Crews in the northern Idaho city of Troy have started removing an abandoned dam with the goal of improving fish passage and spawning habitat for threatened steelhead.
The Moscow-Pullman Daily News reports that that work started Wednesday taking out the Dutch Flat Dam and is expected to take about a month.
Authorities say the dam on the west fork of Little Bear Creek was built in 1919 to create a municipal water reservoir but was abandoned by 1925 when it filled with sediment from upstream farming and logging activities.
Idaho Fish and Game officials say tagging and tracking steelhead found a high density of fish in the creek below the dam.
Bob Ries of the National Marine Fisheries Service says there's good spawning habitat above the dam.