In 2015, the Clinton River Watershed Council (CRWC) and other organizations noticed that a new channel in the Clinton River was beginning to form near Yates Cider Mill Dam in Rochester Hills. Just five years later, in 2020, the channel had completely redirected the river around the dam. 

In the 1960s, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources conducted a fish survey and found no living fish in the Clinton River from Lake St. Clair to the city of Pontiac.

Invasive species have long been a difficult challenge for the Great Lakes and their tributaries, including the Clinton River watershed.