An open house has been scheduled for Sunday, June 25, 2017 from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Spalding Fire Hall, 101 West Memorial Drive, Spalding, Nebraska to provide area residents information on the October 2016 completion of the installation of the Spalding Fish Passage Project on the Cedar River.     A Denil style fish passage system at the dam is now allowing fish to navigate the river around the dam and hydropower station.   Previous studies have shown that upstream passage was exceptionally difficult for channel catfish, a popular sportfish in the Cedar River.  JEO Engineering of Lincoln, and B-D Construction of Columbus teamed up to design and construct a fish passage system that focuses on channel catfish, but will be available to all fish species native to the river, including the shorthead redhorse, sauger, northern pike and flathead chub.
Installation of the fish passage detection system is also complete and electronic tagging of nearly 600 fish of multiple species is being used to monitor movements. While the Nebraska Environmental Trust funded the majority of the construction, the project involved many other sponsors including the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, Village of Spalding, and the Loup Basin RC&D Council.
Please attend the open house on Sunday, June 25, 2017 from 1:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. at the Spalding Fire Hall.  Attendees will be provided transportation, via golf cart, throughout the afternoon from the Spalding Fire Hall to the fish passage structure at the Spalding Dam. Project sponsors, engineers and biologists will be available for one-on-one discussion and to answer your questions about the successful project and what this means for fish movement and angling. For additional information about the Spalding Fish Passage open house, contact the Loup Basin RC&D office (308) 346-3393.