Marty Boote Greg Gaulke, John O Meara

Marty Boote Greg Gaulke, John O Meara

Project Overview Removal of 2 related dams on the Paw Paw River Removed November 2011 Incorporated fish passage and stream restoration Removal of the second dam restored 2,000 feet of abandoned channel 2 years of post-construction monitoring

NOAA Guiding Principles Habitat Restoration Monitoring It is important to monitor and assess restoration projects to ensure that the money, time, and effort invested are being efficiently and effectively spent. Whenever possible, monitoring protocols should be determined before the first shovel strikes the ground and before any measurements are taken in the field.

Monitoring Overview NOAA GLRI Funding Fish passage Historic channel fish community Null hypothesis: Removing the two Watervliet dams on the Paw Paw River will not allow passage of target fish species nor significantly change fish community diversity in the historic channel by restoring a continuous flow regime. Macroinvertebrate colonization of riffles Natural riffle pebble counts Morphological transect surveying

Project Location

Project Site Historic Channel Diversion Dam Former Paper Mill Site Spillway Dam f x b ax Mill Creek

Target Potadromous Fish Species Longnose sucker White sucker Walleye

Fish Passage Methods Presence / Absence Mark-recapture Anal fin clips Relative Abundance Catch per unit effort Upstream-downstream sampling Measured flow velocity Target species critical swimming speed

Fish Community Methods Multiple community indices Shannon-Wiener Hutcheson s (1970) Student s t-test; α = 0.10 Assumption: Equal sampling effort Control sampling distance and time Species richness Evenness Similarity Effective number of species Species composition

Passage Sampling Reaches Similar to 1989 MDNR rotenone survey station M-140, Spillway Dam Station Upstream Station Historic Channel

Passage Sampling Reaches Coloma Stations

Passage Sampling Reaches Similar to 1989 MDNR rotenone survey station Benton Harbor Station

Community Sampling Reach

Fish Collection Summary 1,270 minutes of fishing effort over 11 sampling dates: 4/11/11 through 6/4/13 Catch rates were low 1,645 captured with a CPUE of 1.3/min 43 species Sucker species most abundant (79% of catch) July 1989 MDNR rotenone survey ECT captured 24 of 54 species No white sucker downstream No longnose sucker upstream or downstream

Fish Collection Summary Mark-Recapture A total of 769 target fish were marked 30 recaptures, 14 recaptures upstream of dams (2%) White sucker recaptured spring of 2012 2.3 miles upstream of Lake Michigan Marked spring 2011 at M-140; ~25 miles upstream

Recaptured Fish 2013 2012 2013

Number Per Minute of Fishiing Effort Relative Abundance Catch Rate of Target Fish Species Downstream/Upstream of the Former Watervliet Dams on 3/27/12 6.0 Downstream Upstream 5.0 4.0 3.0 2.0 1.0 0.0 0.72 0.33 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.04 White Sucker Longnose Sucker Walleye Species

Number Per Minute of Fishiing Effort Relative Abundance Catch Rate of Target Fish Species Downstream/Upstream of the Former Watervliet Dams on 4/8/13 6.0 5.65 Downstream Upstream 5.0 4.0 3.0 2.58 2.0 1.35 1.0 0.0 0.04 0.13 0.06 White Sucker Longnose Sucker Walleye Species

Longnose Sucker Captured upstream of former spillway dam location in 2013 None were marked None captured upstream of dams in 2011 or 2013, or by MDNR in 1987 Males and gravid females captured in spawning habitat upstream of dams

Fish Critical Swimming Speed 30.0 LEGEND 25.0 Min/Max Length (in) 20.0 15.0 Northern pike White sucker Walleye Longnose sucker Mean 10.0 5.0 Spillway Dam Riffle Postconstruction Spillway Dam Preconstruction 0.0 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5 7.0 Critical Flow Velocity (ft/s)

Fish Community Results Sampled in June of 2011, 2012, & 2013 Dominant species shift from lotic to lentic, but required 2 years Number of sucker species increased: 2 (2011) 5 (2012) 6 (2013) 2011 and 2012 diversity significantly different t100 = -1.991, p < 0.05, α = 0.1 2011 and 2013 not significantly different

Fish Community Results 2011 2012 2013 Species richness 14 15 14 H' 2.20 2.51 2.27 e H' 8.98 12.34 9.67 Evenness 0.83 0.93 0.86 2011-2012 2012-2013 2011-2013 Sørensen's S 0.48 0.69 0.36

Fish Community Results 2011 and 2013 have similar diversity Species composition quite dissimilar 11 of the 14 species in 2013 were new species Dominant species shift: 2011 2012 2013 Bluegill (22%) Pumkinseed (19%) Spotted sucker (15%) Golden redhorse (20%) Bluegill (11%) White sucker (11%) Golden redhorse (20%) Shorthead redhorse (18%) White sucker (18%)

What Do We Know? Target fish species are passing during spawning runs Formerly abandoned channel is now fully supporting lotic species Multiple years of post-construction monitoring was required Combining multiple community indices is useful for understanding change Medium size, non-wadable streams are difficult to monitor effectively

What Don t We Know? Are target fish species successfully reproducing upstream of the former dam locations? Are target fish stocks increasing as a result of increased recruitment?

NOAA Paula Bizot, Jessica Berrio Berrien County Dan Fette Acknowledgements U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Rick Westerhof MI Department of Natural Resources Kregg Smith, Brian Gunderman, Jay Wesley My colleagues at ECT

Contact Information For a PDF of the Monitoring Plan and/or Monitoring Report e-mail me at: mboote@ectinc.com In memory of Gary Crawford always a friend, before anything else.