Key Objective: Improved Fish Passage
There are hundreds of dams within the Lake Superior watershed, many of them used for hydro-electric production, some of them formerly used in resource extraction like logging, and some of them currently serving no apparent purpose. Dams provide many benefits, like electricity, which is fundamental in today’s world. We all use it.
There are also negative factors associated with the so-called “green power” of hydro-electricity, one of which is reduced, or even blocked, fish passage. This can prevent access to vast areas of productive fish habitat. In recent years, especially on the U.S. side of Lake Superior, some dams have been removed (not without a suite of attendant concerns).
One Lake, Two Countries: Project Highlights Binational Cooperation
A binational dam inventory project was carried out during summer, 2018 through cooperation between the Superior Watershed Partnership of Marquette, Michigan and Lakehead University’s Department of Geography and the Environment in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The project gathered baseline data on over 300 dams in both the U.S. and Canadian portions of the Lake Superior watershed. Funding for the project was provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The project was carried out for multiple purposes, including identifying/prioritizing fish passage improvement needs but also to identify/prioritize other habitat issues, erosion sites, and potential dam removal/river restoration initiatives.
LINK: Fish Passage 2018 – International Conference on River Connectivity, Albury, New South Wales, Australia
The Superior Watershed Partnership and Lakehead University teamed up last summer to deploy three Dam Inventory Strike Teams (two-person field crews) to inventory over 300 dams in the Lake Superior basin, in both the United States and Canada, using a protocol developed by the University of Wisconsin–Madison and funding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Strike Teams Compiled Data on Over 300 Dams
Strike Team field crews, equipped with trucks, monitoring equipment (including field computers, range finders, handheld GPS with dam locations loaded, cameras, drones, etc.), safety equipment, and overnight camping equipment, visited dams in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Ontario to collect data and information including fish passability, dam condition, and dam height, length, width and material composition. Strike Team field crews also collected photographic documentation including aerial drone photography and verified location information using Global Positioning Systems (GPS).
Standardized data collected using this cooperative approach will allow for substantial improvements in existing Great Lakes optimization models and associated decision-support tools, including Fishwerks (https://greatlakesconnectivity.org/), that have been designed to develop regional priorities and strategies for improved aquatic connectivity within riverine networks and between lakes and the tributaries of the Great Lakes Basin. The outcomes of this work enable improved estimates of aquatic barrier removal costs, cumulative passability within watersheds, and infrastructure maintenance needs.
Superior Watershed Partnership and Lakehead University
The Superior Watershed Partnership and Lakehead University’s Department of Geography and the Environment established an informal, ongoing binational partnership in 2015 to share best practices to improve water quality and engage the public in protecting and restoring Lake Superior. Both organizations maintain working relationships with local, state/provincial, tribal/First Nation, and federal agencies as well as non-governmental organizations operating in the Lake Superior basin.
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