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March 4, 2006Tribe wants to restore sturgeon to Lake MichiganFish considered important to tribal cultureMANISTEE - Members of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians hope to restock Lake Michigan with a prehistoric fish known for its large size and a back covered with rows of bony plates.The sturgeon is considered historically important to the tribe and was once a major food source, said Glenn Zaring, tribe spokesman. "Because of the way the sturgeon have been depleted over the years, we have taken this on as a cultural project, as well as a science project," Zaring said. The tribe retained a private environmental firm, Northern Environmental Technologies Inc., to provide four portable streamside sturgeon-rearing facilities to be located around Lake Michigan. The fish may have once been an important food source, but today the species is important because the ancient fish is considered a barometer of the environmental health of the Great Lakes, said tribe biologist Marty Holtgren. "By evaluating the status of the sturgeon and the rehabilitation of the sturgeon, we're able to evaluate the environment," Holtgren said. The tribe is working with the departments of natural resources in Wisconsin and Michigan on the project. The facilities will be located on the Milwaukee and Manitowoc rivers in Wisconsin, and on the Cedar and Whitefish rivers in the Upper Peninsula. The project is funded by a grant from the Great Lakes Fisheries Trust and the facilities are expected to be in place by the middle of April, Zaring said. Since 2004, the Little River Band has worked on a separate project to rehabilitate an existing population of sturgeon in the Manistee River.
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