Tribes Hope Changes To Creek Will Help Salmon To Pettit Lake

The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes want to remove a fish barrier on Pettit Lake Creek in Blaine County and replace it with structures designed to allow endangered sockeye salmon to migrate into Pettit Lake.

The Idaho Department of Water Resources said on Tuesday that the tribes have applied to alter the stream channel to eliminate a barrier originally constructed to block fish such as suckers and squawfish from migrating into Pettit Lake, about 16 miles south of Stanley.

A new 300-foot-long project would replace the barrier with a low-flow channel designed to aid in spawning migration. Plans also call for a series of four low rock weirs and an adult fish-collection and smolt-counting facility.

Sho-Ban officials want to start work on the project Aug. 28 and estimate it will take about six weeks to complete.