Tittabawassee River Sturgeon, Cedar River monitoring

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By Jeff Kart

This story originally appeared on Mr. Great Lakes and is republished here with permission.

Juvenile lake sturgeon. Image: Michigan DNR

1- The state is stocking the Tittabawassee River with lake sturgeon for the first time.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources says 193 lake sturgeon were stocked in the river in Midland County on Monday Aug. 21.

A DNR Lake Sturgeon Rehabilitation Strategy identified the Saginaw River watershed, including the Tittabawassee, as a system whose lake sturgeon population is in dire need of improvement.

The stocking was the first reintroduction of the species in the Saginaw River watershed. It’s the culmination of work aimed at rehabilitating the sturgeon in waters where they once flourished.

Lake sturgeon are a slow-growing, late-maturing fish that can live more than 100 years.

The fish stocked in the Tittabawassee River likely will not return to spawn until 2040.

2 — Volunteers will be back in the Cedar River this fall to determine the river’s water quality by looking at macroinvertebrates which live in the water.

Little Forks Conservancy is seeking volunteers for a stream sampling day on Saturday, Sept. 9.

Volunteers will meet at the Gladwin Community Building at 9 a.m. Teams will sample six sites in the Cedar River in Gladwin and Clare counties.

Little Forks Conservancy began monitoring Cedar River water quality in fall of 2015.

Macroinvertebrates are animals without a backbone that can be seen with the naked eye. These bottom-dwelling animals include crustaceans, worms and aquatic insects.

Experienced volunteers will act as team leaders and collectors, working in the streams to ensure that quality samples are collected.

The conservancy says each successive monitoring event helps create a more complete picture of the health of the Cedar River.

For more details, see littleforks.org.

— Mr. Great Lakes is heard at 9:30 a.m. Fridays in Bay City, Michigan, on Delta College Q-90.1 FM NPR. Follow @jeffkart on Twitter #MrGreatLakes

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