Keeping Invasive Species out of the Clinton River
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.
This “bypass channel” poses a major concern because the dam functions as a barrier for sea lamprey (an invasive species) migration and protects the trout fishery in Paint Creek from competition with migratory salmon.
The 2020 breakthrough resulted in an emergency bank stabilization project funded by the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission (GLFC) to redirect the river back over the dam.
CRWC, Hubbell, Roth & Clark, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR), and GLFC were partners on the project with CRWC serving as the grant administrator. The fix included a bank stabilization effort that cut off flow with sheet metal and reinforced the bank with toe wood (large logs and woody debris placed at the base of eroding stream banks) and other materials.
Unfortunately, a significant rain event occurred shortly after the project was completed in June 2021, causing the bypass channel to reconnect.
Currently, a large collaborative team is working towards a long-term solution to re-meander the river further upstream to fix the problem.
The project is being led and funded by the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission. Partners include CRWC, MDNR, Oakland County Parks, the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the city of Rochester Hills, the city of Rochester, Green Watershed Restoration, Niswander Environmental, Starlit Solutions, and Yates Cider Mill.
Over the past few years, difficulty communicating with the overseas landowner slowed work on the project. However, in the last year, significant progress has been made by the partners to move the project forward. Most recently Oakland County Parks announced it would purchase the land where the project will occur.
CRWC’s role in this project is to conduct pre- and post- ecological monitoring as well as to support other ecological needs as they arise.
We will continue to keep the public up to date on this important effort to reinstate a physical barrier for invasive sea lamprey to the upper Clinton River as the project progresses.