Lime Kiln Dam Removal

Between 2006 and 2013, Ozaukee County's comprehensive Ozaukee Fish Passage Program worked to reconnect high-quality habitat in the Lake Michigan Basin and Milwaukee River Watershed by modifying or removing barriers to fish and aquatic life passage, seeking to re-establish migratory routes across 119,000 acres and 158 stream miles. Human-made impediments such as dams, poorly placed or sized culverts, and channelized tributaries had fragmented habitat and limited access needed for reproduction, growth, feeding, and survival, with native fish such as northern pike especially affected because they are poor swimmers and jumpers. By 2013, more than 203 impediments on the mainstem Milwaukee River and 30 tributary streams had been identified and remediated, reconnecting over 100 miles of streams and rivers. A major project was the 2010 removal of the Lime Kiln Dam by the Ozaukee County Planning and Parks Department and Highway Department in cooperation with the Village of Grafton and landowners, funded by an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The work included removing debris and fill from the former raceway, dewatering the impoundment through the raceway, blasting the dam face and footing, removing concrete and debris with heavy equipment, stabilizing banks, adding public access amenities, building a wooden pedestrian bridge to the exposed bedrock island, removing invasive vegetation, and seeding native prairie and planting trees. The project restored access to 32 river miles of mainstem Milwaukee River habitat from Lake Michigan upstream through the former impoundment and was expected to improve aquatic passage, fishery and riparian habitat, water quality, floodplain function, recreation, tourism, and habitat access for threatened and endangered species. It also aided restoration of endangered species by providing mature lake sturgeon access to high-quality exposed bedrock and cobble upstream of the former dam for spawning, and the river stretch later became a popular destination for smallmouth bass and salmon anglers.

Grafton, Wisconsin · United States