DRAYTON, N.D. (Nick Simonson) – As low head 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 and its tributaries. While lake sturgeon restoration projects beginning in the 1990s have been the impetus for some of these low head dam removals and replacements with stair-step rock rapids, the benefits go beyond the reintroduction of just the ancient fish to the Red River and across all species, according to Nick Kludt, Red River Fisheries Specialist for the Minnesota DNR (MN DNR).
“We were excited to see how are the sturgeon, the walleye, and just all of our native species going to respond to that. So, in 2024 through some joint monitoring conducted by some of our offices we kept an eye on those sites, and it was super rewarding to see those fish move from what were some substandard habitat into that newly-restored habitat, spawn there, and use that for a good portion of the spring. So that was just a huge management win for us,” Kludt explains.
Perhaps the largest impediment to fish movements on the Red River was the last standing low head dam on the main stem near Drayton, N.D. While a popular destination for anglers seeking large catfish which could go no further upstream and
were located in the areas below the structure, the aging dam served as a choke point which cut the north-flowing river in two, limiting the travels of fish upstream into the numerous tributaries located on both the Minnesota and North Dakota sides of the water and its origin near Wahpeton, N.D.
“As far as river mileage [now open to fish movement] goes, you can now basically count the entire Red River basin, within reason, because we just got done modifying Drayton Dam within the last year. So, everything upstream would count for mileage, and then of course all the projects that we’ve deployed in the tributaries. An exact number is really difficult to calculate just based on the differing ways you might go about doing that,” Kludt states.
In 2022 partner groups including the MN DNR, North Dakota Game & Fish Department (NDG&F), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, began the process of replacing the Drayton Dam with a stair-step rapids which would allow fish movement and replace the aging structure which was becoming an infrastructure liability and continued to be a public safety concern. The new structure was in place in late 2023 and site finishing will wrap this year. But the Drayton Dam is not the only lowhead dam to be replaced.
“Of the 77 major barriers around the Red River basin to fish movement – and that’s on the main stem and the Minnesota side – we have removed or modified 48 of those, so that’s an incredibly aggressive clearance rate. And we’re seeing good response from the fishery,” Kludt notes.
The dividends paid in terms of fishery improvement are nearly immediate as well. Beyond the removal of the barrier, new fast-flowing rocky and gravel areas are created over the naturally steep areas of the flows where these dams were previously installed. The new navigable structures and the rapids they create provide ideal spawning habitat for sturgeon and many other species in the Red River, often in the spring after their implementation.
“As far as the sturgeon response to the projects themselves, yeah, we do see sturgeon in those projects in the spring using it to spawn, and they’re actually about the third wave of fish to move in and spawn,” Kludt details, adding that seasonally, walleyes and suckers spawn first in the restored areas, before the sturgeon, evidencing a diverse benefit from the changes across multiple species.
Plans for more dam removal in tributary rivers along the Red River will continue into the future, with efforts by the NDG&F and others to remove the low head dam in Pembina on tap, which will open hundreds of miles of the Pembina River through North Dakota and Canada to lake sturgeon currently being stocked in the flow.
By Nick Simonson Outdoors Reporter