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[Music playing]

Faith: Tom, we're standing on a dry


riffle here that the fish can't pass


through at the moment but we have a pool


downstream and a little inner flow. What


kind of habitat do these offer even when


we don't have fish passage?


Tom: Right, this is a truly ephemeral


stream system where it periodically goes


dry and right now it's wet enough to


keep the pools inundated and those pools


were a definite actual objective as part


of the study – to recreate them to


provide areas for refuge for the fish


because they sustain fish through the


times that are drier, until the spring


floods or a high rainfall event comes.


And so, that was a very important part


of the overall design here.


I know we are standing in the channel,


it's pretty dry, but these areas – this


is a tributary to the Root River – are


very critical. We've found many


different species, including Darters,


coming up in through here and


Sticklebacks as well, so the pioneer


species can get up here, spawn and do


their thing. These areas are also going


to be critical for the water quality of


the Root River which does have a lot of


problems. So this does help treat water


for total suspended solids and water


quality aspects and is pretty critical


for the biology as well. Again, we were


able to reconnect this to the flood


plain so again it's designed to overbank


and alleviate erosion on the channels.


That was an important aspect of this as

well.


So you can see it was a tremendous


amount of material that was excavated as


part of this and recreation of a new


flood plain. That was a tremendous cost,


but the project team decided together


that this was the right thing to do and


it allowed for enhancement and expansion


of riparian buffers and through for


filtration, especially in an urban


highway situation, with all the runoff


associated with that. Again, it was as


part of the team with DOT and DNR and


myself, as part of that, this was a team


effort in coming up with the best


solution for this confined urban


corridor and stream system.


Faith: So, we have the intermittent


pools that are very rich in diversity


and diversify the habitat too in both


what's going on in the stream and then


continuing up in the wetland areas.


Tom: Yeah, yeah. I've come in here – of


course this time of year is fall and is


during a very dry period – but earlier


in spring, it's not that uncommon to


come here and see these isolated pools


and all kinds of amphibians and fish


that are in there, surviving and waiting


for the next flow event. And wildlife is


just quite diverse in and around these


pools. So, we are very happy that the


design and through the construction,


that it all came and worked out so well.


[Music playing]


[End of Audio]

Title: Habitat considerations in restored ephemeral channels, County G I-94 Interchange, Wisconsin

Description:

Faith Fitzpatrick (U.S. Geological Survey) and Tom Slawski (Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission) discuss intermittent riffle-pool channels in a dense urban highway environment. Even though the streams do not have flow year-round, pools maintain diverse aquatic life and floodplain connections between storm events.

Location: Milwaukee, WI, USA

Date Taken: 11/17/2010

Length: 3:28

Video Producer: Douglas A. Harned , National Water-Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA), USGS, North Carolina Water Science Center, Raleigh, NC

Note: This video has been released into the public domain by the U.S. Geological Survey for use in its entirety. Some videos may contain pieces of copyrighted material. If you wish to use a portion of the video for any purpose, other than for resharing/reposting the video in its entirety, please contact the Video Producer/Videographer listed with this video. Please refer to the USGS Copyright section for how to credit this video.

Additional Video Credits:

Faith Fitzpatrick: Scriptwriter, Narrator, Scientist Consultant

Gerard McMahon: Producer

Douglas Harned: Producer, Video, Editor

Alan Cressler: Video

Luke Myers: Video

Tom Slawski (Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission)

File Details:

• Quicktime
• Flash Video
• W3C Timed-Text captions file
• YouTube version *
• Text transcript

Suggest an update to the information/tags?

Tags: AquaticEcology CountyG DouglasHarned EUSE Ecosystems FaithFitzpatrick Habitat Hydrology I-94 NAWQA StreamRehabilitation StreamRestoration USGS Urbanization WIDOT WaterQuality WaterResourceManagement Wisconsin WisconsinDNR