National Fish Habitat Action Plan

Chalk Creek supports an extensive, connected Bonneville cutthroat trout population, which occupies approximately 111 miles of contiguous stream habitat. Two on-channel ponds on a tributary to the South Fork of Chalk Creek were constructed in the 1950’s and have fragmented another 1.6 miles of occupied habitat.

Although on-channel ponds are generally considered deleterious to native fish populations, these two ponds were viewed as being potentially beneficial. For example, no lacustrine habitat occurs within the Chalk Creek drainage, and these ponds provide an opportunity for a portion of the population to exhibit high growth rates in ideal conditions. These ponds also provide a potential source of fish population expansion efforts within the upper Weber River Subbasin.

The international Great Lakes Basin is a unique and
biologically diverse region containing the largest surface freshwater system in the world, with sport and commercial fisheries valued at over $7 billion annually. The fishery and aquatic resources of the Great Lakes have suffered detrimental effects of invasive species, loss of biodiversity, poor water quality, contaminants, loss or degradation of coastal wetlands, land use changes, and other factors.

The Basin includes all of Michigan; portions of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota in the U.S. and Ontario and Quebec in Canada. It covers 295,710 square miles, including 94,250 square miles of surface
water and 201,460 square miles of land in the U.S. and Canada.
The Great Lakes and connecting waters have over 11,000 miles
of coastline.

Great Lakes Basin Fish Habitat Partnership Website