FORESTVILLE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – An effort to improve water quality at a Door County park is back on track.
Park leaders say someone tried to disrupt the Forestville Dam draw-down process, with large rocks.
“If you see down here, there’s an iron gate. And it has an angle to it. Its main intent is, it’s designed to prevent fish from coming upstream and getting stuck in the spillway. But it’s designed to allow fish passage to go downstream,” says Door County Parks Superintendent Ben Nelson.
Nelson says it began on December 13 with a call about fish stuck in the spillway, about 120 of them.
“Our crew came down here and assessed the situation, and we actually stopped the drawdown for s short period of time, so that we could get our crew in there safely to clear the fish,” he says.
Nelson says the crew quickly found something else.
“There were about 10 boulders. A little larger than a bowling ball size. I would guess they were about 20 pounds in size. And they were all along the base of that passage gate,” he says.
Nelson says workers removed the rocks and cleared the waterway.
“By nature of how they were placed, it leads us to believe that somebody had placed them there. We don’t have any evidence of that. That’s just our best theory at this point in time,” he says.
The park is equipped with two trail cameras set up nearby to monitor safety and security. But when the crew checked the media cards, they found nothing but dead batteries.
“We did not capture any images of anybody putting stones into the spillway,” says Nelson.
Nelson has no idea why anyone would put the rocks in the spillway. He says daily checks on the park will continue.
“We’re just very glad that we caught it very quickly, and cleared the situation. We haven’t had a problem since,” says Nelson.
The Millpond drawdown behind the Forestville Dam is part of a two-year effort, to improve water quality.
The plan has faced resistance from some area residents.
