Surveying Wetland Fish Assemblages At The Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge

Sasha Bozimowski, Theresa Gruninger, Kurt Kowalski, and Taaja Tucker (GLSC, Ann Arbor, Michigan) completed the first of several electrofishing efforts at the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge in Saginaw, Michigan, May 24-27, 2021. Electrofishing efforts were not possible in 2020, but the crew was able to get out safely for the first of several planned deployments to provide post-restoration fish community composition information, as well as ground-truthing data for the two hydroacoustic sonar units monitoring fish access to the restored wetland habitat. Electrofishing efforts and hydroacoustic data collection are only two of several post-restoration monitoring methods in action at the refuge, including a University of Michigan Masters Project team working in coordination with the USGS and USFWS to collect additional biological community and water quality data. The monitoring is supported by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and is directly informing restoration and management decisions.