A Case Study Addressing Fish Passage and Aquatic Invasive Species
Sustain Our Great Lakes Aquatic
Connectivity Webinar
Aquatic Connectivity Webinar
Andrew Struck, Director
Ozaukee County (WI) – Planning and Parks Department
Milwaukee River Watershed Fish Passage Program ‐‐ Making Connections Across Our Watershed
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Program Location
Milwaukee River Basin
Milwaukee River Basin
Map courtesy of http://basineducation.uwex.edu/mi
llwaukee/resources/rivers.html
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Milwaukee River Watershed Fish Passage Program ‐‐ Making Connections Across Our Watershed
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Fish Passage Program Summary
• $5.24 Million NOAA/ARRA Grant $5.24 Million NOAA/ARRA Grant
Awarded (2009 & 2010): Restore Fish Passage in the Milwaukee River Watershed
• $1.48 Million USEPA GLRI Grant $
Awarded (2010): Enhancing Ecological Productivity
• $491,000 USEPA GLRI Grant $491 000 USEPA GLRI Grant
Awarded (2010): Monitoring to Address 7 of 11 BUIs
• Program Scope
g
p
18 tributaries 4 main‐stem dams
Develop GIS Model for Prioritizing Habitat and i i i i H bi
d
Restoration Activities
• Water Quality Monitoring
Sampling
• Sediment
Sediment Sampling
• Fisheries Monitoring
•
•
•
Milwaukee River Watershed Fish Passage Program ‐‐ Making Connections Across Our Watershed
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Primary Program Goals – Making Connections
1.
1 Removal
R
l off Fish
Fi h Passage
P
Impediments
I
di
t / Increased
I
d
Connectivity to Existing High Quality Habitat
Measures:
– Restored p
passability
y at inventoried impediments
p
– Number of passable stream miles
– Number of impediments removed
– Presence of target species after impediment removal
2. Support Career Development and Job Creation
Measures:
– Labor hours created
– Dollars
D ll
expended
d d
Milwaukee River Watershed Fish Passage Program ‐‐ Making Connections Across Our Watershed
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Primary Program Goals Achieved
•
Mequon-Thiensville
equo
e s e Fishway
s ay Co
Complete
p ete a
and
d
Operational
•
Lime Kiln Dam Removed
•
Bridge Street Fishway Design and Engineering
Complete
•
Impediments on 18 Tributary Streams Inventoried
and/or Removed
– Over 138 “Conservation Corps” Impediments
Removed
– 30 “Public Works” Impediments Removed
Milwaukee River Watershed Fish Passage Program ‐‐ Making Connections Across Our Watershed
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Aquatic Species Passage
Wisconsin Endangered Species
• Striped Shiner
Source: pond.dnr.cornell.edu
Wisconsin Threatened Species
• Greater Redhorse
dh
Program Target Species
• Northern Pike
Source: pond.dnr.cornell.edu
• Walleye
Source: utoledo.edu
Source: pond.dnr.cornell.edu
• Lake Sturgeon (WI Special Concern)
Source: pond.dnr.cornell.edu
• Longear Sunfish
Source: library.marist.edu
• Ellipse Mussel
Source: library.marist.edu
Milwaukee River Watershed Fish Passage Program ‐‐ Making Connections Across Our Watershed
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Native Fish Swimming Performance
• Good for short distance “bursts” < 15 sec.
• Fair for for “sustained”
sustained movements in velocities < 2 ft/s
• Poor for “prolonged” swimming
• Very Poor jumpers
• Require Low velocity (< 2 3 ft/s)
(< 2 ‐
3 ft/s)
Short jumps < 8 inches
Frequent rest areas
Milwaukee River Watershed Fish Passage Program ‐‐ Making Connections Across Our Watershed
Milwaukee River Mainstem Dam Removal/Fish Passage Projects To Bridge
Street Dam
Bridge Street Dam – Proposed
Passive Fishway
Chair Factory Dam Removal, 2000
Lime Kiln Dam Removal, 2011
Mequon-Thiensville Dam “Nature-like”
Fishway, 2010
Bing Maps
North Avenue Dam Breached, 1997
Map courtesy of http://basineducation.uwex.edu/mil
waukee/resources/rivers.html
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Milwaukee River Watershed Fish Passage Program ‐‐ Making Connections Across Our Watershed
Bridge St. Dam – History and Current
– Located 32 miles upstream of p
River’s confluence with Lake Michigan
1917 -1918
– Fixed
Fixed crest weir is 144
crest weir is 144’ wide by wide by
13’ high and does not include a controlled overflow
– Creates a 33 acre impoundment
– Intended use of Dam terminated in 1961 ‐ millrace was filled
in 1961 ‐
millrace was filled
– Remains primarily for impoundment recreational use (
(aesthetics, limited boating, h
l
db
fishing)
– Dam
perceived as complete
Dam perceived as complete barrier to fish passage
Milwaukee River Watershed Fish Passage Program ‐‐ Making Connections Across Our Watershed
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Bridge St. Dam Fishway Preliminary Design
Milwaukee River Watershed Fish Passage Program ‐‐ Making Connections Across Our Watershed
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Addressing AIS – A Case Study of the Bridge Street Dam Fishway
• AIS concerns identified early in project planning/NEPA
• Bridge Street Dam identified as full sea lamprey barrier by USFWS
• WDNR issued AIS/VHSv control strategy / decision tree to address fish passage at dams in anticipation of EA development
• Literature reviews & scientific research
Milwaukee River hydraulic modeling studies
• Milwaukee River hydraulic modeling studies
• Regulatory agency involvement (USFWS, USACE, WDNR) & AIS criteria incorporated throughout plan design
throughout plan design
• Bridge Street Dam fishway designed as “passive” fishway
Milwaukee River Watershed Fish Passage Program ‐‐ Making Connections Across Our Watershed
AIS – Sea Lamprey
• Never identified in Milwaukee River Watershed • North Avenue Dam removal opened suitable habitat downstream of Bridge Street Dam
USFWS Position:
• USFWS Position: • Bridge Street Dam determined to be first effective barrier to sea lamprey on the system
GLFC
• Retains 18
Retains 18” gap to crest of dam
gap to crest of dam
• Retains water cascade, hollow arch dam structure
• Presumed no wetted surfaces around/on abutments
• Potential high quality habitat upstream
Potential high quality habitat upstream
• Support fishway construction if: • Solid gates installed to close fishway, if AIS detection according to USFWS monitoring
according to USFWS monitoring
• No gaps greater than ½” between gates and the fishway
• If sea lamprey infest Milwaukee River, then gate closure required under flood conditions overtopping seawall
Milwaukee River Watershed Fish Passage Program ‐‐ Making Connections Across Our Watershed
Animal a Day
Sea Lamprey ‐ Program Response: Fishway Design
Solid
Aluminum
Gates for
AIS Control
Milwaukee River Watershed Fish Passage Program ‐‐ Making Connections Across Our Watershed
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AIS – Round Goby
• First discovered in Great Lakes in 1990
Fi t di
d i G t L k i 1990
• 25 Round Goby sampled from Watershed during 2001 – 2011
• Present in Watershed to RM 10 (Kletzsch
Falls)
• Bridge Street Dam at RM 32
USGS
Milwaukee River Watershed Fish Passage Program ‐‐ Making Connections Across Our Watershed
Round Goby – Program Response
• Literature Review
• Reach gradient (vertical drop/reach length) of 0.45% (±0.39%) or greater a significant factor in deterring round goby colonization. (Kornis and Vander Zanden, 2010) • This gradient approximates or is less than much of the free flowing river downstream of Bridge Street Dam
• Bridge Street Fishway design: reach gradient of 1.78% • Hydraulic barrier to round goby movement achieved at water velocities > 2.46 ft/s (Hoover et al. 2003) • Velocities in fishway design > 2.46 ft/s
• Native predators feed readily on round gobies (e.g. northern pike, bass, yellow perch)
• Operations, Maintenance, and Risk Management Plan – a tiered approach
• Ozaukee County baseline fish monitoring • WDNR wadeable monitoring
• eDNA analysis – presence / absence of round goby
Milwaukee River Watershed Fish Passage Program ‐‐ Making Connections Across Our Watershed
Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia Virus
• First detected in Great Lakes fish during 2005
Fi t d t t d i G t L k fi h d i 2005
• Virus shed in urine and reproductive fluids
• Gizzard
Gizzard shad die off in Milwaukee Harbor (2011) –
shad die off in Milwaukee Harbor (2011)
WDNR testing indicated 2‐9 fish infected with VHSv
• First time gizzard shad tested positive in WI
• No VHSv testing upstream of estuary
• WDNR VHSv policy – virus assumed in all Lake Michigan “tributaries upstream to the first dam or h
“ b
h f
d
barrier impassible to fish”
• Brown trout, Chinook salmon, and rainbow trout among VHSv susceptible species, strong migratory and leaping behavior
• Lake
sturgeon not susceptible
Lake sturgeon not susceptible
Milwaukee River Watershed Fish Passage Program ‐‐ Making Connections Across Our Watershed
USFWS
VHSv – Program Response
• Inconclusive role of VHSv in 2011 gizzard g
shad die off (susceptible to large kills, stress, temperature, water quality likely contributing factors)
• Bridge Street Dam passable to salmonids
and AIS under multiple flood conditions
p
y
• VHSv spread by other vectors
• Anglers
• Wildlife / Birds • Tiered monitoring approach
Tiered monitoring approach
• Ability to close fishway if AIS/VHSv detected
Remains of a
redhorse sp.
on the Falls
Road Bridge in
Grafton,
dropped by an
Osprey
Milwaukee River Watershed Fish Passage Program ‐‐ Making Connections Across Our Watershed
Bridge Street Dam
in Milwaukee
River at Grafton –
Flood Conditions
Steelhead leaping
MT Dam in
Milwaukee River
VHSv – Program Response
Milwaukee River Watershed Fish Passage Program ‐‐ Making Connections Across Our Watershed
AIS – Program Response Summary
• Round goby g y
• Unlikely to surpass existing Milwaukee River gradient conditions or navigate fishwayy
• Predatory control increases as populations of various species improve
• Sea lamprey
Sea lamprey
• USFWS criteria incorporated into fishway design
• VHSv
• Bridge Street Dam not a full barrier to fish / VHSv passage
• Inconclusive evidence of VHSv
prevalence in watershed • Spread of VHSv by migrating fish far less likely than by human introduction
Milwaukee River Watershed Fish Passage Program ‐‐ Making Connections Across Our Watershed
“Given what we know to date, the most likely
mechanism to infect new waters is through
human actions that concentrate the virus in
one location. Diffuse movement of the virus
by fish movements does not seem to be
moving the virus significantly."
"We
We also considered closing all of our
fishways, but decided that the risk was much
lower than human intervention vectors.“
- Michigan DNR Fisheries and USACE staff
AIS – Conclusions
• WDNR issued permit for “active” fishway, p
y,
requiring: • Construction of trap and sort facility
• Only passage of lake sturgeon allowed
O y passage o a e stu geo a o ed
• Fishway closure if impoundment water levels rise within .25’ of spilling over western open channel wall
• Grafton (dam owner) rejects permit in 2011
“Take Home Messages”
• Develop, publish and adopt objective, science‐
based criteria for defining Great Lakes “boundary dams”
• Recognize demonstrated value of passive fishway
designs for sustainable aquatic connectivity
• Identify and involve regulatory “decision‐makers” early
in the process
early in the process
Milwaukee River Watershed Fish Passage Program ‐‐ Making Connections Across Our Watershed
Making Connections Across Our Watershed
QUESTIONS ?
Milwaukee River Watershed Fish Passage Program ‐‐ Making Connections Across Our Watershed
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