PRESCOTT - Non-native fish are not welcome in parts of the Verde River.
It wasn't easy, but Salt River Project contractors tackled complex problems along rocks walls and installed a concrete non-native-fish barrier in a remote location of the Verde River about two miles upstream from Horseshoe Lake.
The barrier is intended to protect the Verde River Basin's native fish population by preventing outsiders from swimming upstream and eating native fish species in the Lime Creek tributary that joins the Verde River.
The barrier is relatively small - 5 feet tall and 20 feet long - but it was a challenging project and the first of its kind for the Salt River Project, said manager Chuck Paradzick, an SRP environmental scientist.
"We partnered with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Engineering Division, which has extensive experience with similar fish barriers, for the design and to select the best location," Paradzick said.
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"To get it built, an SRP helicopter was required to long-line the materials into the remote site while the project's contractor, NAC Construction, had to camp near the creek and hike about a mile and a half to the site daily," Paradzick said.
The barrier project protects about four miles of stream that provides habitat for the native lowland leopard frog and two existing native fish species, the Longfin dace and the endangered Gila topminnow.
