Bayfield Peninsula

Bayfield Peninsula Tributary
Watershed Assessments, Wisconsin

Lake Superior tributary streams in Wisconsin are in relatively poor condition, which has complicated efforts to rehabilitate populations of Lake Superior coaster brook trout. A comprehensive watershed assessment study of five streams (Bark, Cranberry, Raspberry, Sioux and Whittlesey) on the Bayfield Peninsula was conducted in 2002-2003. Trout Unlimited (TU) and members of the Bayfield Stream Assessment Partners examined the physical stability of these streams and developed recommendations for stream and watershed management strategies. From this completed study, TU and partners will begin implementing some of those recommendations in 2004 with the installation of engineered logjams into Whittlesey Creek and the Bark River. These structures will test whether large logjam structures are successful in replicating old growth forest stream conditions to reduce stream power and the amount of sediment that develops and promote stream habitat. The overall goal of the efforts is to protect critical spawning sites and redevelop healthy channel-forming processes that will rebuild habitat critical to the coaster rehabilitation efforts.

The members of the Bayfield Stream Assessment Partners include representatives from Trout Unlimited, Inter-Fluve Inc., the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Geological Survey, Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Sigurd Olsen Environmental Institute, Ashland-Bayfield-Douglas-Iron County Land Conservation Department and the Natural Resource Conservation Service. Funding for this project came from the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program.

To learn more please email Laura Hewitt at Trout Unlimited.