A $6 million project to help Great Lakes fish swim farther upstream in tributaries is almost complete. Federal and local funds are being spent to rip 3,000 feet of concrete channel out of the Menomonee River just north of Miller Park in Milwaukee and install a more natural riverbed.
The goal is to slow water flow and allow species like northern pike to swim and perhaps spawn as much as 37 miles upstream.
Henry Koltz of Trout Unlimited said that in Milwaukee and elsewhere, his group likes to see fish barriers removed.
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“We can have a complete river systems where species that live in the river are able to move unabated from top to bottom,” he said.
The federal funds are from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. In Congres, the House has just OKd another year of funding for that program, some $300 million, while action in the Senate is possible soon.
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