Endersby Cutoff Culvert Retrofit, Eightmile Creek, OR

Eightmile Creek, a tributary to Fifteenmile Creek in Wasco County, Oregon, is home to redband trout, Pacific lamprey, and winter steelhead. Modeling conducted by the U.S. Forest Service found that the Endersby Road Culvert was impassible for juvenile steelhead. Because these steelhead are so dependent on access to the fifteen miles upstream of Endersby Cutoff, lack of access would eliminate over two thirds of the steelhead spawning in Eightmile Creek.

The Wasco County Soil and Water Conservation District undertook the project to remove the existing Endersby Cutoff culvert and replace it with a larger, fish-passable open-bottom arch culvert, with a natural bottom.  Removal of this culvert ensures fish passage to the fifteen miles of high quality steelhead habitat, and at least six miles of high quality Pacific lamprey habitat. This project, which is funded in part through the American Rivers-NOAA Community-based Habitat Restoration Partnership, was completed in October 2006.