The arizona game and fish department is working on a project to reconnect the west fork black river wfbr to its tributaries, hayground, home, and stinky creeks to establish a meta population for…

The Arizona Game and Fish Department will receive $690,000 through a Cooperative Agreement award from the U.S. Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service Region 2 under the Fish and Wildlife Management Assistance program (CFDA 15.608). The funding will support Phase 3 of a project to reconnect the West Fork Black River to its tributaries of Hayground, Home, and Stinky Creeks in Arizona. Phase 3 involves implementing the removal of four artificial fish barriers located in the tributaries, restoring approximately 12.5 stream miles of habitat. This work aims to establish a metapopulation of Apache Trout and provide habitat for other native fish species. Additional phases include environmental compliance, removal of nonnative species, and reintroduction of native fish. The completion date is September 30, 2027.

The arizona game and fish department is working on a project to reconnect the west fork black river wfbr to its tributaries, hayground, home, and stinky creeks to establish a meta population for apache trout oncorhynchus apache , and provide habitat for other native fish species, such as loach minnow tiaroga cobitis , roundtail chub gila robusta , speckled dace rhinichthys osculus , desert sucker catostomus clarkii , and sonora sucker catostomus insignis there are currently four artificial fish barriers located in these three tributaries blocking access to these habitats from the wfbr removing these barriers will reestablish the connection between the wfbr and its tributaries enabling the establishment of a meta population of apache trout establishing apache trout in a complex habitat that allows for movement between the wfbr and its tributaries will provide resiliency for the species in the face of increasing threats like climate change this would also be a rare accomplishment for this species as they are mostly restricted to small headwater streams upstream of artificial or natural fish barriers this project will be implemented in five phases the first phase of this project was to acquire designs for the removal of the four tributary barriers located in hayground, home, and stinky creeks received june 2022 the second phase is to complete the environmental compliance E G , nepa for the implementation of the removals and is expected to be completed by the end of calendar year 2022 the third phase will be the actual implementation of the removals and the reconnection of 20 1 KM 12 5 MI of habitat the fourth phase will be the removal of nonnative species from the wfbr and its tributaries upstream of an artificial fish barrier constructed in 2015 in the lower mainstem wfbr the final phase of the project will be to reintroduce apache trout, loach minnow, roundtail chub, speckled dace, desert sucker and sonora sucker to the wfbr and its tributaries and to monitor the success of those reintroductions the funding requested from the infrastructure investment and jobs act national fish passage program infrastructure investment and jobs act FY 2022 nfpp will be used to implement phase 3 of this project minor amounts of this funding may be used for other phases, if available after completing phase 3