Largest Fish Barrier Between Grafton and Lake Michigan Removed

Kletzsch Dam Fish Passage. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

The Kletzsch Park fish passage is finally open.

The passage, which provides fish access to 54 miles of waterway, was a long time coming. It was constructed alongside repairs made to the Kletzsch Park Dam, which spans the Milwaukee River in the eponymous Glendale park.

The dam repairs and fish passage are part of a larger effort to clean up Milwaukee’s waterways. In 1987, the Milwaukee River estuary was designated an “Area of Concern” by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which is a designation given to seriously degraded waterways.

In 2010, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) issued the first citation ordering the county to make repairs to the dam, which was built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, a work program of the New Deal.

In 2020, Milwaukee County Parks brought a project to the Milwaukee County Board that was designed to fix the dam and create a new fish passage on the west side of the river. The board did not approve the project after significant public opposition, which was focused on the removal of old-growth trees to accommodate the fish passage. Parks did not have the funding it needed to acquire the private land on the east bank of the river to build the fish passage there.

The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD), however, had the money and the authority to take on such a project. And in 2021, the sewerage district took over the project.

This past month, workers removed the temporary dams at the openings of the fish passage and water began flowing through. It restores 54 miles of natural habitat and spawning area for native species like northern pike, sturgeon and bass. It was the largest remaining fish barrier on the Milwaukee River between Lake Michigan and Grafton. The Estabrook Falls south of the dam remain and are a “partial impediment” to fish movement, according to MMSD.

“Think of it as a short detour around a roadblock, a barrier that’s roughly five feet tall,” a spokesperson for MMSD said in a statement on the new passage.

Thanks to the passage, fish can access 25 miles of river north of the dam and 29 miles of tributary streams.

The Milwaukee County Board is moving to fund the development of a new dam overlook and portage for canoers and kayakers.

Update: An earlier version of this story said the Kletzsch Dam was the last remaining fish barrier on the Milwaukee River. It was not the last, but the largest.

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