DNR data show fish, including lake sturgeon, smallmouth bass and steelhead, are utilizing a new structure to bypass Kletzsch Falls and move up the Milwaukee River.
Paul A. SmithMilwaukee Journal Sentinel
GLENDALE - As the sun rose on a glorious Wisconsin summer morning, a crowd gathered Tuesday to celebrate in the shade of several majestic white oaks on the western shore of the Milwaukee River in Kletzsch Park.
There were speeches by humans with lofty positions, including the top officials of Milwaukee County, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District as well as representatives of the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the local Sturgeon Protectors.
All hailed a years-long, complex collaboration that earlier this year culminated in the installation of the fish passage at Kletzsch Falls. The winding waterway allows fish to bypass the falls and move upriver.
But with all due respect to the presenters, the real measure of success of the project was provided by finned travelers in the Milwaukee and the oaks towering overhead.
Data obtained by the DNR in recent weeks confirm lake sturgeon, smallmouth bass and steelhead have moved through the Kletzsch fish passage and accessed upriver portions of the Milwaukee.
The fish now have the ability to migrate into 25 additional miles of the state's most urban river as well as 29 miles of upstream tributaries.
Although it wasn't mentioned Tuesday, I believe it's almost certainly the first time lake sturgeon have been upstream of Glendale since Kletzsch Falls was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1935 and perhaps since Byron Kilbourn built a dam across the Milwaukee River near North Avenue in Milwaukee in 1835.
Restoring fish to a new portion of their ancestral home is certainly worthy of a "job well done" gathering.
"It's a happy, very positive development," said Beth Wentzel, an MMSD engineer and senior project manager who has worked on aspects of fish passage in the Milwaukee River for more than a decade.
Lake sturgeon are native to the Great Lakes region but many spawning populations, including in the Milwaukee River, were wiped out over the last 150 years due to pollution, unregulated harvest, dams and loss of access to spawning habitat.
A Milwaukee River sturgeon reintroduction effort kicked off in 2006. It's a partnership of Riveredge Nature Center in Saukville, the DNR and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Fish are raised at a portable hatchery at Riveredge and stocked into the Milwaukee River or harbor each fall.
The project's goal is to restore a wild, self-sustaining lake sturgeon population in the Milwaukee River.
About 20,000 fingerling sturgeon have been planted through the program; the fish detected this year at the Kletzsch fish passage were all raised at Riveredge, said Aaron Schiller, DNR fisheries biologist.
The detections are made as fish implanted with a passive integrated transponder (PIT) move over a sensor installed on the river bed in the fish passage. Similar to a microchip in a cat or dog, the PIT tags carry unique identification information of the fish, including its species and date and place it was implanted with the tag.
Sensors placed on the downstream and upstream ends of the passage allow fisheries staff to determine the direction a PIT-tagged fish is traveling and whether it has moved through the structure.
Schiller said at least five sturgeon swam through the Kletzsch fish passage in recent weeks, as well as six smallmouth bass, three steelhead, one northern pike and one walleye.
It's likely more smallmouth and steelhead have moved through since only a small percentage of those species are implanted with PIT tags.
All lake sturgeon stocked in the Milwaukee receive a tag.
Two matters of great interest in the sturgeon restoration are: How many sturgeon are returning to the Milwaukee? Has any sturgeon spawning activity been observed?
On the first question, DNR data show 23 sturgeon were detected this year at a PIT-tag sensor near Locust Avenue. The fact only five were able to make to Kletzsch fish passage points to another project on the Milwaukee River rehabilitation hit list: a passage is also needed at Estabrook Falls in Milwaukee.
Schiller said of the fish that made it to Kletzsch two were stocked in 2009 and one each in 2010, 2011 and 2019.
The 2009-11 year class fish could be mature and able to spawn. It typically takes a male lake sturgeon 15 years to reach maturity and 20 to 25 for a female.
However, the sex of the fish isn't known when they are tagged. And of the adult sturgeon the DNR was able to capture this year with electrofishing gear, both were males (54 and 50 inches in length, respectively), Schiller said.
So far no adult female lake sturgeon has not been documented in the Milwaukee River during this restoration era. The answer to the second important question remains "no."
But those of us who have been supporting the effort for years have faith. It's coming.
The completion of the Kletzsch fish passage is another plank in the rehabilitation of the Milwaukee River. The cost of the work was estimated at $2.1 million, with most coming from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
Work to improve fish passage at Estabrook Falls is slated to begin in 2025, according to MMSD officials. So it's not mission accomplished.
On Tuesday, though, it was time to appreciate what had been completed at Kletzsch.
The project was more than an infrastructure improvement, noted Milwaukee County executive David Crowley.
"It's really a significant leap forward in our efforts to restore the ecological health of the Milwaukee River," Crowley said. "It also expands public access to the river at Kletzsch Park."
The fish have given their digital stamps of approval as they swim through the fish passage on the river's east side.
And here on the west shore the oaks, which many local residents advocated protecting as the fish passage plans were debated and may be old enough to have witnessed sturgeon migrations in the 1800s, cast a stately reminder of another level of the project's success.
