NORTH DAKOTA OUTDOORS MAGAZINE

Where Engineering, Biology and Art Converge

Ron Wilson

The last of eight low head dams built on the Red River since the early 1900s has been modified to ease safety concerns for river users and allow fish upstream passage.

Located northeast of Drayton, the newly tailored site at Drayton Dam on the Red is expected to meet the safety and environmental concerns of the handful of partners involved in the project.

“We are modifying these dams for two purposes. One is public safety by reducing the hydraulic roller and reduce drownings in these areas,” said Bruce Kreft, North Dakota Game and Fish Department conservation supervisor. “From an environmental standpoint, we are trying to increase river connectivity by providing fish passage over these existing dams. This was done by creating steps with large rocks for those fish to be able to migrate up.”

Partners who had the most combined input into the project include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, North Dakota Game and Fish, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the Diversion Authority for the city of Fargo and the city Drayton.

The project didn’t happen overnight as it was in the works for years.

“Originally, the city of Drayton came to us with interest in trying to find a way to preserve their dam, maintain it, and do it in a way that’s environmentally friendly,” said Elliot Stefanik, biologist and environmental planning section chief with the corps.

“We talked with our partner agencies from North Dakota and Minnesota to see if there was an opportunity to fund and construct something like this. Although we talked about it for a long time, we never found that right combination of funding and authority to be able to construct until just recently.”

The final product will be a win for river users and fish.

“What’s really exciting is that this is a great day for the river and it’s a great day for the city of Drayton,” Stefanik said. “Those folks came to us and were really looking for ways to solve their issues with aging infrastructure and an aging dam. And we were able to do that in a way that really benefits the river and helps those folks with their dam and also maintain the social values of the area here.

“The boat ramp and the camping that happens here was really important to those folks to be able to maintain it,” he added. “And I think the design that we have and the project we came up with, the solution we came up with, really helps to balance all those values.”

Scott Gangl, Game and Fish Department fisheries management section leader, said before completion of the project, the dam was a barrier to fish. Fish couldn’t move up and down the river, especially at low flows very freely.

“By connecting the habitats, connecting the upstream with the downstream, it allows various fish species to now cross and move farther upstream at more times of the year and during more years when there’s low flows instead of high flows,” Gangl said. “There’s also a huge safety aspect with the project that’s important to note. Take the fish and the fishing out of the equation and these low head dams are a huge safety issue and they’re a drowning hazard in many cases. Modifying these by filling in those scour holes and removing the dam itself, it’s going to remove a lot of that drowning hazard and make it much safer for people.”

While a number of fish species make their way up and down the Red at different times of years, the rock passageways were designed so the biggest-bodied fish, lake sturgeon for example, are able to complete their upstream migrations.

“We design around that large criteria because it’s more difficult to pass a large fish than a small fish through a structure like this,” said Nicholas Kludt, Red River fisheries specialist for Minnesota DNR.

Jim Job, Game and Fish Department outreach biologist, releases a catfish at Drayton Dam before the structure was modified.

“Because we have these large pools, that pool spacing allows room for 6- to 8-foot sturgeon to physically move up and down. However, when we get even closer to the bank, you see smaller gaps within the boulder placement. You’ll also see lower velocities within those gaps. That’s meant for everything from our very small-bodied native fish up to species like walleye, northern pike, channel catfish and other traditional sport fish.”

Kludt said the placement of individual boulders within the steps, or the weirs, is the confluence of where engineering, biology and art converge through the work of heavy equipment.

“Each individual boulder has a specific elevation that it needs to be placed … it’s actually quite complex. Each boulder is marked within the excavator with a GPS waypoint with a precise elevation at which that stone needs to be set,” Kludt said. “We then pay attention to the orientation of that rock within the water to make sure we are achieving the best possible aspect of it to the river flow. And by doing that, we can ensure proper velocities, proper entrance and exit passages from the pools and maximize the fish passage benefit and overall habitat benefit of this site.”

This marriage of engineering, biology and art is expected to be a boon for fish in the system as they will now, with much more ease, satisfy life cycles that were hindered during low water years.

“The Minnesota DNR has had a very active reintroduction program for lake sturgeon, and we’ve been modifying dams throughout the Red River over the years to improve that connectivity because lake sturgeon move upstream into the tributaries to spawn,” Gangl said. “Drayton Dam is the last mainstem dam on the Red River that provided blockage to those fish. By opening this up, it provides access to upstream reaches of the Red River and its tributaries to spawning. It’s really allowing catfish, lake sturgeon and all species in the river to fulfill their life history, to fulfill what they are programed by nature to do, which is to move upstream into those tributaries to reproduce and spawn.”

Kludt said if you look at the site in totality, one of the longstanding attractions of Drayton Dam is ease of shore-fishing access. Even with the modifications, he believes that attraction has not been lost, but increased with the increased safety at the site.

“So, not only is the public access maintained, it’s safer. We know from similar structures around the basin that the fishing experience below the former dam site will likely not diminish. In fact, it will remain largely the same as long as anglers are willing to adapt to the way that the flow moves through this area,” he said. “Instead of it all coming over in a single sheet, it’s now concentrated toward the middle. So, finding those downstream seams where the fish are going to be holding and feeding, you’re going to have to do it a little differently than you may have before at this site, but it certainly can still be done, speaking from personal experience.”

Gangl agreed, adding: “Drayton Dam has always been a very popular fishing area. People would fish right below the dam. I think that it will still have a fish attracting effect, but it’s going to provide more fishing opportunities upstream as well. I think more of those bigger trophy catfish are going to move upstream. The sturgeon, the walleye, a lot of the fish in the river are going to move upstream. We’ve already got really good fishing in Fargo. We’ve got good fishing in Grand Forks. This might improve it and anglers just might see more of those larger fish that they’re after.”

Return to North Dakota Outdoors October 2023 Edition