There are several sound approaches to replacing a poorly functioning, undersized, fish-blocking culvert. The first step is to remove the old structure.
Sometimes nature gives TU and others who frequently tackle that kind of work a headstart, with flood waters blowing out roads and starting the demolition process.
When high flows damaged one bad culvert road crossing on Crossett Creek in Northern Wisconsin, there was a chance to start from scratch.
“My team identified the location in 2020,” said Chris Collier, TU Great Lakes Program Manager. “At the time it was three culverts and actively failing.”
Fully replacing culverts is not inexpensive, and the costs can be especially difficult for rural localities with limited budgets to absorb.
“These towns will go slack jawed at the cost,” Collier said.
So, sometimes even the worst culverts first undergo low-budget attempted fixes. That’s what happened at Crossett Creek, and it did not go well.
Rather than a full replacement, “They had added three culverts, and it was now a five-culvert monstrosity,” Collier said. “And it still failed the next year, and the year after that.”
A permanent solution was needed.
“We finally convinced the town that we could collaborate with them and get this done,” Collier said. “We were able to get it done this past fall. It was probably the worst culvert we’ve ever repaired.”
The project not only gave the creek plenty of room to flow, protecting the road above, but also reconnected miles of coldwater habitat by allowing trout and other stream dwellers to move freely both upstream and downstream.
Crossett Creek is a tributary of the Menominee River. There’s a lake in the upper part of the system that also holds trout.
“It’s the same kind of problem we see across the state,” Collier said. “You’ve got these tributaries that might not be the most fishable water, but they are really important for spawning and coldwater refuge, and fish from the larger rivers can’t get into them.
“We’re depressing trout numbers in the fishable water because the fish can’t get into these tributaries.”
The project on Crossett Creek cost a total of $180,000.
Collier pieced together the funding from a variety of sources, including the town, the county, a Fish and Wildlife Service Fish Passage Grant, the Fund for Lake Michigan, a foundation that supports our work in the region, and a grant from TC Energy.
“It was a really good example of pulling together several modest pots of funding to make it happen,” Collier said. “ And in the new culvert’s first spring it was able to withstand another major flood and keep the road open.”