The Namekagon River, located in northwest Wisconsin, is part of the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway, established by Congress to protect and enhance its natural, scenic, and recreational values. This website presents information from a Fish Habitat History Report describing the historical conditions for the Namekagon River cold-water zone. The authors of the report reviewed and summarized
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information from printed materials including books, magazines, newspaper accounts, archeological records, fishing records, diaries, verbal recollections, photographs, and scientific surveys. The report summarizes fish habitat conditions and fish species composition by era through Native American early European-American Exploration and Settlement (1831-1860) through Logging (1861-1901), Recreation (1902-1961), and Reforestation and Recovery (1961-Present).
Funding for this project has been provided by the National Park Service, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the National Science Foundation through an IGERT grant to the University of Notre Dame, and a fellowship from the University of Notre Dame Center for Aquatic Conservation.
The National Park Service and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources have funded this research because restoration of the historical fish habitat may be necessary to perpetuate a cold-water fish assemblage in the Namekagon River, once dominated by the native brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis.
The Notre Dame Center for Aquatic Conservation funds research that connects scientific, technical, and policy analysis with natural resource management and policy. The motto for the Center of Aquatic Conservation is “science serving society.” The goal of this website is to serve society by communicating research on the historical ecology of the Namekagon River.