Fish Passage for the Milwaukee River Watershed

About the Program

Category: County Resiliency (Best in Category)

Year: 2011

The Fish Passage for the Milwaukee River Watershed Program is a solution to watershed fragmentation in Ozaukee County with biological and socioeconomic benefits extending well beyond the project area. The program reconnects 158 miles of biologically productive rivers and streams to near-shore areas of Lake Michigan, the Milwaukee Estuary, and the lower Milwaukee River. In turn, the program reconnects isolated fish and mussel communities in the 119,000 acres of watershed above the Mequon-Thiensville Dam. The program also reconnects 35 mainstem miles of the Milwaukee River to the Milwaukee Estuary and near-shore areas of Lake Michigan, and actively removes fish passage impediments in over 40 miles of biologically significant tributary streams, water courses that can be even more important than large rivers to sustaining potamodromous and adfluvial fish populations. Eighty-three miles of streams are passively reconnected to the lower river, including 11 miles of the North branch of the Milwaukee River, 22 miles of second- and third-order non-project streams in Ozaukee County, and 50 miles of navigable streams in Washington and Sheboygan Counties. The great size of reconnected watershed and the long length of newly accessible stream miles assure that a wide variety of habitat types will be accessible, including nearly 14,000 acres of wetlands habitat.