The University of Notre Dame has graduate students studying the impact of salmon on Michigan trout streams. Finally, a follow up to the famed Hunt Creek work, this work will not only study the issue of competition of young of the year brook and brown trout, but also the impact of decomposed salmon and the contaminants that they bring into the delicate cold water resource. dead salmonMany anglers have long fought the introduction of salmon and steelhead into the pristine, self-sustaining trout waters of the upper Boardman River in Traverse City, Michigan. While the students' work will begin by focusing on the Platte River, in Michigan's Benzie County, this author is hopeful that the work will ultimately help to document how large spawning Great Lakes species devastate the much smaller spawning brook trout and brown trout and will help to limit the upstream movement of Lake Michigan invasives and large salmonids.

 

Stopping the upstream movement of steelhead, salmon, sea lamprey, lake trout, and other Great Lakes species in downtown Traverse City at the Union Street dam will protect the self-sustaining brook and brown trout populations found in the upstream sections of the Boardman River.