June sucker to get more spawning room

The endangered June sucker is about to reclaim 1.1 miles of spawning habitat with a little tweaking of the Fort Field diversion dam located about 3.8 miles upstream from where the Provo River feeds into Utah Lake.

The Utah Reclamation Mitigation and Conservation Commission recently announced plans to reconstruct part of the diversion dam that will allow access for the additional 1.1 miles of spawning grounds.

There are eight diversion structures from near the mouth of Provo Canyon all the way to Utah Lake. That stretch of the river is tapped heavily for irrigation purposes.

Over the years, however, the number of June suckers has dwindled to the hundreds, prompting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1986 to list the species as endangered. It's known to inhabit only Utah Lake and its Provo River tributary.

The Fort Field dam project, which does not yet have a start date, also is expected to benefit upstream fish migration for species other than the June sucker.