Fish Story Biologist Bob Burdick raises a basket loaded with fish trapped in the Redlands Fish Ladder on the Gunnison River in Grand Junction. The ladder gives fish a way to travel upstream around the Redlands dam, accessing dozens of miles of the Gunnison River that would otherwise be blocked. The ladder employs a series of baffles that end in a trap.
Biologists allow native fish to continue above the dam, but they destroy non-native fish.
In the first five years of operation, about 43,000 fish have traveled the ladder, including 51 Colorado pikeminnow.