Au Sable River Assessment Gaylord N 24 W E 23 25 Lewiston 1 Waters 2 29 S Lovells 26 Frederic 22 28 27 4 45 3 42 32 33 40 Fairview 44 6 47 48 Lincoln 21 Barton City 50 5 39 64 65 Grayling 7 37 62 30 31 Mio Mc Kinley 63 76 Luzerne 38 46 49 52 20 43 36 41 Glennie 70 71 16 19 69 18 51 17 68 72 14 35 53 67 73 15 74 34 55 54 Roscommon 78 60 66 75 77 80 13 11 56 58 59 79 South n 61 o Branch r 12 9 10 Oscoda u H 57 82 e k 8 a L St. Helen 0 10 81 MILES Figure 1.–Major tributaries of the Au Sable River. 196 Au Sable River Assessment 1. Kolke Creek 42. Cherry Creek 2. Bradford Creek 43. Loud Creek 3. Au Sable River 44. Perry Creek 4. East Branch Au Sable River 45. Gusler Creek 5. Shellenbarger Creek 46. Cauchy Creek 6. Barker Creek 47. Comins Creek 7. Wakeley Creek 48. Glennie Creek 8. Marsh Creek 49. Nine Mile Creek 9. South Branch Au Sable River 50. Blockhouse Creek 10. South Creek 51. Wilbur Creek 11. East Creek 52. Bamfield Creek 12. Hudson Creek 53. Smith Creek 13. Robinson Creek 54. Hoppy Creek 14. Beaver Creek 55. Stewart Creek 15. Hickey Creek 56. Mink Creek 16. Thayer Creek 57. Harper Creek 17. Douglas Creek 58. Au Sable Creek 18. Sauger Creek 59. South Branch River 19. White Creek 60. Stuart Creek 20. Grace Creek 61. Wildcat Creek 21. Conner’s Creek 62. East Branch Pine River 22. North Branch Au Sable River 63. West Branch Pine River 23. Chub Creek 64. Loud Creek 24. Turtle Creek 65. Backus Creek 25. Crapo Creek 66. Bryant Creek 26. East Branch Big Creek - North 67. Wallace Creek 27. Wright Creek 68. Kurtz Creek 28. Middle Branch Big Creek - North 69. Samyn Creek 29. West Branch Big Creek - North 70. McGillis Creek 30. Gammy Creek 71. Gimlet Creek 31. Whitewater Creek 72. South Branch Pine River 32. Sohn Creek 73. McDonald Creek 33. Beaver Creek 74. Roy Creek 34. West Branch Big Creek - South 75. Grey Creek 35. Hunt Creek 76. Van Etten Creek 36. East Branch Big Creek - South 77. Duval Creek 37. Red Creek 78. Hill Creek 38. Lost Creek 79. Coppler Creek 39. Antler Creek 80. Pine River (Van Etten Creek) 40. Honeywell Creek 81. Old Au Sable River 41. Wolf Creek 82. State Ditch 197 Au Sable River Assessment N W E Otsego Lake North Branch Au Sable Gaylord West Twin Lake S F32 0 10 Lewiston Big Creek - North Waters MILES Co. Rd. 612 Lovells Parmalee Bridge Frederic Mio Dam Van Etten Lake Pine River Kellogg's Fairview McKinley Bridge Bridge Lincoln Barton City Grayling Dam Grayling Mio Mc Kinley Stephan Bridge Luzerne Wakeley Bridge Co. Rd. 487 Bridge Glennie South Branch Au Sable Alcona Dam Smith's Bridge Chase Bridge Roscommon n o South r Branch u H Oscoda Loud Dam e k Five Channels Dam a L St. Helen Big Creek - South Cooke Dam Foote Dam US - 23 Bridge Lake St. Helen Au Sable River Valley Segments Headwaters to Wakeley Bridge Wakeley Bridge to Mio Pond Mio Pond to McKinley Bridge McKinley Bridge to Five Channels Dam Five Channels Dam to Foote Dam Foote Dam to Lake Huron Figure 2.–General sites and river valley segments within the Au Sable River watershed. The dams shown here form ponds having the same name. Roads for differently named bridges are: Kellogg’s Bridge = F32; Smith’s Bridge = M-72; Parmalee Bridge = County Road 485. 198 Au Sable River Assessment Figure 3.–Surface geology of the Au Sable River watershed. Data from Farrand and Bell (1982). 199 Au Sable River Assessment Au Sable below Foote Dam Manistee at High Br. Muskegon at Evart Kalamazoo at Kalamazoo Thunder Bay at M65 Cass at Frankenmuth Mainstem at Grayling East Branch at Grayling Mainstem at Wakeley Br. South Branch at Smith's Br. Big Cr.-North at F32 North Branch at Kellogg's Br. Big Cr.-South at Co. Rd. 487 Mainstem at McKinley Br. Pine River (Van Etten Creek) near mouth 0 25 50 75 100 Glacial outwash sand & gravel Medium-textured glacial till Coarse-textured glacial till Fine-textured glacial till Lacustrine sand & gravel Other (water, peat, dune, lacustrine clay) Figure 4.–Percent composition of the surficial geology for Michigan catchments similar in size to the Au Sable River below Foote Dam, and for catchments of segments and tributaries throughout the Au Sable River watershed. Data from Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Fisheries Division records. 200 Au Sable River Assessment 180 160 S. Umpqua, OR Clarks Fork, MT Beaverkill, NY 140 120 Yellowstone, MT Gallatin, MT E. Br. Penobscot, ME 100 80 Salmon, ID 60 40 Bois Brule, WI Deschutes, OR 100 x coefficient of variation daily discharge Manistee, MI 20 Au Sable, MI 0 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Maximum monthly / minimum monthly discharge Figure 5.–Flow stability of United States trout streams as shown by two measures: 1) ratio of the monthly average flows for the months having the highest and lowest monthly average flows; 2) coefficient of variation for daily flow values over the water year (calculated as the standard deviation of daily flows divided by the mean daily flow times 100). Lower values on either axis indicate greater hydrologic stability. Both the Au Sable and Manistee rivers are in the lowest, left-most corner of the graph. Data from United States Geological Survey and Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Fisheries Division records. 201 Au Sable River Assessment Cass at Frankenmuth Muskegon at Evart Thunder Bay at M65 Manistee at High Bridge Au Sable below Foote Dam a 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 Mainstem at Alcona Dam* b Mainstem at McKinley Br.* Mainstem at Mio Dam Mainstem at Parmalee Br. South Branch at Smith's Br. East Branch at Grayling Mainstem at Grayling 0 1 2 3 Ratio of 10% to 90% exceedence flows Figure 6.–Flow stability (expressed as the ratio of 10% and 90% exceedence flows) of: a) Michigan streams having catchments comparable in size to the Au Sable River below Foote Dam; and b) gauged Au Sable River catchments upstream of Mio. Data from United States Geological Survey. * indicates data for 1997 only. 202 Au Sable River Assessment Cass at Frankenmuth Muskegon at Evart Kalamazoo at Kalamazoo Thunder Bay at M65 Au Sable below Foote Dam Manistee at High Br. Mainstem at Alcona Dam* Mainstem at McKinley Br.* Mainstem at Mio Dam Mainstem at Parmalee Br. North Branch at Kellogg's Br.** Big Cr.-North at F32** South Branch at Smith's Br. East Branch at Grayling Mainstem at Grayling 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 Low-flow yield (cfs/mi2) Figure 7.–Low-flow yield (90% exceedence flow divided by catchment area) of Michigan streams having catchments comparable in size to the Au Sable River below Foote Dam, and for Au Sable River catchments having USGS streamflow data. Data from United States Geological Survey and Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Fisheries Division records. * indicates data for 1997 only. ** indicates USGS miscellaneous low-flow discharge measurement. 203 Au Sable River Assessment T = > 50 PERCENT TROUT (TROUT) F = 20 – 50 PERCENT TROUT (FAIR) M = 0 – 20 PERCENT TROUT (MARGINAL) N = 0 PERCENT TROUT (NO TROUT) Figure 8.–Classification of sites in the Au Sable River upstream of Alcona Pond according to the percent of the electrofishing catch made up by trout. Figure from Coopes et al. (1974). 204 Au Sable River Assessment 1300 1100 900 700 500 04136000 Au Sable River near Red Oak, MI Instantaneous discharge (cfs) Discharge, in cubic feet per second 300 04136500 Au Sable River at Mio, MI Instantaneous discharge (cfs) 100 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 June 1998 Figure 9.–Instantaneous streamflow measurements for June 22-30, 1998 for the Au Sable River in riverine reaches above (near Red Oak) and below (at Mio) Mio Pond. Water levels of Mio Pond were lowered for inspections of Mio Dam on June 25th. Data from United States Geological Survey. 205 Au Sable River Assessment Mainstem at Wa Wa Sum East Branch at Grayling South Branch at Smith's Br. North Branch at Kellogg's Br. Mainstem at Wakeley Br Big Cr-South at Co. Rd. 487 Big Cr-North at F32 Mainstem at McKinley Br. Mainstem below Foote Dam Pine River (Van Etten Creek) near mouth 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Decidious Forest Rangeland Urban Water Coniferous Forest Forested Wetland Agriculture Figure 10.–Percent of different land use types for catchments of segments and tributaries of the Au Sable River. Data from Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Fisheries Division records. 206 207 Au Sable River Assessment Au SableRiver Figure 11.–Elevation changes by river mile along the mainstem Au Sable River from its headwaters at the confluence of Kolke and Bradford creeks to its mouth. Impoundments created by major mainstem dams are shown. Data from Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Fisheries Division records. Au Sable River Assessment 80 Free-flowing Impounded 60 40 Miles 20 0 0 - 2.9 3 - 4.9 5 - 9.9 10+ low medium high very high Gradient class (ft/mile) Figure 12.–Stream gradient distribution for the mainstem Au Sable River. Data from Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Fisheries Division records. 208 Au Sable River Assessment 60 Free-flowing Impounded 40 Miles 20 0 0 - 2.9 3 - 4.9 5 - 9.9 10+ low medium high very high Gradient class (ft/mile) Figure 13.–Stream gradient distribution for the mainstem Au Sable River from the confluence of the South Branch Au Sable River to Lake Huron.