Sturgeon Passage

The River Alliance, along with our natural resource agency and hydro dam partners, received a grant of $1.5 million from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and a grant of the same amount from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative to develop a means for the ancient lake sturgeon to make their way up- and downstream around two hydro dams on the Menominee River (the one that forms the border between Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan).

The idea is if you build it, they will pass.  “It” is essentially, an elevator at one dam on the Menominee so the sturgeon can migrate upstream and return to their spawning grounds.  (Sturgeon don’t jump, so we don’t build fish ladders for them in Wisconsin like they do in Washington for salmon.)  The downstream passage device is essentially a rack in the water above the dam to direct the sturgeon to a tube that will pass them through the dam and on downstream.

Our partners include the natural resource agencies of Michigan and Wisconsin, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the dams’ owner, North American Hydro.  Studies have been conducted for years at these dams to figure how to attract sturgeon to the places where they will be passed around the dams, and the grants will allow us to build the passage devices. Biologists estimate there are only 3,000 sturgeon of breeding age in all of Lake Michigan, down from an estimated two million of them at the turn of the century.  Their population will not expand unless they can reach spawning habitat. The Menominee River, likely the birthplace of many old sturgeon in Lake Michigan, is ideal habitat, but the dams block their way.

In July 2009, the River Rat blogged about the studies conducted to attract sturgeon to the passage devices.  Click here to read the archived blog and watch the videos of passing sturgeon. 

Get more details on the project - download the "Story of Lake Michigan Sturgeon" project flyer »