Palisade Creek is a perrenial tributary to Lake Superior that is located about half way up Minnesota's north shore. It is a state-designated trout stream and, more importantly, it is one of a very few tributaries in Minnesota that provides spawning habitat for Lake Superior trout, including the relatively uncommon coaster brook trout. Further, the riparian corridor of Palisade Creek is important to the white tailed deer, gray wolf, Canada lynx, and other terrestrial species, for access to wintering habitats along the shore.

U.S. Highway 61, roughly paralleling the shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota, is undergoing a major reconstruction from Duluth to the Canada border. This project is being completed in segments, and the segment from Palisade Head to Silver Bay, Minn., has been under review by the Twin Cities Ecological Services Field Office (TCFO).

The problem the TCFO quickly identified was the Mn/DOT plan to replace the existing arched culvert with a pre-cast concrete culvert of a design such that would isolate spawning habitat from the Lake Superior fishery and would subject terrestrial wildlife to continue crossing an even wider highway with even higher speed traffic. And as it is, the affected stretch of highway has a high incidence of vehicle collisions with wildlife.

The TCFO began to work with the Mn/DNR to negotiate for a wildlife crossing at Palisade Creek in lieu of the Mn/DOT plans for a smaller culvert. After just over a year of negotiations, the Mn/DOT has recently agreed to modify their plans and install a single span bridge, with no support piers, of sufficient length to accommodate a minimum eight feet wide terrestrial corridor on both banks of the creek. This will not isolate the fishery from its historic spawning habitat and it will allow for wildlife to migrate from the shore and back to the forest without needing to climb the embankments and cross the highway. The project modifications will serve not only to protect wildlife, but also to reduce a hazard to the motoring public. This wildlife crossing will be the first ever built with a highway project in Minnesota.

In addition, the TCFO is presently working with the Mn/DOT to retrofit final project plans for the U.S. Highway 53 project near Virginia, Minn., and the State Highway 1 project near Ely to include wildlife crossing features, where appropriate. We now can fully expect to see wildlife crossing features with future highway projects to become standard operating procedures in Minnesota.