The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, along with federal, tribal and state fishery biologists, began Monday the required flow augmentation at Libby Dam for the endangered Kootenai River white sturgeon downstream in Idaho. The flow augmentation operation will increase Libby Dam discharge to full powerhouse capacity for about a week, on two occasions, to provide river conditions that may increase sturgeon spawning success in the lower Kootenai River in Idaho.

Discharge from Libby Dam will be increased to approximately 23,200 cubic feet per second (cfs) for about one week before decreasing to 18,000 cfs. A second week-long pulse of powerhouse capacity flows is expected to start at the end of May to coincide with peak high elevation inflows upstream of Lake Koocanusa.

The augmentation operation is part of an ongoing effort to enhance spawning and migration conditions for sturgeon in the Kootenai River near Bonners Ferry. Increased flows are intended to provide river conditions that may increase sturgeon migration to the reach of river upstream of Bonners Ferry in habitat thought to be conducive to successful spawning, egg hatching and survival of larval sturgeon.

Though the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho’s conservation aquaculture program has steadily increased the number of young sturgeon in the river since 1992, federal, state and tribal partners collaborate to build habitat upstream of Bonners Ferry to allow adult sturgeon to successfully reproduce on their own.