BILLINGS, Mont. — Montana and federal wildlife officials have lined up in opposition to a $57 million concrete dam and fish bypass that the US government says would help an endangered fish species in the Yellowstone River.
The Army Corps of Engineers and Interior Department are proposing the irrigation dam and bypass on the lower Yellowstone. That’s where aging pallid sturgeon have been trapped for decades downstream of their spawning grounds.
But wildlife officials belonging to a pallid sturgeon recovery group dismissed the proposed project’s alleged benefits for the fish as ‘‘unfounded’’ and ‘‘purely theoretical.’’
The group includes representatives of state and federal wildlife agencies, the Army Corps of Engineers, and Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation.
It puts the Interior and Army Corps in the awkward position of promoting a project opposed by a group that includes members of their own staffs.
Associated Press