Project Update: Friends of Stony Brook and LNRP Complete Phase Three Restoration

With generous support from the Fund for Lake Michigan, Friends of Stony Brook (FOSB) and the Lakeshore Natural Resource Partnership (LNRP) recently completed phase three of the effort to restore Stony Brook. The effort was in collaboration with the Town of Stockbridge which cost-shared and installed a “fish-friendly” culvert on Long Road. 

Stony Brook is a clear, hard water stream located in Calumet County and lies within the headwaters of the Manitowoc River watershed. The headwaters of Stony Brook lie within a high quality wooded wetland that effectively buffers the headwater springs from the surrounding agricultural land use.

Just downstream of the headwaters, a town road (Long Road) crosses Stony Brook. The previous culvert was a 60” round corrugated steel culvert that was failing and needed to be replaced. Using NRCS hydraulic tools, an effort was to estimate the capacity of a new culvert that would be needed to pass a 10-year storm event under the road. It was found that the 60” culvert could only pass that 10-year storm event in certain conditions that are not typically available where the stream crosses the road. In addition, the undersized round culvert creates velocity barrier to fish passage, disconnecting the headwaters from the rest of Stony Brook including the restored sites downstream.

The installed box culvert will improve the function during large storm events and generally perform better as an open channel condition that is desirable with the nearby residential structures. Appropriately-sized bottomless culverts are extra beneficial when compared to full-invert designs because along with restoring aquatic organism passage and improving flood resiliency, bottomless structures also restore groundwater to surface water connectivity and maintain a flowing bed through the system. For Stony Brook, increasing the flow capacity of the culvert would benefit the stream by returning the stream to near natural hydrological flow, improving habitat and fish passage to the high quality headwaters. The project used the same culvert design as we installed at the Sohrweide (Phase One) and Pingel (Phase Two) Restoration Projects.

As a cold-water trout stream, Stony Brook is a one of its kind in Calumet County. The effort is part of the overall effort of FOSB which came under the LNRP umbrella in 2021. FOSB’s vision is to “conserve, protect and restore Stony Brook through developing awareness and educating the public of the crucial role we all play in impacting the health of the upper reaches of the Manitowoc River watershed and ultimately Lake Michigan as a whole.”


Related Links (Autumn 2022 Newsletter):

Tom Mlada’s LNRP Profile

Celebrate Good Times — Autumn 2022

20th Milestone Anniversary

Lake Michigan Conservation Heroes Receive Award

Project Update: Friends of Stony Brook and LNRP Complete Phase Three Restoration

Project Update: LNRP and ROOTS Make Significant Investments in 2022