The Little Applegate River Fish Passage and Irrigation Efficiency Project has improved fish passage by creating a bypass channel around the Upper Philips Dam, and installed a new fish screen. The completion of this project will improve irrigation efficiency with a water savings of over 85% through piping 1.8 miles of irrigation ditch with 12-inch diameter HDPE-pipe in order to provide water to 11 small-farms and residences in Jackson County within the Rogue River Basin. The project will improve irrigation infrastructure, improve agricultural production, allow production of additional acres, improve water quality, and enhance fish passage and instream flows for Endangered Species Act-listed and State-listed species including Coho salmon, Pacific lamprey, steelhead, and cutthroat trout. The project will dedicate conserved water instream for the benefit of aquatic species in a DEQ-listed flow-limited stream. 

This project is the result of a decade-long partnership between the Upper Philips Ditch Association and the Applegate Partnership and Watershed Council (APWC) and was developed in consultation with the landowners, the water users, Jackson County Soil Water Conservation District, OWRD, Bureau of Land Management, ODFW Fish Biologists, ODFW Fish Screens & Passage Program, Middle Rogue Steelheaders, Pacific Power Blue Sky Funds, Trout Unlimited, NOAA Restoration and the Rogue Basin Partnership.