Cougar Dam, which is 452-feet-tall and sits across the McKenzie River east of Eugene, Oregon, makes a fish ladder impractical. Ladders aren’t needed here either since the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers uses the trap and haul method to move fish upstream of this massive dam. It’s more difficult to transport juveniles downstream of the dams in the Willamette Valley. (U.S. Army photo by Tom Conning)
PORTLAND, Ore. — Humans. What other sentient being designs a tool requiring hands and feet and expects animals without limbs to use it? Alas, the answer is humans.
Humans created a ladder for fish, which is quite effective in certain situations – but isn’t a blanket solution to every fish passage problem.
And while most humans would agree that ladders can be useful for climbing short distances, perhaps 20-50 feet– another tool – like an elevator or truck – may be a better option to climb hundreds of feet. Otherwise, there would need to be more infrastructure to support that ladder, or perhaps it would need to be a staircase at that point.
This is similar for fish when moving them up and downstream.
The U.S....
07.19.2021 | PORTLAND, OR, US |
Story by Tom Conning
The Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center campus sits on a 450-foot-tall basalt-rock hill south of downtown. Marquam Hill, also known as “Pill Hill” due to the amount of medical facilities clustered on its crest, is also crowded with homes, steep slopes and daily commuters (during non-pandemic times).
These steep and rocky slopes garnered ridicule for Dr. Kenneth Mackenzie when he initially proposed to build a medical school on...
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