Dairy-McKay Fish Passage Assessment and Prioritization

During the summer of 2006, Washington County conducted a fish passage inventory of the culverts acting as road-stream crossings in the Dairy-McKay watershed. The inventory has established a foundation for future fish passage inventories in the County’s other watersheds. Field inspections were conducted on 302 culverts, 164 of which were surveyed and prioritized to identify structures that were barriers to migratory fish species. The remaining culverts were determined non-fish bearing structures. Twenty of the culverts surveyed were deemed high priority barriers and were organized in groupings based on geographic location, stream connectivity, and ease of construction.

Objectives
• Assess fish passage status within Washington County road system in the Dairy- McKay watershed.
• Identify which road-stream crossings act as fish passage barriers (referred to simply as barriers from here on) through field surveys.
• Prioritize and group the barriers by December 2006 to set the groundwork for future replacement.
• Develop a method for incorporating barrier removal into overall project selection, rather than simply incorporating fish passage design into maintenance projects.
• Develop fish passage assessment and prioritization protocol for use throughout the County and by local watershed councils and other transportation entities.
• Foster partnerships to speed replacement of high priority barriers and improve migratory fish access to high quality habitat.