Menominee River Fish Passage Partnership (With Interviews)

The sturgeon is an ancient fish. They have evolved very little since they appeared about 200 million years ago.
In spite of their distinctive looks and massive size (sturgeon can grow to be nine feet long and may weigh more than 300 pounds), sturgeon are often called "cute," "friendly," and "gentle."
The sturgeon is truly a river fish; it needs the rocky, gravelly bottom and swift flow of a river to spawn. But it likes to swim in big water too, if it can get to it.
For the resident sturgeon of the Menominee River, the border-forming river between Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula, getting to big water -- Lake Michigan -- is a big problem.
There are five dams between the lake and the sturgeon's historic spawning grounds at -- you guessed it... Sturgeon Falls, about 82 miles upstream from Lake Michigan.
For the sturgeon to thrive, they have to be able to make the round trip from lake to home river and back again. But they can't without some help from us. Just like salmon, sturgeon have a "home river" they return to, to spawn. But unlike salmon, they don't go there to die, and they are not athletic like salmon. Sturgeon can't jump up fish ladders.
So we have to build a way for them to get around the hydro electric dams on the Menominee River so they can make that round trip, from river spawning grounds, to Lake Michigan, and back again.

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