar power to run the motors for the screens. They’re pretty simple off-grid systems; each screen gets one photovoltaic module and two batteries.
AJ spent the day mounting the PV modules on their poles and wiring them into the battery box, and preparing the motors to be mounted and connected to the drive chain for the screens, which Jake then finished a few days later.
Each of the past two years, the Driggs-based non-profit, Friends of the Teton River, has installed fish screens. Last year, Creative Energies provided power to one on Badger Creek. This year’s project, located on Hog Canal, was similar. What is the purpose? Many of the creeks and rivers in Teton Valley are critical habitat for native fish species, particularly Cutthroat Trout. Due to our arid climate and agricultural economy, farmers divert water along ditches and canals for irrigation. When the canals run high in the Spring, many fish swim into the irrigation ditches. As the water level drops and the ditches run dry, the fish are stranded and die. Friends of the Teton River has installed the screens so that the water continues to flow into the canal but the fish cannot. The solar system powers a small motor to rotate the screen periodically, and keep it from getting clogged with debris. As a result, more fish survive in the main channel.
Creative Energies donated a portion of the project as part of our annual contribution to 1 % for the Tetons.
