U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Restoring the Great Lakes Success Stories from the 2016 Field Season The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative continues to be an incredible journey. Watch the video at fws.gov/GLRI Welcome! Dear Reader,

We are now seven years into our Great Lakes Restoration Initiative adventure and with that achievement comes the seventh edition of Restoring the Great Lakes. Through our 2016 interagency agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service received more than $44 million to support new and ongoing Great Lakes restoration projects. As always, it is our pleasure to share with you how the funding supported us in our conservation efforts. What we and our partners have accomplished in such a short amount of time is nothing short of miraculous.

What do these miracles look like? There is no better example than the Great Lakes piping plover. A few decades ago the small and charming shorebird hovered on the edge of extinction with only a handful of mating pairs left in the world. Too long neglected, the story of the piping plover resembled the larger story of the Great Lakes. In the absence of coordinated and sustained stewardship actions, we stood to lose a lot. The emergence of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative in 2010 was a game-changer for us, our partners and the piping plover. In lean budget times it allowed us to fast track needed dollars to the field to protect and restore the majesty of the Great Lakes region for the people, plants and wildlife who call it “home.”

Today piping plover populations are on a steady rise. After a 30 year absence, a pair of piping plovers successfully nested on New York’s Lake Ontario shoreline in 2015. In 2016, a breeding pair of piping plovers was found nesting in lower Green Bay in Wisconsin, and another in Wilderness State Park in Michigan. Each camouflaged nest sits on a sandy beach restored with Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding. There is still a lot of work to be done, but these types of successes keep us going.

Whether you live near or far, we invite you out to our national wildlife refuges and national fish hatcheries to learn more about the work that we do and the people who make it happen. Our Great Lakes Restoration Initiative supported projects in the Great Lakes reflect the passion and the hard work of our staff. Come witness it for yourself.

We look forward to seeing you!

Tom Melius Wendi Weber Regional Director, Midwest Region Regional Director, Northeast Region Great Lakes RESTORATION Table of Contents

Welcome! ...... 2 Great Lakes Restoration Initiative ...... 4 Animals We Hope You Never Meet in Midwest Waters ...... 5 Dear Asian Carp, the Road to the Great Lakes is Closed ...... 6 GLRI Helps Bring Piping Plovers Back to Wilderness State Park ...... 8 Preventing Asian Carp Access to Lake Erie at Eagle Marsh...... 9 Restoring Coregonids in the Lower Great Lakes...... 10 The Chittenango Snail’s Life on the Edge ...... 11 Working with Tribal Partners on Great Lakes Restoration Projects .... 12 Return of Lake Trout Heralds the Cisco Comeback ...... 13 Protection Grows for Lake Michigan’s ‘Stepping Stones’ ...... 14 Maankiki Marsh: Restoring a Freshwater Estuary ...... 15 Contaminant Concentrations in Lake Sturgeon ...... 16 Enhancing Habitats at Park 562 of the Chicago Park District ...... 17 Conserving Great Lakes Coastal Wetlands ...... 18 GLRI - Signs of Progress ...... 19 U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Great Lakes Restoration Great Lakes RESTORATION Initiative (GLRI)

Why save the Great Lakes? • Toxic Substances and Areas of Concern Comprised of more than 10,000 miles of (AOCs): Years after pollution stops coastline and 30,000 islands, the Great persistent pollutants can remain in the Lakes provide drinking water, transportation, environment, often trapped in sediments power and recreational opportunities to the below the surface of the water. The areas 30 million citizens who call the Great Lakes of the Great Lakes Basin most severely Basin “home.” Fishing, hunting, and wildlife impacted by these pollutants are known watching in the Great Lakes generate almost as Areas of Concern (AOCs). Service $18 billion in annual revenue. As the largest will work to restore and protect aquatic ecosystems in the Great Lakes from Bird and bat radar unit. USFWS group of fresh water lakes on Earth, the Great Lakes hold 95 percent of the United the threat of persistent pollutants. In States’ surface fresh water. Unfortunately, addition, the Service is initiating an effort years of environmental degradation has to address the looming threat of emerging left the Great Lakes in need of immediate contaminants, such as hand sanitizers, on-the-ground action to save this precious pharmaceuticals, and personal care products, resource for generations to come. in the Great Lakes.

What is the Great Lakes Restoration • Invasive Species: More than 180 non- Initiative? native species are established in the Great The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Lakes. The most invasive of these reproduce (GLRI) is a driver for environmental action and spread, ultimately degrading habitat, in the Great Lakes. Building upon strategic out-competing native species, and disrupting food webs. Service activities will work to Lake trout restoration. USFWS recommendations for how to improve the Great Lakes ecosystem presented in the control and eradicate harmful non-native Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Strategy species in the Great Lakes. In FY 2016 $3.8 of 2005, President Obama’s FY 2010 million in GLRI funding was allocated to the budget invested $475 million for GLRI. Service to work specifically on Asian carp Funding decreased to $300 million in FY control and management, with an additional 2011 through FY 2016. GLRI represents $4.8 million allocated for state projects. a collaborative effort on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and 15 • Habitat and Wildlife Protection and other federal agencies, including U.S. Fish Restoration: From climate change to and Wildlife Service, to address the most increasing development activities along the significant environmental concerns of the shores of the Great Lakes, a multitude of Great Lakes. threats are affecting the health of the Great Lakes habitats and native wildlife. Service projects will work to identify, restore, and Fish passage. USFWS What is the USFWS’s role in the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative? protect important habitat for the area’s fish The Service facilitates the implementation and wildlife. of GLRI Action Plan priority programs, projects and activities to protect, restore, • Foundations for Future Restoration and maintain the Great Lakes ecosystem. Actions: The Service will foster climate Through an interagency agreement with resiliency in GLRI-funded projects, educate the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the next generation about the importance the Service was allocated approximately of the Great Lakes to fish, wildlife, plants $69 million in FY 2010, $37.4 million in and people, and continue a science-based FY 2011, $43.6 million in FY 2012, $40.5 adaptive management approach for new and million in FY 2013, $49 million in FY 2014, ongoing projects. $41 million in FY 2015 and $44.3 million in Protecting and restoring bird habitat. USFWS FY 2016 to work on projects in the following focus areas:

Want more information? Go to http://www.fws.gov/GLRI 4 the Service has listed at least 200 Bad Actors: 11 Animals We Hope hundred species as injurious before they entered the United States in You Never Meet in Midwest Waters many separate listing actions, we have never focused so completely By Katie Steiger-Meister cost-effective approach to battling on preventing the introduction of these unwelcome guests. all species that are in a single listing In an era when the Midwest is action. frustrated by a seemingly endless In the absence of a crystal ball to litany of unwelcome guests in our show us future invasive species, we Another crucial part of the effort waters, from zebra mussels and turn to science to help us create a to stop animals before they enter Asian carp to Eurasian watermilfoil line-up of our bad actors. We use our country is our partnership with and spiny water fleas, we have a process we call Ecological Risk industry and state conservation decided that enough is enough. Screening Summaries to focus our agencies. In 2013, the Service signed prevention efforts. Starting our bad a Memorandum of Understanding It’s time to go on the offensive. actor search with freshwater animals, with the Pet Industry Joint Advisory we use international databases, Council and the Association of Fish The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s scientific literature, and a computer and Wildlife Agencies. Both groups Midwest Region is helping to stop model to locate areas of the United agreed to help us in our efforts the next invasion of nasty critters in States that provide the right climate, by voluntarily refraining from the our waterways before it even begins. such as temperature and rainfall importation of high risk species not We’ve scoured the globe and created patterns, for animals known to be yet introduced to the country in a bad actor list of 10 fish and one invasive in other parts of the world. trade. Their ongoing support is a crayfish that we want to make sure The potential risk an animal poses to vital part of our future success. never find their way to the Midwest. our country’s waters increases when Nearly all of these animals would we find a strong climate match. Since find our rivers, lakes and streams a 2010, approximately $1.3 million is The interplay of science, policy and suitable home. Coupled with their Great Lakes Restoration Initiative partnerships is important in our unfortunate tendency to invade new funding has supported more than fight to keep invasive animals out places, we’ve decided the risk these 1,400 risk assessments to examine of Midwest waters. The Service has animals pose to our environment is potential invaders. successfully taken steps to place too high. Amur sleeper, crucian carp, Eurasian ter Florian/C minnow, European perch, Nile perch, Die re Preempting the Next Invasion , ati sh ve Ecological Risk Screenings have Prussian carp, roach, stone moroko, f C t o a m revealed our bad actors: Amur wels catfish, zander and yabby c m s l o sleeper. Crucian carp. Eurasian crayfish on the injurious species e n s W minnow. European perch. Nile perch. list. Our hope is that the names on

Prussian carp. Roach. Stone moroko. our bad actor list slip from your Wels catfish. Zander. Yabby crayfish. memory in a few months or years. It will mean our offensive is doing the The next step is to keep them out. job. With help from our partners we preempted the next invasion before The Service’s Fish and Aquatic it ever became a problem. Conservation Program used nel Ceb S , Zey eci/C rp rea the information collected in a ti c ve n C the Ecological Risk Screening a o si m Why Prevention is Key Summaries to support a multi- s m u o r n Experience has taught us that species proposed rule that evaluated P s

invasive species remedies are costly, the 11 species for potential listing both in time and in resources. as injurious under the Lacey Act. Additionally, society loses billions of Finalized on October 31, 2016, the dollars a year because of the damage import of all 11 animals is now invasive species cause to industries illegal, except with a permit for and the environment. Stopping certain purposes. It demonstrates invasive species before they cross our narrowing focus in our battle ourSpring borders 2013 is the most efficient and against animal invaders. While 5 Dear Asian Carp, the Road to the Great Lakes is Closed!

By Katie Steiger-Meister

Since 2009, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees from the Carterville Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office and the Wilmington Substation in Illinois have logged thousands of hours working on the stretch of water that connects the Illinois River to Lake Michigan, known as the Chicago Area Waterway System. In their time collecting fish and water samples above and below the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ electric dispersal barriers, field observations were made of barge traffic. Service employees working on the water routinely saw barges move through Golden shiners used in research are marked before being placed in the water. locks and dams, and across the Fish biologists Trevor Cyphers (right) and Wiliam Lamoreux (left) are electric dispersal barriers designed standing at the junction of four barges demonstrating how nets are used to to prevent the movement of Asian recapture marked fsh out of a juncture gap following the upstream movement carp and other aquatic invasive of a barge. Rob Simmonds, USFWS species. This led to the emergence of a research question. Could what was happening within the between barges for substantial commercial barges accidentally be barge gaps.” distances. In one trial, live fish were a way for Asian carp to piggyback transported more than nine miles on through our defenses and gain access the Illinois River through Brandon to Lake Michigan? Road Pool, Lockport Lock and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ “Previous research conducted in electric dispersal barriers. 2012 and 2013 by the Service in collaboration with the U.S. Army Research was conducted using Corps of Engineers suggested that golden shiners, but findings hold there was the potential for fish to implications for groups working gain passage through locks and over to prevent the spread of Asian barriers within a barge junction Silver carp (left) and bighead carp carp into the Great Lakes. Golden gap,” said Jeremiah Davis, lead (right) are the two species of Asian shiners, a native fish species that Fish Biologist from the Wilmington carp the U.S. Fish and Wildlife naturally occurs in the Illinois River, Substation working on the project. Service is working to keep out of were selected for the study due to the Great Lakes. Katie Steiger-Meister, The junction gap is the space USFWS between where two barges are connected. When an animal or object In 2015, a study began to examine is caught in this space it is known as the likelihood that small free­ “entrainment.” swimming fish, such as Asian carp, can be inadvertently trapped and “During those early studies, we transported by commercial barge used caged and tethered fish, but tows through locks and electric their ability to move was limited,” dispersal barriers. Results indicated continued Davis. “I knew there had that free-swimming fish, both wild Golden shiners were used in research to be a way I could use our sonar fish and fish placed in and around because they are similar in size to technology to show conclusively barges by researchers, can remain small Asian carp. USFWS 6 their similar size to small Asian to reduce the likelihood of small carp. The research is timely as 2015 fish entrainment between barges, Meet the Asian Carp Regional Service field sampling confirmed the and to test entrainment with small Coordinating Committee presence of small silver carp within Asian carp in parts of the Illinois 39.5 miles of the electric dispersal River where Asian carp are already Chaired by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife barriers. abundant. Service and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Asian Carp “The results of this work are From the illegal trafficking of Regional Coordinating Committee concerning,” said U.S. Fish and live Asian carp across state and is a consortium of international, Wildlife Service Midwest Deputy international boundaries, to baby federal, state and local partners Regional Director, Charlie Wooley. Asian carp sold to unassuming united in their efforts to prevent the “However, we still have time to work customers as baitfish, it is often spread and establishment of Asian with our partners to reduce the the forward thinking and keen potential risk that small Asian carp observations of employees on carp in the Great Lakes. could be accidentally transported the front lines that allow us to across the barriers.” circumvent calamity. Through Learn more at www.AsianCarp.us. the innovative work of employees To date, there is no evidence that from the Carterville Fish and Asian carp have crossed any of the Wildlife Conservation Office and electric dispersal barriers in the the Wilmington Substation, another Wilmington Substation Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. potential pathway for the accidental introduction of Asian carp into the “Proactive prevention is key,” Great Lakes may be on its way to It takes a lot of muscle to fight explained Wooley. “A goal in our being closed. Asian carp. That’s why the U.S. Fish monitoring work is to identify and Wildlife Service created the vulnerabilities so that we can counter The barge entrainment research Wilmington Substation in the spring them with additional safeguards. was supported in part by of 2015. Co-located with the U.S. We’re taking the ‘best offense is a the Great Lakes Restoration Forest Service at Midewin National good defense’ approach.” Initiative through more than $1.6 Tallgrass Prairie in the southern million in funding from the U.S. outskirts of the Chicago metro, the The Service continues to work with Environmental Protection Agency new team of fish biologists and fish the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Asian Carp Regional technicians is strategically located U.S. Geological Survey and other Coordinating Committee. To to provide boots-on-the-ground federal, state and maritime industry read the complete 2015 barge support for the Asian carp battle representatives to identify and entrainment report, please visit being waged in Illinois waters. address additional study needs www.AsianCarp.us. Research and potential management options. findings are also published in the Activities in 2016 include the August 2016 issue of the Journal investigation of potential tools of Great Lakes Research. and options for vessel operations S

“Proactive prevention is key. A goal in our monitoring work is to identify vulnerabilities so that we can counter them with additional safeguards. We’re taking the ‘best offense is a good defense’ approach.”

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Midwest Deputy Regional Director, Charlie Wooley

7 Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Helps Bring Piping Plovers Back to Wilderness State Park By Georgia Parham Lakeshore in Michigan, while the female hatched near Gulliver in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funds support seasonal technicians that monitor at both locations.

Great Lakes piping plovers were listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 1986. By 1990, populations had fallen to 12 known nesting pairs in the Great Lakes due to alteration of habitat and nest disturbance. Piping plovers place their nests directly This pair of plovers is performing a tilt display, a type of courtship display, on sand and cobble beaches often at the nest. Jordan Rutter, University of Minnesota frequented by humans. Beach users can inadvertently disturb Two years ago, Great Lakes Waugoshance Point. These are areas plover breeding sites causing nest Restoration Initiative funds and where plovers nested in the past and abandonment or can accidentally dedicated efforts of staff from where conditions looked best for the crush birds or eggs. The Service and the Michigan Department of possible return of plovers if habitat its partners protect individual nests Natural Resources and the U.S. was restored. with signs and exclosures alerting Fish and Wildlife Service helped people of the bird’s presence and restore nesting habitat for the Their efforts paid off in May of 2016 keeping people and dogs away from endangered Great Lakes piping when park staff observed a nesting nests. plover on the Lake Michigan pair on the beach within a restoration shoreline in Michigan’s northern area at the tip of Waugoshance Point. Great Lakes Restoration Initiative- Lower Peninsula. The site was The pair produced three chicks, funded efforts like the one at Waugoshance Point at Wilderness the first young plovers in a decade Waugoshance Point are paying off State Park, which once supported to hatch at the site. Additionally, a in other areas of the Great Lakes one of the region’s highest nesting separate male plover was spotted as well. For example, this year saw concentrations for the endangered holding territory at another the first plover nest at Cat Island in shorebird. However, nesting habitat restoration area, indicating favorable Wisconsin’s Lower Green Bay in 75 had been erased, overrun by spotted habitat conditions and possible use years, thanks in part to Great Lakes knapweed and other invasive species by an additional pair in coming years. Restoration Initiative-supported as well as a general succession of restoration work. In 2015, the Great native plants, possibly due to lack Thanks to the use of color-coded Lakes piping plover population was of ice scour during the long period leg bands, researchers can identify estimated at 75 pairs, about half of low lake levels. For 10 years, no and track individual plovers from way to the recovery goal of 150 plovers nested at Waugoshance year to year. Chicks are banded pairs. In 2016, a record breaking 133 Point. each year to help researchers Great Lakes piping plover chicks track the birds’ future nesting and fledged. Nesting piping plovers Beginning in 2014, workers restored migration patterns. The parents of at Wilderness State Park and Cat nesting habitat by removing non­ the Waugoshance nest appear to be Island are not only a sign of hope for native and other plant species to first time breeders. Park staff and the bird’s recovery, but also a sign of recreate the sparsely vegetated, open piping plover researchers identified hope for recovery of the Great Lakes beach habitat the birds prefer. The the male bird as one that hatched ecosystem as a whole. habitat restoration work occurred at North Manitou Island, part of S at three areas along the shoreline at Sleeping Bear Dunes National 8 Preventing Asian Carp Access to Lake Erie at Eagle Marsh

Asian Carp Berm at Eagle Marsh that will protect Lake Erie from Asian carp. Katie Steiger-Meister, USFWS By Mara Koenig

On May 11, 2016 the U.S. Fish and effort at Eagle Marsh addresses an River, which flows toward Lake Erie, Wildlife Service Midwest Region and interbasin pathway of high concern sends water back down Junk Ditch partners celebrated the completion for the potential dispersal of aquatic into Eagle Marsh, mixing with high of the Eagle Marsh project in Ft. invasive species into the Lake Erie water from the Graham-McCulloch Wayne, Indiana that will protect Lake watershed, as indicated in the U.S. Ditch, which flows toward the Erie from Asian carp. The Service’s Army Corps of Engineers-led Great Wabash River, a watershed where Midwest Fisheries Program and Lakes Mississippi River Interbasin Asian carp have been documented. Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Study. The multi-million dollar construction Program, along with the U.S. project addresses this concern and Environmental Protection Agency, In response, a berm was designed is a prime example of federal, state U.S. Department of Agriculture to impede water from the Wabash and local partners working together Natural Resources Conservation River mixing with water from St. to prevent the spread of Asian carp Service, Indiana Department of Mary’s River during significant flood into the Great Lakes. Natural Resources, Little River events. During a flood, the St. Mary’s S Wetlands Project and several other partners provided key support for the construction of a berm on Eagle Marsh to prevent the spread of Asian carp during floods into waters that connect to the Great Lakes.

Eagle Marsh lies between two rivers, the St. Mary’s and the Wabash, on a continental divide for the Mississippi River and Lake Erie. In 2010, scientists discovered that Asian carp, an invasive fish found in the Wabash River, could reach Assistant Midwest Regional Director Charlie Wooley, Indiana Private waters that connect to the Great Lands Biologist Scott Fedders and Midwest Regional Chief for the Wildlife Lakes during a major flood event and Sport Fish Restoration Program Jim Hodgson celebrate the completion at Eagle Marsh. The partnership of the Eagle Marsh project that will protect Lake Erie from Asian carp. Katie Steiger-Meister, USFWS 9 Restoring Coregonids in the Lower Great Lakes By Mike Millard, Larry Miller, Bill Archambault and Dimitry Gorsky

The Northeast Region of the Bay and other embayments, such fall of 2017 for stocking in Lake U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is as Thunder Bay in Lake Superior. Ontario. Developing rearing capacity dedicating fisheries and habitat We are using side-scan sonar, multi- at two facilities expands production assessment capacity as well as beam sonar, drop cameras and an potential, and when combined with propagation expertise and assets to acoustic Doppler current profiler. egg-banking, provides a further native coregonid restoration in Lake This project is showing promising safeguard against year-class loss Erie and Lake Ontario. results describing availability of due to disease or infrastructure spawning habitat that can inform failure. Strict biosecurity procedures We are working with New York stocking strategies. will be followed to prevent potential State Department of Environmental transfer of inter-basin fish diseases. Conservation, U.S. Geological Survey Working with the USGS Tunison and Cornell University to assess Lab, the Northeast Fishery Center Coordination and collaboration remnant stocks of cisco throughout will develop spawning protocols for with the Service’s Midwest Region, Lake Ontario, including the ciscoes to ensure retention of genetic the Ontario Ministry of Natural Chaumont Bay, which contains diversity in captive populations Resources and Forestry, USGS, one of the only known spawning and maximize genetic contribution NYDEC and the Great Lakes populations in New York waters. from hatchery-produced cisco. The Fishery Commission is essential at The Lower Great Lakes Fish and Allegheny National Fish Hatchery every step of restoration efforts. Wildlife Conservation Office is also and the Northeast Fishery Center S characterizing habitat in Chaumont will begin producing ciscoes in the

Fish biologist Dimitry Gorsky holds a cisco from Thunder Bay collected during winter spawning. USFWS 10 The Chittenango Snail’s Life on the Edge

By Rebecca J. Rundell State University of New York

Nonmarine molluscs are among the most threatened animals on Earth. Since the year 1500, 42 percent of animal extinctions recorded have been molluscs, and 99 percent of these are nonmarine molluscs. The terrestrial Chittenango ovate amber snail is particularly vulnerable to extinction because of its tiny geographic range. The snail is only found on the rocky edge of a single waterfall in Madison County, New York. The instability of the rocky ledges on which it crawls, and The Chittenango ovate amber snail lives on one side of Chittenango Falls in encroachment of nonnative plants on Madison County, New York. Below it is pictured at mere millimeters long its habitat, has left the snail literally after hatching, and above at adult size. Cody Gilbertson on the brink.

Working in a partnership with Finding the closest diet to the State Parks, Syracuse’s Rosamond Chittenango ovate amber snail’s Gifford Zoo, Rochester’s Seneca wild diet was a major challenge of Park Zoo, the New York Department the project. Graduate trainee Cody of Environmental Conservation, Gilbertson, pictured here holding a and dedicated volunteers, U.S. Fish growth chamber, spent long hours and Wildlife Service lead Robyn trying to replicate wild conditions, Niver and biologists from the State induce snail mating, and rear tiny University of New York College hatchlings. Rebecca J. Rundell of Environmental Science and Forestry have succeeded in breeding hundreds of Chittenango baby snails in captivity. The thriving captive snail colony at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, developed by the project’s graduate student trainee is helping to buffer the wild population from extinction and serves as a wellspring of previously unknown information about the snail’s life history and diet.

Breeding efforts were so successful that in the spring of 2016, 280 snails were released into the wild to augment the population of fewer than 350 snails. All individuals above 9 mm were marked with bee tags so that the team can continue to media attention, focused on the monitor their survival through the message that there is a lot of hope in ongoing mark recapture work. The conservation work—quite a feat for snail release drew local and national such an unassuming little snail.S 11 Working with Tribal Partners on Great Lakes Restoration Projects

Inside the streamside rearing unit where young lake sturgeon are raised. The project is a partnership between Genoa National Fish Hatchery, Michigan Department of Natural Resources Department, Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band Natural Resource Department and the Kalamazoo River Chapter of Sturgeon for Tomorrow. Katie Steiger-Meister, USFWS By Alejandro Morales the residing Native American tribes have assisted in the recovery of and in need of conservation and lake sturgeon. The Midwest Region of the U.S. Fish restoration. and Wildlife Service is home to 36 The first example is a multiple federally recognized tribes, bands, “Sturgeon or Nmé in Pottawatomi, agency and organization partnership and communities, including three is culturally important to the Match- between, the Service’s Genoa inter-tribal organizations charged E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band, as the National Fish Hatchery, Michigan with natural resource conservation. fish represents an animal clan in Department of Natural Resources The fish, wildlife and natural resource traditional beliefs. Sturgeon clan Department, Match-E-Be-Nash­ interests of Native Americans in the people have spiritual knowledge She-Wish Band Natural Resource Midwest Region cover large areas offered as guidance to others and Department and the Kalamazoo River of land and water included under they live to an old age, just like Chapter of Sturgeon for Tomorrow. the Treaties of 1836, 1837, 1842 and lake sturgeon,” Stated James Nye, By working together on a streamside 1854. These lands and waters contain Tribal Spokesman for the Match- rearing unit where young sturgeon a great diversity of plant and animal E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of are reared and then released into the life managed under authorities of Pottawatomi. “The rehabilitation of Kalamazoo River in Michigan. The federal agencies, tribal governments lake sturgeon is a reflection of the importance of this partnership and and state governments. tribes present day progression as a rearing unit is to keep you sturgeon community and tribal government.” in a safe environment when they are The Federal Government, most vulnerable to predation and Department of Interior and the In the 1950s, due to overfishing pollution. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have and habitat loss, lake sturgeons tribal trust responsibilities to assist were eradicated from the Midwest The second example is in Wisconsin Native Americans in conserving, watersheds such as Kalamazoo where the Ashland Fish and Wildlife protecting, restoring and utilizing River, Michigan, Red Lake, Conservation Office, with GLRI their reserved, treaty guaranteed, Minnesota, and the Bad River, funding, was able to prioritize or statutorily identified trust assets. Wisconsin. Through funding working with the Bad River Band The lake sturgeon are just one of provided by the Great Lakes of Lake Superior Chippewa’s many species found in the Midwest Restoration Initiation several Natural Resources Department to Region with strong cultural ties to projects across the Midwest Region gather information on lake sturgeon 12 spawning populations in the Bad and White rivers in Wisconsin. For weeks Return of Lake Trout Heralds the two offices worked together to capture 400 lake sturgeon. All the the Cisco Comeback sturgeon caught without a pit tag received one and were then released By Katie Steiger-Meister back into the wild. The information Lake trout are starting to make a gathered has informed and guided comeback! Anglers and biologists are the the two offices in creating a finding unclipped wild lake trout with strategic plan for habitat restoration, more frequency, indicating that lake harvest controls, assessment and trout are successfully reproducing. monitoring. Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding provided to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has played a key role in lake trout restoration efforts A deepwater cisco, commonly by supporting increases in the quality referred to as a bloater, collected and quantity of stocked lake trout. in Lake Michigan during winter Additional funding has also provided spawning efforts. Katie Steiger-Meister, opportunities for more intensive USFWS assessment and evaluation of lake trout populations and restoration strategies.

With lake trout populations on the rise, and with changes in available Midwest Deputy Regional Director prey, there is a need for more Charlie Wooley recognizing Alberta forage species, such as coregonids. Norris and the Red Lake Band for GLRI funding is supporting ground their many years of support and breaking coregonid restoration work partnership. USFWS starting with the deepwater cisco, commonly referred to as bloaters. In the winter of 2016 the U.S. Fish and By working with tribal partners Wildlife Service collected a record- the Service’s Midwest Region is setting two million deepwater cisco fulfilling several aspects of our eggs from Lake Michigan. The tribal trust responsibilities by eggs were delivered to the Ontario providing consultation, technical Ministry of Natural Resources and assistance, cooperative partnerships U.S.Geological Survey facilities to and training opportunities to help meet fish stocking goals for Native American fish and wildlife restoration in Lake Ontario. Another professionals - consistent with the major step was taken at a recent U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service principles of tribal self-determination Department of Interior coregonid staff brave winter waves on Lake and self-governance. The mentioned workshop where the Service and Michigan in late January and restoration projects, made possible U.S.Geological Survey identified February to collect deepwater ciscoes with Great Lakes Restoration key science needs and capabilities during their spawning season. Initiative funding, help support to support basin-wide restoration of Katie Steiger-Meister, USFWS our mission to work with others to coregonid species across the Great conserve, protect, and enhance fish, Lakes. new rearing programs. Once the wildlife, plants, and their habitats eggs are collected, they are sent for the continuing benefit of the Cisco restoration is also coming to Genoa National Fish Hatchery American people. home to our Midwest hatcheries as in Wisconsin. With wild lake trout S we begin to develop our capacity to populations on the rise, the time of raise ciscoes. This fall we had crews the cisco has arrived! from Jordan River National Fish S Hatchery in Michigan working on Lake Huron to collect eggs for our 13 Protection Grows for Lake Michigan’s ‘Stepping Stones’ By Tina Shaw St. Martin Island bluffs, Last fall, along with our conservation Frykman Gallery partner The Nature Conservancy, we announced the expansion of the Green Bay National Wildlife Refuge to include most of St. Martin Island and all of Rocky Island in Lake Michigan, adding another 1,290 acres to the 330-acre refuge. The islands are part of the Grand Traverse chain, which extends from Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula to Michigan’s Garden Along with the other islands in the shallow “flats” offshore of St. Martin Peninsula. Grand Traverse chain, St. Martin Island are likely to be a prime area Island is part of the Niagara for fish spawning and reproduction. “It’s gratifying to see our shared Escarpment and has significant conservation missions coming bluffs, which have rare native snails The Nature Conservancy purchased together to protect these unique and plants associated with them. In the majority of St. Martin Island - Great Lakes islands,” said Tom addition to the bluffs, the island also 1,244 acres - from the Fred Luber Melius, Midwest Regional Director supports forests, wetlands and an family in 2013, and an additional of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife extensive cobblestone beach. 36 acres from David Uihlein, Jr. in Service. “We couldn’t do this without 2014. The remainder of the island (57 a common vision among all the These islands act as stepping stones acres) and the lighthouse are owned partners.” for a wide host of migrating birds by the Little Traverse Bay Band and other wildlife as they cross of Odawa Indians. Ten-acre Rocky Green Bay National Wildlife Refuge Lake Michigan. During their long Island was donated to The Nature was established in 1912 as habitat journeys, migratory animals need Conservancy in 1986. for migratory birds and consists of places along the way to stop, eat, the 325-acre Plum Island and the rest and sometimes seek shelter Funding for the acquisition of St. smaller Pilot and Hog Islands. With from storms. More than 400 plant Martin Island was provided by the addition of St. Martin and Rocky species, including the dwarf lake iris, the Luber and Uihlein families, Islands, the refuge will increase by a federally-threatened species, have who generously donated a portion five times its original size. been found on the island. The broad of the value of their lands to The Nature Conservancy, other private gifts to the Conservancy, grants from the North American Wetlands Conservation Act program and the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, and settlement funds administered by the Fox River / Green Bay Natural Resource Trustee Council.

St. Martin Island is located about five miles from Washington and Rock islands at the tip of Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula. Rocky Island is located approximately two miles off Michigan’s Garden Peninsula in close proximity to Little Summer Island.

Learn more about Green Bay National Wildlife Refuge: http:// www.fws.gov/refuge/green_bay/ S St. Martin Island map, The Nature Conservancy 14 Maankiki Marsh: Restoring a Freshwater Estuary

By Tina Shaw

Shiawassee NWR, Rebecca Kelly, USFWS Part of Michigan’s largest freshwater Anishinaabemowin for marsh or an Important Bird Area by the estuary has been restored thanks to marshland of any size. American Bird Conservancy. Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding and the vision of biologists In 2011, Ducks Unlimited was “Opportunities are few to restore and land managers at Shiawassee granted 1.5 million dollars through areas of this size in the Great Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. Together a Sustain Our Great Lakes Grant region,” said Dane Cramer, Ducks with partners at Ducks Unlimited, we and we were pleased to welcome Unlimited regional biologist for restored a highly-altered agricultural them to put that grant to work at Michigan. “Waterfowl used to skip landscape and reconnected rivers Shiawassee. Before work could begin right over this project area during long separated. in January 2016, we completed a full migration. Now, they’ll look down and hydrogeomorphic study and worked see a healthy and productive habitat.” Shiawassee National Wildlife with biologists at Ducks Unlimited to Refuge is part of an area known develop a restoration plan. What makes this restoration effort as Shiawassee Flats, historically a different is the huge amount of 50,000 acre wetland complex. The “This has been the most significant information we have about the area refuge and the “flats” lie within the restoration project I have worked before work even began. Since Saginaw Bay watershed. At almost on in my career,” notes Shiawassee 2012, our biologists have been 9,000 square-miles, Saginaw Bay is National Wildlife Refuge wildlife collaborating with researchers from Michigan’s largest watershed and biologist Eric Dunton. “Restoring 10 University of Michigan School of home to 1.4 million residents. Four percent of the refuge, almost 1,000 Natural Resources and Environment rivers, the Shiawassee, Flint, Cass, acres of our land base, will directly and U.S. Geological Survey Great and Tittabawassee, all converge at the benefit fish and wildlife populations Lakes Science Center to capture refuge to form Saginaw River, which on a huge scale,” continued Dunton. a snapshot of the watershed’s is approximately 22 unobstructed overall health before the area was river-miles from Saginaw Bay in restored. By collecting baseline data Lake Huron. Shiawassee Flats is on everything from phytoplankton one of the most unique wetland and macroinvertebrates, to fish and complexes in the entire Great Lakes, waterbirds we will be able to fully because it functions as a freshwater gauge our success as the natural estuary even though it is 20 miles processes return to Maankiki. inland. The real benefits to wildlife and Refuge staff wanted to honor the first Marsh restoration reconnects people will start to become apparent inhabitants of the area by naming watersheds and natural cycles. in the months and years to follow. We the restored wetland in their native Jeremiah Heise,Michigan Department of look forward to welcoming the marsh language. To do so, staff reached Natural Resources back and seeing all of the benefits of out to the Saginaw Chippewa Indian wetlands return as well. From flood Tribe of Michigan for their input With more than 50,000 ducks, 30,000 storage and retention, to the natural and worked together on crafting geese and 2,000 shorebirds during filtration of contaminants, Maankiki the place name. In the traditional peak times of the year, it is no will improve our overall water quality language of the Chippewa, and surprise that Shiawassee National for healthy wildlife populations and related Ojibwa Tribe, mannkiki is Wildlife Refuge is designated as for people.S 15 Modern Science Meets Ancient Life: Contaminant Concentrations in Lake Sturgeon By Daniel Gefell and JoAnn Banda Successful management of natural unmasking these hazards before serum on a regional scale at sites in resources and complex ecological impacts to whole populations occur major rivers across the lower Great systems require timely acquisition is crucial. Lakes. The field team drew on the and synthesis of information collective experience and skills of about how ecosystems adjust to Since 2010, the U.S. Fish and Service staff and partners to help change. Effective natural resource Wildlife Service has led a challenging understand how CECs may be management is particularly Great Lakes Restoration Initiative accumulating in lake sturgeon, and challenging in situations where project, leveraging a variety of in turn how these chemicals may be changes in human uses or other inter-office and inter-agencyimpacting their health. kinds of stressors are widespread collaborations to better understand and new to the ecosystem, such as the whether CECs are impacting fish Sampling activities included increasing influx of Contaminants of and wildlife populations across the coordinated blood collection for Emerging Concern (CECs) in recent U.S. Great Lakes basin. We have CEC analysis from fish that were decades. found that cross-programmatic already being captured and handled collaborations and those among for related assessment efforts, There are tens of thousands of CECs, agencies bring together different including Alpena Fish and Wildlife which are found in commercial strengths in expertise and capacity Conservation Office biologists products, and the most common to pursue project goals at a scale and studying population dynamics of are consumed by the hundreds of quality unachievable by any single sturgeon in the Detroit River; studies tons per year. Although they are collaborator. Such collaborations by scientists from the Northeast Fish recognized as a global issue, little is promote cross-fertilization of Health Lab in Lamar, Pennsylvania, known about the fate or impacts to ideas and efficiencies of scale and investigating fish biology, population life of these essentially unregulated resources. structure, and movement patterns chemicals that are continuously in the upper Niagara River near entering our waterways through The stakes are raised when there Buffalo Harbor; investigations in waste streams and in runoff from are potential impacts to a species of the lower Niagara River, where urban and rural landscapes. They special interest to managers, such as the Lower Great Lakes Fish and include human and veterinary an economically important species or Wildlife Conservation Office is drugs; personal care products such threatened or endangered species, exploring spawning behavior; and a as fragrances, cosmetics, and insect like lake sturgeon. About 130 million long-time collaboration between the repellants, flame retardants in years before the earliest known New York Field Office and New York fabrics, hormones, newly developed human civilization, the sturgeon State Department of Environmental pesticides, plasticizers and other family of fishes could be found in Conservation in coordination with commercially common chemicals. waters around the world. Despite the St. Regis Mohawk Nation, their persistence over geologic time, to collect sturgeon eggs, fertilize There is growing evidence that sturgeons have recently encountered them, and rear thousands of young even at low concentrations these new challenges to their survival. As fish at a NYSDEC hatchery and chemicals and chemical mixtures a result, Atlantic sturgeon and short- Genoa National Fish Hatchery for disrupt endocrine and immune nose sturgeon are federally listed as subsequent release back into the St. systems, and are having other endangered, and lake sturgeons are Lawrence River watershed. physiological effects such as impaired state-listed in 19 of the 20 U.S. states reproduction, modified behavior, within their original range, including The Lake sturgeon project is just one inhibited growth and development, the Great Lakes states. example of how our Great Lakes CEC accelerated aging, increased disease project has utilized a number of cross- and parasitism, and reduced ability In 2015 a team of U.S. Fish programmatic, inter-agency, and other to adapt and survive. While many of and Wildlife Service biologists collaborations to find efficiencies in the these chemicals have the ability to from offices in Ohio and New pursuit of project goals. significantly impact wildlife, many York coordinated a non-lethal S of the effects are not obvious in an sampling effort to measure CEC individual animal. Subsequently, concentrations in sturgeon blood 16 Enhancement of Savanna, Prairie, and Wetland Habitats at Park 562 of the Chicago Park District

By Anna Sidie-Slettedahl

The Chicago Park District has recently been approved for a project totaling almost $570,000, which will be used to enhance Park 562, an undeveloped property on Chicago’s far southeast side. Upon completion the site will be a much needed ecosystem for millions of resting, nesting and foraging birds Wetland habitat at Park 562, Emanuel Love, Chicago Park District that migrate through Chicago every year. The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding of $434,240 is a combined effort between the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grant programs through the Upper Mississippi River and Great Lakes Region Joint Venture and through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Ecological Services Program. The balance of the project total is being provided by the Chicago Parks District as matching funds. Prairie savannah habitat at Park 562, Chicago Park District In 2012, Chicago Park District acquired the 138-acre Park 562 from the City of Chicago and has been working with partners, volunteers and professional contractors to design and implement an ecological restoration plan. This two-year project is focusing on the enhancement of 16.6 acres of savanna, 10.5 acres of prairie and 2.5 acres of wetland habitat. Invasive plants will be removed and native plants and seeds will be installed to improve ecological conditions and establish healthier native habitats Wooded Pools at Park 562, Chicago Park District for migratory birds and other the establishment of healthy wetland volunteers will continue to enhance desirable wildlife. Species that will and upland habitats at a large and maintain its native ecosystem benefit from habitat enhancements municipal park within the post- types in perpetuity once it is include short-eared owls, olive-sided industrial landscape of southeast established. Chicago Park District’s flycatchers, mourning warblers, Chicago’s section of the Lake strong partnerships and dedication Blackburnian warblers, monarch Michigan flyway.” to monitoring and evaluation are butterflies and many more. key components for success, and the Chicago Park District’s ultimate goal park’s increased biodiversity and Project Manager Naureen Rana is to convert Park 562 into an official resilience will be welcomed by many said, “This project gives us the Chicago Park District Natural Area, species of wildlife. opportunity to significantly advance which means professionals and S 17

Photos and captions“PrairieSavanaHabPark562. jpg”: Prairie and Savanna habitats at Park Conserving Great Lakes Coastal Wetlands By Brad Potter

Lillies, lotus and smartweed at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, U.S. Geological Survey

The Upper Midwest and Great rank and prioritize coastal wetlands Some high-quality coastal wetlands Lakes Landscape Conservation based on current conditions and remain, but it is estimated that Cooperative is a conservation ecological values. The second, two thirds of the original coastal community coordinated by the identifies an index of restorable wetlands in the Great Lakes were U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to areas. These are places where converted for another land-use identify and address conservation coastal wetlands were once, but have benefiting humans like productive challenges across broad geographic since been converted to other uses or farming, residential development regions. A steering committee disconnected from the Great Lakes. and industry. Unfortunately, much comprised of partners identified Theses vital pieces of information will of this conversion occurred before coastal wetland conservation as be linked with forthcoming results of we understood the many benefits an area to align agencies and the third Landscape Conservation coastal wetlands provide. Interest programs for more effective Cooperative project, which seeks in restoring and maintaining this conservation. Three interrelated to better understand the benefits treasured resource continues to grow. Great Lakes Restoration Initiative of coastal wetlands to humans and funded Landscape Conservation human well-being. By comparing and The Great Lakes Restoration Cooperative projects are identifying combining human values with the Initiative has provided $460,000 and quantifying coastal wetlands ecological values, the places where in funding support to the Upper that are currently providing value to high values intersect can be targeted Midwest and Great Lakes Landscape people, wildlife and the environment, for future conservation efforts. Conservation Cooperative’s three as well as identifying areas that if coastal wetlands projects. converted back to coastal wetlands Found throughout the Great Lakes would provide high value to the region, coastal wetlands provide For more information on the surrounding area. With research much needed places for fish and the projects, please visit www. focused on coastal wetlands from wildlife to live. If you appreciate greatlakeslcc.org/projects. Saginaw Bay, Michigan to the fishing, eating fish from the Great S western basin of Lake Erie, Ohio, the Lakes, or clean drinking water, goal is to better guide conservation then you are enjoying a benefit investments. of a Great Lakes coastal wetland. Wetlands provide important services In October of 2016, two new decision for people including flood control, support tools will be available to wildlife habitat, as well as intangible conservation practitioners and benefits like a sense of place. Many communities interested in making cities in the region are near the wise coastal wetland conservation coast with nearby coastal wetlands investments. The first from the Great creating unique ecological, economic Lakes Coastal Wetland Monitoring and recreational hotspots. Smartweed in bloom at a restored Program will provide a tool to help coastal wetland at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge in the western basin 18 of Lake Erie. U.S. Geological Survey The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is a proud partner in the implementation of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. Share in the inspiration at: http://www.fws.gov/glri/ .

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Great Lakes Restoration Initiative

This project is funded through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative in joint effort with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and federal agencies to protect and restore the Great Lakes.

For more information on Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Projects, please visit www.fws.gov/GLRI

Signs of Progress All U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service field sites which receive Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding will be marked by a sign similar to the one pictured above. Identifying our field sites is part of our interagency agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This funding requirement was design to increase public awareness and transparency with regard to the use of GLRI funding.

To learn more about other Service GLRI projects, please visit http://www.fws.gov/glri/

Please direct inquiries to: Katie Steiger-Meister External Affairs, Midwest Region U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Phone: 612-713-5317 Or at [email protected]

19 U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service 1 800/344 WILD http://www.fws.gov

Tom Melius Regional Director Midwest Region http://midwest.fws.gov

Wendi Weber Regional Director Northeast Region http://www.fws.gov/northeast

Printed: December 2016

Front Cover: Spotted Sandpiper, Jim Hudgins, USFWS