On the Water at Allouez Bay: Restoring a Critical Lake Superior Wetland

Audubon Nice and the Wisconsin Division of Pure Assets (WDNR), lately introduced conservation companions collectively for a ship tour and luncheon at Allouez Bay close to Superior, Wisconsin – a website that reveals first hand how years of collaboration with over 25 companions are serving to to serving to restore one of the vital vital coastal wetlands within the St. Louis River Estuary. 

With continued help from the Nice Lakes Restoration Initiative, a federal program that has funded 1000’s of restoration tasks throughout the Nice Lakes basin, Audubon and its companions are working to make sure Allouez Bay stays a thriving habitat for rails, bitterns, native vegetation, fish and the numerous different species that depend upon this area.  

In the course of the tour, companions noticed thriving beds of Manoomin (wild rice), the restored hemi-marsh habitat, and efforts to handle invasive narrowleaf cattail. Members included the  Wisconsin Division of Pure Assets Secretary Karen Hyun and different WDNR officers, Mayor of Superior Jim Paine, Tribal representatives from Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and St. Croix Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Nice Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Fee, Lake Superior Nationwide Estuarine Analysis Reserve, Pure Assets Analysis Institute (NRRI), St. Louis River Alliance, Tsuga Consulting, and  U.S. Military Corps of Engineers. 

Collectively, members realized concerning the science and partnerships guiding the challenge and noticed and visited areas the place restoration is already serving to create a more healthy, extra various wetland. 

Allouez Bay incorporates one among the biggest intact wetland complexes remaining within the St. Louis River Estuary. It is usually designated as an Vital Fowl Space and is the final recognized breeding website for Black Terns inside the estuary, making its safety and restoration particularly vital for birds and different wildlife. 

Restoring a Extra Numerous Wetland 

 Over time, parts of Allouez Bay have change into more and more dominated by invasive narrowleaf and hybrid cattail. These invasive cattails can unfold quickly, forming dense stands that crowd out native vegetation and scale back the combination of open water and vegetation that marsh birds, fish and different wildlife want. 

Audubon Nice Lakes, the Wisconsin Division of Pure Assets and challenge companions are working to regulate invasive cattail, restore hemi-marsh habitat and shield high-quality native wetland communities with help from the Nice Lakes Restoration Initiative. 

Restoration started in 2024, when crews mechanically mowed and hand-cut roughly seven acres of invasive cattail. Later that 12 months, roughly 12 acres of hemi-marsh habitat had been created inside dense cattail stands by excavating channels and swimming pools and seeding native wetland species. Crews returned in 2025 to re-treat roughly six acres as a part of the challenge’s adaptive administration method. 

Early outcomes are encouraging. Manoomin and different native wetland vegetation have begun establishing in a number of the newly created channels and swimming pools, whereas seeded native vegetation are competing with regenerating cattail and different invasive species.

 Letting Science Information Restoration 

Restoration at Allouez Bay is designed to adapt because the wetland responds. Companions are monitoring vegetation and chicken populations to know what’s working and the place further administration could also be wanted. 

Audubon companions at Tsuga Consulting are monitoring adjustments in vegetation and the unfold of invasive cattail, whereas chicken monitoring performed with the Pure Assets Analysis Institute is documenting how marsh birds reply as habitat circumstances change. Researchers collected three years of chicken information earlier than restoration and are persevering with surveys afterward, creating an vital alternative to measure the challenge’s affect over time. 

Virginia Rails stay an indicator of Allouez Bay, with monitoring additionally detecting species together with Least Bitterns, American Bitterns and Yellow-headed Blackbirds. What companions be taught right here may help inform restoration not solely at Allouez Bay, however at different coastal wetlands all through the Nice Lakes. 

What’s Subsequent at Allouez Bay 

In 2026, companions continued vegetation and chicken monitoring to evaluate how the wetland is responding and information the subsequent part of restoration. 

Upcoming work will embody testing an further methodology of invasive cattail management on roughly 5 acres. Crews will grind cattail vegetation and root materials nearer to the bottom to decide whether or not the method can extra successfully weaken dense stands and gradual regrowth. Extra selective strategies will proceed for use close to Manoomin and different high-quality native vegetation, whereas drone imagery will assist companions doc adjustments throughout the wetland. 

The aim is simple: be taught from the wetland, adapt administration accordingly and shield the high-quality habitat that stays whereas restoring areas which were degraded. 

The current boat tour demonstrated what is feasible when conservation organizations, businesses, researchers, Tribal companions and native communities work collectively towards a shared aim. 

With continued help from the Nice Lakes Restoration Initiative and a dedication to long-term monitoring and adaptive administration, Audubon Nice Lakes and its companions are working to make sure Allouez Bay stays a thriving coastal wetland — for Black Terns, rails, bitterns, native vegetation, fish and the individuals and communities that depend upon the St. Louis River Estuary.