GLFT Grant Library

The timeline for the Brandon Road project has been pushed back by the pandemic. Therefore, National Wildlife Federation and our partners seek a one-year renewal at a lower level to finish the job. Specifically, we will enhance our successful Asian carp communications campaign to finalize the implementation of the Brandon Road project (Project). To do so, we will: 1) Launch new and inspiring communications that bolster momentum; 2) Deploy strategic communications that ‘nationalize’ our efforts to stop the further spread of Asian carp; and 3) Leverage and expand our partnerships with stakeholders in the Ohio and Mississippi River Basins by supporting control and eradication strategies. Keeping Asian carp out of the Great Lakes remains our number one priority. In order to protect the Great Lakes from Asian carp, our nationalization strategy will continue to expand our work into non-Great Lakes regions to build the necessary support that ultimately will lead to implementing the Brandon Road project.The timeline for the Brandon Road project has been pushed back by the pandemic. Therefore, National Wildlife Federation and our partners seek a one-year renewal at a lower level to finish the job. Specifically, we will enhance our successful Asian carp communications campaign to finalize the implementation of the Brandon Road project (Project). To do so, we will: 1) Launch new and inspiring communications that bolster momentum; 2) Deploy strategic communications that ‘nationalize’ our efforts to stop the further spread of Asian carp; and 3) Leverage and expand our partnerships with stakeholders in the Ohio and Mississippi River Basins by supporting control and eradication strategies. Keeping Asian carp out of the Great Lakes remains our number one priority. In order to protect the Great Lakes from Asian carp, our nationalization strategy will continue to expand our work into non-Great Lakes regions to build the necessary support that ultimately will lead to implementing the Brandon Road project.

The Grand Rapids Public Museum is re-imagining the role of a public museum. Located on the banks of the Grand River, the Museum will design a welcoming and universally accessible outdoor space that provides educational and recreational opportunities for interaction with the river. Anglers will have safe and well marked access to the fishery from created terraces and pathways. This phase of the project, and focus of proposal, will include finalizing schematic and engineering drawings.

Development of two universally accessible fishing platforms and amenities at Homestead Township’s new 52-acre Platte River Park with over 1,550 feet of river access. These platforms will provide outstanding access for people of all ages, needs and abilities to fish for migratory Great Lakes species, including coho salmon and steelhead trout and learn about the fish, flora and fauna in and along the river and Great Lakes as well as the importance of environmental stewardship.

We propose to construct, install, and commission a programmable, full width, 3-axis data carriage at the FishPass Project located on the Boardman River, Traverse City, MI (http://www.glfc.org/fishpass.php).  The carriage will facilitate rapid and consistent collection of environmental data in support of selective fish passage research coordinated by the FishPass Advisory Board.  The carriage will be custom fabricated and outfitted with numerous environmental (e.g., velocity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH) and fish movement (e.g., sonar, telemetry) sensors.

The Pere Marquette is a Blue Ribbon Trout Stream and a popular fishery for steelhead, salmon, brook and brown trout. The mainstem has a severely eroding streambank 350' long partially within a railroad right-of-way that has been continuously slumping the last 10 years. Conservation Resource Alliance, PM Watershed Council, PM Trout Unlimited and AECOM are in the final design phase working towards stabilizing this site with fieldstone, plantings, large wood habitat, and floodplain bench restoration.

The proposed project is intended to restore habitat for aquatic biota, especially salmonid, in a reach of the Little Manistee River to a more natural, historic condition utilizing large wood and other natural materials. The proposed work is consistent with the work the Conservation Resource Alliance (CRA) has accomplished in its 50 year history in rivers of northwest Lower Michigan.

CRA and partners, using tried and true decision policy tools, will design and permit the last two improperly sized and deteriorating road stream crossings on the mainstem of the Jordan River at Jordan River Road, sites #WA-3 and #WA-5, to build on past restoration successes and optimize habitat for a diverse community of aquatic life including naturally reproducing Great Lakes salmonids and non-salmonid predator game species.

Huron Pines will conduct a comprehensive inventory of road/stream crossings in the Eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan within the Lake Huron Basin. The project includes compiling past inventory data and conducting inventories at locations that have not previously been surveyed. Inventories will be prioritized by natural resource partners to identify future restoration projects that provide long-term habitat connectivity throughout these watersheds.

The purpose of this project is the replacement of the existing 24" diameter culverts with 87" X 63" Aluminized Steel Pipe Arch Culverts at 2 locations on Days River Road. The proposed structures will provide natural stream beds, reduce velocities and result in improved passage for aquatic organisms and a reduction in sediment. An additional culvert under an abandoned trail will be removed contingent upon permission by the Property Owner (State of Michigan).

Lake whitefish declines in the four lower Great Lakes have alarmed fishery managers, commercial/tribal fisherman, and the public alike. Co-PI Loch is PI of an ongoing GLFT-funded grant (Grant #2018.1806) that seeks to clarify the role that infectious fish diseases play in decreasing the survival of young lake whitefish and determine routes by which such infections spread from parents to offspring. Although fish collections and sample analyses are ongoing, several important findings (including the detection of several bacterial pathogens, at least one of which has never before been reported in lake whitefish and is known to be efficiently transmitted intra ova in other salmonids) will most assuredly lead to multiple publications. Study results are already helping to identify viable management solutions and guide future research to improve the health of Great Lakes lake whitefish.

Management of Lake Whitefish harvest in Lake Michigan assumes that different stocks do not mix during the fishing season, but validation of this assumption has been difficult using conventional mark-recapture studies. Therefore, in this study, year-round acoustic tracking of 200 individual Lake Whitefish was used to describe stock-specific movement patterns, which will help fishery managers improve estimates of stock abundance that are used to recommend harvest levels.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources will construct an accessible fishing pier at Sterling State Park for the purposes of provide a safe and accessible public fishing location. A former fishing pier was removed in 2015 due to ice damage. Installation of a new pier will provide improved capacity for fishing programming at this popular fishery.

In the heart of the city of Cheboygan, the Cheboygan River runs with steelhead salmon, rainbow trout, walleye, bass, and sunfish before entering Lake Huron. Its desirable fishing lacks safe access. From designs created with public input, project proposes to construct two of seven planned fishing piers, adjacent lighting, and connecting paths. The piers will provide a destination for shore-based fishing using universal access and reduce erosion from foot traffic.

With the largest dam removal project in Michigan’s history concluding in 2019 on the Boardman River, initiating road/stream crossing work in the headwaters of the North Branch is a sound next step to effectively managing the watershed as a whole. Partners will work with CRA to complete design for a new bridge crossing, and inventory all crossings in the Boardman Watershed and neighboring Grand Traverse Bay feeder streams of Mitchell, Acme, Yuba, and Tobeco Creeks.

The Sand Creek is a cold water stream located in Ottawa and Kent County Michigan. It is designated as a Trout Stream by the Michigan DEQ, but has a history of impairments due to flow regime alterations and sedimentation. We will conduct an inventory of all road stream crossings in the watershed, a habitat assessment at key locations, and to identify areas of concern where future restoration efforts may be beneficial.

An engineering alternatives study for the lowermost barrier on the Bear River, the largest tributary to Little Traverse Bay, will be completed. Potential alternatives for the Lake Street dam include complete or partial removal, modification, or no change. Project partners will conduct community engagement efforts to solicit support and highlight the connection between the Great Lakes Fishery and coastal tributaries. The study will serve as the basis for prioritizing the future management of the dam.

This project will benefit brook trout and other aquatic species by reconnecting 89.6 upstream miles of critical coldwater habitat in the upper Thunder Bay River Watershed by replacing five undersized road/stream crossing structures with timber bridges. These project locations were identified as top priorities based on the comprehensive inventory of road/stream crossings completed in 2018 with Great Lakes Fishery Trust support. This work restores a suite of natural river processes while improving local road infrastructure.

Since the early 2000s, Lake Whitefish (LWF) populations in Lake Michigan have declined whereas Cisco populations have increased. Changes in food resources coupled with differential vulnerability to predators may have negatively affected LWF recruitment and positively influenced Cisco. We will examine the spatio-temporal variability in nearshore zooplankton resources and the dietary preferences and growth of larval fish in situ. Laboratory experiments will highlight reactions of each species to food availability and vulnerability to nearshore predators.