Drayton Dam News Today

As lowhead dams fall on and around the Red River, hundreds of miles of habitat is becoming reconnected for the benefit of fish in the main stem of the flow

By Nick Simonson As lowhead dams fall on and around the Red River, hundreds of miles of habitat is becoming reconnected for the benefit of fish in the main stem

Ongoing efforts to re-establish lake sturgeon populations in the Red River Basin have entered a new phase.

FARGO (KFGO) - A key piece of the $3.2 billion Fargo-Moorhead Diversion Project is finished. Federal and local...

FARGO (KFGO) - A key piece of the $3.2 billion Fargo-Moorhead Diversion Project is finished. Federal and local leaders, including North Dakota Sen. Jo...

Constructed as a rock passageway, the new dam still holds back water, but it also creates pools for fish to pass upstream through a series of rocks and boulders placed in strategic patterns.

The new dam will include a sloping set of rapids with a rock passageway that will end at the face of the old dam. Rocks and boulders placed in patterns will create pools through which fish can pass.

If 2021 was the Year of the Drought, 2022 was the Year of the Floods.

The 160-acre wetland will be built along Drain 27, which drains part of south Fargo, east of Horace.

The diversion has two pieces — a 3.2 mile bypass channel that redirects water from the Park River around the community during high flow events, and 12 miles of tieback levees that protect Grafton from overland flooding.