County to show off results of fish passage project

The Ozaukee County Planning and Parks Department has been awarded a $16,000 grant to stage a tour to showcase its successful fish passage projects.

The grant from the Healing Our Waters Great Lakes Coalition will fund tours at project areas supported by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, including the Mequon-Thiensville Dam Fishway in the Village of Thiensville, Ulao Creek Nature Preserve in the Village of Grafton, Tendick Nature Park in the Town of Saukville, Little Menomonee River Fish and Wildlife Preserve in the City of Mequon, Sucker Brook in the Town of Belgium, Milwaukee River Oxbow Nature Preserve in the Village of Saukville, Mole Creek in the Town of Saukville and Mineral Springs Creek in the City of Port Washington.

Other tours will be held at large-scale habitat restoration projects at coastal park properties such as Virmond County Park in Mequon, Lion’s Den Gorge Nature Preserve in the Town of Grafton and Clay Bluffs Cedar Gorge Nature Preserve in Port.

The audience for the tours are local community partners and state and national organizations that have partnered in the projects.

They include the Lake Michigan Bird Observatory, Restoring Lands, Ozaukee Treasures Network, Ozaukee County Tourism Council, Ozaukee County Watershed Coalition, Pheasants Forever, Friends of Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary, Sugar Maple Nature School, Fund For Lake Michigan, Wings Over Wisconsin, Wisconsin Wetlands Association, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Forest Service, state Department of Natural Resources and Wisconsin Coastal Management Program.

Local members of Congress, state representatives, local elected officials and academic researchers and educators also will be invited.

The tours will use rental buses for transportation.

Besides recognizing funding partners, “the tour will highlight department projects and outcomes, provide for education and outreach to a diverse audience and encourage volunteer participation and funding of similar, ongoing projects,” county Planning and Parks Director Andrew Struck said in a memo to the county Natural Resources Committee, which recently unanimously recommended accepting the grant.

Acceptance of the grant requires County Board approval.

The tour will likely take place in August, Struck said.

According to the county website, the fish passage program “seeks to re-establish migratory fish passage between 11,149 wetland acres and 215 stream miles of the Milwaukee River Watershed, the Milwaukee Estuary, direct tributaries to Lake Michigan and Lake Michigan.

Since the program began in 2008, originally funded by a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, about $17.5 million in state, federal and nonprofit grant funds have been awarded to the county to remove or improve more than 300 stream impediments, restoring access to more than 150 miles of in-stream habitat and thousands of acres of wetland habitat, according to the website.

Many Lake Michigan fish species require access to rivers and streams for spawning, development and other “critical life-cycle functions,” according to the website.