Over the River

The Menominee River is a tributary to Lake Michigan’s Green Bay that supports one of the largest remaining populations of Lake Sturgeon in the Great Lakes. Historically, fish could travel up the river for nearly 130 river kilometers (rkm), but now encounter the Menominee Dam only 4 rkm upstream from Green Bay. As a result, over 90% of what is considered high-quality sturgeon spawning habitat is located upstream of the dam and therefore unavailable to fish (Daugherty et al. 2009).