For additional information, contact: Eric Merten, DNR Fisheries Specialist, Lake City (651-345-3365) or visit the Trout Brook page at www.dnr.state.mn.us/areas/fisheries/lanesboro/management.html

Trout Brook Project will Benefit Brook Trout

Trout Brook, a small, coldwater stream within the city limits of Red Wing, was once a fine little trout stream, according to historical documents. However, extensive logging and grazing in the early 1900’s resulted in severe erosion and sediment deposition in the stream. As a result, the brook trout disappeared from Trout Brook. That was bad news.

In recent years, however, there has been good news to report on this treasured trout stream. As land use practices in the Trout Brook watershed improved since the 1930s, both water quality and stream habitat conditions reached the point where the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) was able to re-establish a small, self-sustaining population of brook trout in the stream in 1997 and 1998. The story of Trout Brook, however, is far from finished.

More work and long-term planning will be required if brook trout are to continue to live in Trout Brook. One problem currently being worked on involves a channel restoration project at the lower end, downstream of Goodhue County Highway 66 (Pioneer Road). The first step taken this fall was to stabilize a large headcut on Trout Brook.

Eric Merten, Department of Natural Resources (DNR) fisheries specialist at Lake City, explained that many years ago, when a portion of Hay Creek was straightened and the streambed lowered, a large headcut formed on Trout Brook near where it flows into Hay Creek. As water raced along narrow Trout Brook and then plunged several feet down into Hay Creek, “It literally eroded tons of sediment and also began to threaten Pioneer Road,” Merten said.

The headcut continued to chew away the streambed and banks as it crept further upstream, moving an additional 57 feet between 2002 and 2003. This continued erosion sent another 700 tons of sediment into Hay Creek and the Mississippi River that year, degrading much more habitat. The stream continued to encroach closer to Pioneer Road threatening the roadbed as well.

Last October, with funding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Goodhue County, a DNR stream habitat crew was able to stabilize the headcut with rock riprap, slowing the rapid degradation and protecting Pioneer Road.

Although the stabilization project has finally stopped the damage, only an extensive restoration project will put the stream back in harmony with its watershed, sediment and floodplain. Slated to begin as soon as funding is secured, a large-scale restoration project will have significantly more natural and long-term benefits, Merten said.

Kevin Zytkovicz of DNR Ecological Services used advanced equipment and technologies along with known stream dimensions to produce a restored channel design that will be constructed on properties owned by Goodhue County and a private landowner.

“The proposed channel will be built away from Pioneer Road and will increase this reach of stream 800 feet by adding additional meanders” Zytkovicz explained. “This design will restore a more natural gradient and will improve its function by raising the streambed and allowing it to access the floodplain.” Vegetative buffers will also be planted along the stream to provide shade and to guard against streambank erosion. Jim Klevan of the Goodhue County Public Works Department said the project “is going to resolve a road problem and save the county money. This is certainly welcome news.”

Optimism over the project, however, should be tempered by what some see as a “potential dark cloud on the horizon,” Zytkovicz admitted. “Trout Brook is at the bottom of its watershed and is on the fringe of Red Wing’s development area. If a lot of new buildings and roads go in, Trout Brook could easily suffer the consequences of increased runoff and higher temperatures,” Zykovicz said.

“I talk with a lot of people from the Red Wing area that are excited that brook trout live again in a stream within our city,” said Brian Stewart of the WaHue Chapter of Trout Unlimited. “We are also very pleased with the way the city, county, landowner, DNR and others are working together towards the stream restoration project. Now we need to be diligent and watchful that development in the Trout Brook watershed does not jeopardize these successes.”