"Judge Asked To Lift Hold On Yellowstone Dam And Protect Fish"

"BILLINGS, Mont. — U.S. officials are pressing a federal judge to lift his 2015 order blocking a proposed irrigation dam and fish passage on the Yellowstone River, warning that a rapidly-disappearing, ancient fish species faces a grim future with further delays to construction.

Fisheries biologists have questioned if the $57 million project near Glendive, Montana would indeed save the 125 wild pallid sturgeon that survive in the Yellowstone. For decades, the fish have been prevented from reaching hundreds of miles of upstream spawning habitat because of an existing rock weir at the proposed dam site.

Federal wildlife officials contend the fish passage around the site is the sturgeons' best hope."

Matthew Brown reports for the Associated Press February 2, 2017.