ELLENSBURG, Wash. -- One more piece of the Yakima River Basin salmon recovery puzzle -- this one marked Kittitas County's Taneum Creek -- will be fitted into place today.

Coho salmon will be released in the creek where the removal of an old irrigation dam is giving migratory fish access to parts of the creek for the first time in more than a century.

The 11 a.m. release will mark the conclusion of a six-year effort involving numerous federal, state, tribal and private partners and a substantial financial investment to restore access to a 30-mile stretch of the creek.

"This is a good example of how a diverse group of people can find common ground and get something done that needs to get done," said David Gerth, executive director of the Kittitas Conservation Trust, a nonprofit group that grew out of development of the Suncadia resort near
Cle Elum.

The irrigation dam, located about 12 miles west of Ellensburg, was a water source for the Bruton Ditch, which served a group of five water users.

But the 8-foot-high dam blocked passage for fish, and a recently added fish ladder never worked well. The dam is now gone, replaced by a channel that mimics natural conditions for fish, said Walt Larrick, assistant manager of a federal Bureau of Reclamation program that seeks to improve fish habitat and stream flows in the basin.

"We won't be worried about people having to manage those little fish ladders. There will be a natural channel that fish can use as they always have used in the past," he said.

Removing the blockage on Taneum Creek is just one of numerous projects under way or completed in the Yakima River Basin to improve habitat for fish.

The $600,000 Taneum Creek project included a state Salmon Recovery Funding Board grant, a pipeline to serve the Bruton irrigators installed by the Bureau of Reclamation, and fish recovery work being done by the Yakama Nation.

Dave Fast, a senior research scientist for the Yakamas, said tributaries like Taneum are critical to fish recovery because they provide the habitat for spawning and rearing of fish.

While coho are the species being released, a major focus of the project is steelhead trout, listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

Taneum Creek flows already have been improved by the nonprofit Washington Water Trust's purchase of water from the Taneum Canal Co. upstream of the Bruton Ditch.

Water that historically was diverted by the Bruton users will now be delivered via a pipeline installed by the Bureau of Reclamation.

Dawn Wiedmeier, the bureau's acting area manager in Yakima, said the pipeline from the Kittitas Reclamation District will deliver water to the Bruton users under pressure, eliminating the need for pumps.

The Bruton water right, about 2 cubic feet per second, will be left in the creek to help fish.

* David Lester can be reached at 509-577-7674 or dlester@yakimaherald.com.