Mole Creek revival

Mole Creek in the Town of Saukville is increasingly returning its former meandering ways and is on course to be home to northern pike, trout and other fish and wildlife.

That effort took a step forward recently when the Ozaukee County Board gave the Planning and Parks Department the go-ahead to apply for a grant to fund the project.

It was one of two grant-application packages supervisors approved in recent days to benefit the Saukville area.

For Mole Creek, the county is seeking a $15,000 grant that would help continue the work there, even though it has slowed in recent days due to heavy rains and flooding, said Ozaukee County Planning and Parks Director Andrew Struck.

“We already have seen some reproduction (of northern pike) and the (Department of Natural Resources) also believes it could be a trout stream,” Struck said. “Our hope is to open additional spawning habitat for northern pike. We’re hoping to make that better spawning grounds.”

Struck called northern pike a “keystone” species, meaning that if the habitat is suitable for the fish, it will be suitable for many other species.

The grant would support a county-sponsored fish and wildlife habitat project on Mole Creek that would include construction and restoration of stream meandering, wetland enhancements, invasive plants control and planting of native vegetation.    

The county has already improved fish passage along the creek, opening the majority of the creek watershed to the free passage of aquatic life and has restored about 4,900 feet of the creek’s channel north and south of Hillcrest Road.

Work also is progressing on restoring about 2,700 feet of the channel north of Cedar Sauk Road.

The creek, especially the stretch north of Cedar Sauk Road, has been altered over the years by dredging and artificial straightening.

That has separated the creek from the surrounding floodplain and wetland areas that provide habitat for spawning northern pike and other wildlife, according to the grant application to the Milwaukee-based Brookby Foundation, which supports “endeavors that advance artistic and  scientific literacy, with a special interest in those that protect or improve the environment,” according to the foundation’s website.

The grant would require no matching funds from the county.

Previous funding for the project has come through the state Department of Natural Resources and donations from the Southeastern Wisconsin Chapter of Trout Unlimited.

“We’re definitely seeing an increase” in the number of fish,” Struck said. “We are seeing that and continuing to work toward that. It is a sustainable area.”

Ozaukee County also is seeking grants totaling $10,000 that would fund planting trees and native grasses at Tendick County Nature Park in the Town of Saukville.

The grants are part of the American Transmission Co.’s (ATC) Tree Planting Grant Program. Each of the two grants would be for $5,000.

Struck said if the county gets the grants, the trees will be planted by volunteers, contractors, Conservation Corps members and Planning and Parks Department staff. The work will be completed in conjunction with a seven-acre prairie restoration program project  at Tendick supported by Pheasants Forever, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and others.

ATC owns and maintains high-voltage electrical power lines, like those that run through Tendick Park. The plantings will not be in the transmission line easement that runs through the park.

There is no match required to receive the ATC grants, but those grants can serve as a match for federal forestry grants, Struck said.

“I think we have a good shot” at getting the grants, Struck said. “We’ve had good success with ATC the past two years.”