- Out here on the water, you can almost feel a certain sense of harmony and balance.

But below the surface of some Utah rivers and lakes, an imbalance has nearly wiped out native species of fish.

Now a plan to save the June sucker fish is giving new hope to other species that are in danger.

(soft upbeat music) - The June sucker is a real unique fish.

Lives in Utah Lake naturally, and that's the only place it lives in the world.

They get the name June sucker because they typically spawn in the spring, they drift down the river into suitable habitat where they can grow and avoid predators.

June sucker rely on the Utah Lake ecosystem for their survival, and if the ecosystem's not doing well, neither are the species that occur there.

The June sucker was thought to be extinct.

Some biologists with the Division of Wildlife back in the 70s found a few remaining suckers moving up the Provo River to spawn in the spring.

Soon after that, in 1986, June sucker were listed as endangered, and it was estimated that there were fewer than 1,000 individuals left in the population.

- Where we are standing right now is on the shoreline of Utah Lake.

We are just west of the lowered portion of what's been known as Skipper Bay dike which is a that was started in different phases, dating back almost 100 years.

All of this area, for about seven miles of this shoreline was the geologically historic delta of all the sediment that Provo Rivers brought down from the Winter Mountains through Provo Canyon and created this feature that kind of protrudes out into Utah Lake.

(bright upbeat music) - The Utah Lake ecosystem has been in trouble for a long time.

Utah Lake is of course surrounded by urbanization.

There's been a lot of non-native fish introduced into the system which impact the native species.

So just a number of changes brought on by us that have altered the ecosystem to the point where some of the native species haven't been doing so well.

And June sucker being our target species that we're trying to recover.

- The Delta Restoration Project is a very large scale, ambitious and collaborative restoration effort.

We purchased about 260 acres of property here and we'll be diverting the majority of Provo River's flow out into this area where we've, since almost three years now, we've been digging and excavating ponds and delta habitats and essentially bringing the river to the lake and the lake back to the river.

- As the river slows down and hits flat ground, naturally, it'll spread out and form these fingers.

And then there'll also be wetlands associated with that and side water.

So it really makes a complex aquatic habitat.

These young fish can seek out cover to hide from predators and we're raising fish in the hatchery, stocking them back out into the lake.

And today we have a spawning population, somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 fish.

We knew if we didn't protect these species in captivity, that we were gonna lose them in the natural system.

- Right here, we're looking at kind of this remaining glass sliver of what used to be a levee on the north side of this downstream most stretch of Provo River.

(audience applauding) And they're gonna pull that last barrier out and allowing the river's flow to enter this community-restored river channel and delta complex and reconnect Provo River with Utah Lake for the first time in like 50 years.

(bright upbeat music) - I was wishing I could have been driving the heavy equipment there but it was awesome to see.

And I mean, look at the river.

I mean, it it looks amazing.

(bright upbeat music) (bright upbeat music) Wow, so many vibrant colors and characters who warm my hearts simply by sharing their story.

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Until next time, I'm Liz Adeola and this is Utah.