Kletzsch Park Hike with the Sierra Club & MMSD

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The Kletzsch Park hike on Friday, October 25th from 3-5pm, will view the newly constructed Kletzsch Dam fish passage from the west bank of the river. With special guest speaker Beth Wentzel from Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) who will talk about the construction and the benefits to fish populations and our waterways. Following the presentation, we will explore the old-growth forest in Kletzsch Park. Park in the parking lot near the baseball fields, south of the playground.

In our previous Sierra Club hikes along the Milwaukee River Greenway, we have learned about the history of settlement and industrial developments, recreational developments, and more—now on this outing we will focus on how new developments will help restore habitats for native fish. The Kletzsch Park Dam Fish Passage project, a wonderful collaboration of government agencies and nonprofit organizations, provided a necessary fish passage for native species (primarily sturgeon and northern pike) that enables them to get up the Milwaukee River to where food sources and the environment needed to reproduce can be found. Here are excerpts from a couple of good background sources: "The Fish Passage on the Milwaukee River at the Kletzsch Dam is critical for native fish, such as northern pike and lake sturgeon, to reach higher-quality spawning and nursery habitats in the upper reaches of the Milwaukee River. These native fish are weak jumpers and unable to move past the dam to complete their travels upstream to spawn. When man-made barriers like dams prohibit or delay fish movement in our waterways, fish passage facilities can be used to help fish move through or around the barrier to get where they need to go." See: https://www.mmsd.com/what-we-do/milwaukee-estuary-aoc/kletzsch-dam-fish-passage

The Kletzsch Dam Fish Passage project is intended to address required dam repairs and to provide fish passage for native species within the Milwaukee Estuary Area of Concern (AOC). Beth Wentzel, the MMSD Senior Project Manager who led the development of the Fish Passage, will be our guide. See: https://www.mmsd.com/what-we-do/milwaukee-estuary-aoc/kletzsch-dam-fish-passage

Additional information from an article published in Urban Milwaukee:  https://urbanmilwaukee.com/2024/01/19/how-the-kletzsch-fishway-was-created/ “It took about seven years for us to come up with a design and a solution that made everyone happy. Essentially we designed a stream that will take the fish up and around the dam and bring them to happier, higher quality habitat up north,” explained Natalie Dutack, Area of Concern program supervisor with Milwaukee County Parks, which has partnered with Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) on this approximately $3.3 million project that includes needed repairs to the dam itself.

Following the presentation at the Fish Passage site, we will go on to explore the Old Indian Prairie and old-growth forest in Kletzsch Park.