Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
PROVO, Utah (AP) -- The removal of a Provo River dam is paying dividends for the endangered June sucker.
Biologists say the fish are taking advantage of an extra mile of spawning grounds above the Fort Field diversion dam.
Fewer than 1,000 June sucker were thought to survive when they were listed as endangered in 1986. Now many thousands are thriving, thanks to a stocking program, more spawning grounds and the removal of carp from Utah Lake.
One night last week, biologists counted 300 spawning June sucker as far upstream as four miles from Utah Lake.
State biologist Jackie Watson says the concrete embankment was replaced with a boulder-and-gravel rise -- pipelines now tap the water. She says it's been 50 years since the fish were able to swim that far upstream.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
