Oregon Public Broadcasting

Bruton Dam on Taneum Creek near Thorp, WA

With little fanfare, construction crews over the past couple months have torn down a 44-year-old dam on a tributary of the upper Yakima River in central Washington. 

The fisheries restoration project will celebrate its completion later this week.

Tom Banse reports.

Bruton Dam diverted water for irrigation from Taneum Creek in the Kittitas Valley.

Dam removal underway last month

The concrete dam was only about 8 feet high, but it did a good job blocking fish passage. 

The Kittitas Conservation Trust received grants from multiple state and federal agencies to pay for the dam's removal. 

Area farmers had to be won over to make it happen, though.

A breakthrough came when the Bureau of Reclamation offered to pipe in water from a different ditch to keep affected pastures green.

Taneum Creek flows freely now, opening 30 miles of spawning habitat upstream.

Bruton Dam's removal opens 30-miles of prime creek habitat to salmon spawning. 

It comes just a month after salmon and river advocates succeeded in removing another larger Northwest dam.

Savage Rapids Dam formerly blocked southern Oregon's Rogue River.