Great Lakes Fishery Trust Announces $3 million in Grants for Great Lakes Research, Protection and Restoration
Brown Bridge Dam Removal on Boardman River and Asian Carp Study Funded
Published: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 7:00 am
By: Department of Natural Resources and Environment
Lansing - Managers of the GreatLakes Fishery Trust (GLFT) announced the award of seven grants totaling $2.5 million. The recipient projects address a wide array of restoration opportunities and environmental challenges, ranging from a dam removal on the Boardman River to a study of preventing the invasion of the Asian carp into Lake Michigan through the Chicago Waterway System.
"The funding of these seven projects highlights the diversity of research needed for the protection and enhancement of the Great Lakes," said Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment Director Rebecca Humphries, who chairs the GLFT. "The vitality of the Great Lakes, the world's largest source of freshwater, depends on a commitment to cutting-edge research and protection efforts."
The Scientific Advisory Team, a panel of fishery biologists and other experts, helps review and recommend grant applications to the Trust.
This year's awards provide over $600,000 for fisheries research on field validation of methods to detect and quantify Bacterial Kidney Disease (BKD) and to assess new fish pathogens on stocked and wild fish populations. In addition, $1 million was awarded to Traverse City to begin the process of removing the first of three dams on the Boardman River, and another $500,000 was awarded to the Great Lakes Commission as part of a larger $2 million study to assess options for creating a hydrologic barrier between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River Basin to prevent the introduction of the Asian carp.
"These grants represent a significant investment and ongoing commitment of the Great Lakes Fishery Trust to restore habitat while working to control invasive species," said Mark Coscarelli, Manager of the GLFT. "We know from experience that once invasive species arrive in the Great Lakes they are here to stay and that preventing their arrival is the key to long term protection of theLakes."
Below is a list of the grants.
The Great Lakes Fishery Trust is an innovative funding program created in 1996 as part of a settlement with Consumers Energy and the Detroit Edison Company for fish losses caused by the operation of the Ludington Pumped Storage Plant on Lake Michigan. Since inception, the trust has provided over $45 million to educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies to improve and protect the Great Lakes fishery.
Great Lakes Fishery Trust Grant Awards
1. City of Traverse City - $1 million – Beginning the Removal of the Boardman River Dams: Removing/Restoring Brown Bridge Dam. The project will remove the Brown Bridge Dam, one of three dams targeted for removal by the City of Traverse City and Grand Traverse County. This is the firstof three dams scheduled for removal on the Boardman River.When all three dams are removed, it will result in the restoration of over 3 miles of cold water stream, 253 acres of wetlands, and 57 acres of upland habitat.
2. Great Lakes Commission - $500,000 – Envisioning a Chicago Waterway System for the 21st Century. The project, totaling $2 million, will develop scenarios and investigate associated options, methods, costs, impacts, and benefits of ecologically separating the Mississippi River and Great Lakes watersheds, with a focus on the Chicago Area Waterway System to help prevent the arrival of Asian Carp and other invasive species.
3. The University of Michigan – $500,000 – Great Lakes Coastal and Nearshore Database and Classification Framework. The first of its kind, a Great Lakes coastal and nearshore database and classification framework will be developed that integrates key habitat components to address local, lake-wide, and basin-wide restoration and management needs. The tool will provide managers with an essential capability to link, map, and prioritize restoration projects in the Great Lakes system and deliver the first consistent geographic framework to integrate and track coastal monitoring, assessment, indicator development, ecological forecasting, and restoration activities across the Great Lakes.
4. Central Michigan University- $257,000 – Quantification of the Success and Potential Impacts of New Rock Ramp Fish Passages in the Saginaw Bay watershed. The goal of this project is to determine if rock ramp fish passage devices, a relatively new way to provide fish passage at low-head barrier dams, is having the expected and desired outcomes without undesirable negative consequences.
5. Purdue University- $385,000 – Researchers will examine large river mouths flowing into Lake Michigan to better understand the importance of these areas for yellow perch recruitment. These habitats likely provide favorable environments for larval fish growth because of their unique thermal, light, nutrient, and biological properties.
6. U.S. Geological Survey, Western Fisheries Research Center- $240,000 – Inter-laboratory Testing for Field Validation of Diagnostic Methods to Detect and Quantify Renibacterium salmoninarum. Scientists will develop standardized diagnostic tools to determine Bacterial kidney disease (BKD) caused by Renibacterium salmoninarum (Rs) that has been associated with large mortality events in Chinook. This project is designed to enhance the capabilities of Great Lakes laboratories to perform standardized tests via workshops and training, to evaluate the reproducibility and ruggedness of laboratory-validated assays during multilaboratory use, to evaluate capabilities of laboratories and instrumentation for performance of specific tests, and to harmonize existing test methods and resolve inter-laboratory differences.
7. Michigan State University- $220,000 – Emerging Flavo bacterium spp in the Great Lakes Basin: Identification and Assessment of their Impacts on Fish Health. This study will elucidate epizootiology/pathogen-host interactions of emerging flavobacteria, while evaluating potential measures to prevent their spread withfish stocked into the Great Lakes. Such information is essential for developing management strategies to control flavobacterial diseases and minimize impacts in wild and hatchery settings.
