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Item Small scale denil development for use in headwater streams in southwest Montana(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Engineering, 2021) Conley, Megan Elizabeth; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Kathryn Plymesser; Katey Plymesser, Kevin Kappenman, Matt Blank and Joel Cahoon were co-authors of the article, 'Arctic grayling (Thymallus arcticus) passage through a scaled denil fishway' submitted to the journal 'Journal of fish and wildlife management' which is contained within this thesis.The Big Hole River is located in an agricultural valley in Southwest Montana and is home to the last fluvial (river dwelling) population of Arctic grayling (Thymallus arcticus) in the contiguous United States. Grayling mostly populate the tributary streams in the upper portion of the watershed, where there are many irrigation diversions, which greatly fragments grayling's natural habitat. While many of these irrigation diversions have fish ladders installed at them to assist with habitat reconnection, these ladder become impassable when the water levels get too low in the system or irrigators chose to block the fish ladders in order to divert more water. This study investigated and characterized a smaller scale Denil fish ladder that would use less water while providing adequate fish passage. Three different flow rate calculations were applied to a series of scaled Denils to compare to the expected flow rates of the full scale Denil to determine the scaled sizes to construct. A 0.6 scale and a 0.75 scale Denil were selected and hydraulic lab testing confirmed that 25.4 cm baffle spacing was the best for both scaled models. The fish swimming study, conducted at the outdoor flume at the Bozeman Fish Technology Center, used eight hatchery-raised grayling in each of the eight treatments. Each treatment was repeated 3 times using the 0.6-scale model for a total of 24 trials with 192 fish. Each treatment used a different combination of headwater depth (between 30.5 cm and 61.0 cm) and tailwater depth (between 15.2 cm and 61.0 cm). The grayling passed with near perfect success at all headwater and tailwater combinations except when the head difference between the headwater and tailwater was at its greatest (61.0 cm headwater and 15.2 cm tailwater). This preliminary study showed that grayling are willing to pass smaller-scale structures at a variety of flow rates but did not test a wide range of slopes, age classes or fish sizes. These results should be useful to water managers when looking to modify or install new Denil fishways in the Big Hole River Basin and around the western United States.Item Hydraulics, hydrology, and resulting fish passage at the Huntley Diversion Nature-like Bypass(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Engineering, 2020) Tupen, Haley Noel; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Kathryn PlymesserDams and other instream structures have been constructed for hundreds of years in the United States for various purposes; these dams have the potential to 'disconnect' rivers and negatively impact fish upstream and downstream movement. Nature-like bypasses were created to facilitate movement around these structures and provide passage to a wide variety of morphologically different fish species. The Huntley Diversion Dam nature-like bypass was constructed in 2015 on the Yellowstone River, but its effectiveness has not yet been evaluated. This project aimed to evaluate its efficacy through monitoring and determining water stage, flow rates, channel roughness, and a detailed channel bathymetry. These data were then used in the creation of multiple two-dimensional hydraulic models encompassing the nature-like bypass channel and surrounding Yellowstone River area. Velocity results from these models were compared to species-specific swimming capabilities from literature for four Yellowstone River species. Additionally, hydraulics at the downstream bypass entrance were evaluated for disorienting hydraulic formations that might prevent fish from locating the bypass entrance. Velocity results indicate Sauger (Sander canadensis) may successfully ascend the bypass on all but five days of the modeled hydrograph and may face occasional difficulty in returning to their pre-spawning upstream habitat. Burbot (Lota lota), Channel Catfish (Ictalurus punctatus), and Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus dolomieu) are unlikely to successfully ascend the bypass for much of May, June, and July. This holds significant implications for Channel Catfish and Smallmouth Bass, both of which move upstream to spawn in the months of May and June. Hydraulics at the downstream end of the bypass indicate high attraction at high flows, but that lower flows are likely to create disorienting hydraulic characteristics at this bypass entrance and lead to low fish attraction.