Glenn Miller (FWS) and Michelle Wheeler (BRWA) electrofishing directly above Restored Culvert site. Bayfield County, Wisconsin. October 2008. Photographer: Ted Koehler.

Glenn Miller (FWS), Pam Dryer (FWS) and Michelle Wheeler (BRWA) working up fish from monitoring of the restored culvert site BRW #391. Bayfield County, Wisconsin. October 2008. Photographer: Ted Koehler.

Multiple partners in northern Wisconsin worked together to restore fish passage at Bad River Watershed Culvert #391 on a tributary to 18 Mile Creek at South Sweden Road in Bayfield County, Wisconsin.  The culvert located within the Bad River Watershed was both perched and a velocity barrier to brook trout and other fish.  The Bad River watershed is a high priority for restoration and evaluation by the area’s private organizations, government agencies and the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Ashland National Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office (NFWCO) and the Bad River Watershed Association (BRWA) are evaluating the status and compiling an inventory of nearly 1,100 road crossings in the watershed.  This provides a strategic approach to habitat restoration within this large and complex system.

The Town of Grandview, BRWA, Bayfield County Land and Water Conservation Department, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service partnered to install and embed a 4 foot high and 5 foot high pipe arch culvert at the road crossing and restore fish passage to 2.5 miles of cold water habitat above the former barrier.  The restoration of this site now provides access to the brook trout population once trapped below the old culvert to miles of new spawning habitat.