The marinette county fish habitat enhancements project phase II is a three year continuation of an ongoing project that began in 2021 to increase the number of adult northern pike in green BAY by…

The marinette county fish habitat enhancements project phase II is a three year continuation of an ongoing project that began in 2021 to increase the number of adult northern pike in green BAY by evaluating sites and completing projects in the coastal wetlands and tributaries of the lower peshtigo river watershed in southeastern marinette county wisconsin. In phase i marinette county land information department land and water conservation division evaluated the project area. Made connections with landowners. Inventoried culverts and other stream crossings and developed and began implementing plans for projects to improve fish passage and spawning habitat. The evaluation work in phase i guided the prioritization of projects for phase i and will continue to guide the work in phase II. Efforts are focused on creating and improving wetlands and their connection to major pike spawning routes improving fish passage by removing obstructions such as undersized or crushed culverts and other debris and repairing a severely eroded shoreline on the peshtigo river to improve fish habitat. The peshtigo river shoreline project is a sizable project of over 1000 feet of streambank where bioengineering practices such as root wads. Live stakes. Native seeding. And cobble will be installed for natural shoreline stabilization and spawning areas instead of installing hard armoring with rock riprap. Additional projects include replacing culverts that limit fish passage in main pike spawning routes and restoring adjacent wetland spawning areas by creating wetland scrapes.time throughout phase II will be spent on finalizing plans providing construction inspection conducting follow up monitoring and pursuing additional project development. Marinette county will provide final as built construction plans to document completed projects. Sites in the project area will continue to be evaluated to determine the need for additional projects beyond phase II.