Wedge Creek Fish Barrier 2010

Wedge Creek Fish Barrier was installed in 2010 and was made possible by a Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Fund Grant. An electric fish barrier can be thought of as an impenetrable barricade. It works like this: Two or more electrodes passing currents through a medium which is the water. This creates an electrical field. When the fish swims in the electrical field it becomes part of the electrical circuit which allows the current to run thought the fish. The use of both alternative current and direct current have been used in electrical fish barriers, but most barriers use DC current because it is less stressful on the fish. This current causes the fish to have a small twitch to make it turn around or causes a paralyzing twitch that makes it flow downstream until it comes out of its paralysis.

Wedge Creek has a large upper watershed that consists of School Section, Halls, and Sugar Lakes, as well as many ditch networks. The purpose of installing an electric fish barrier at Wedge Creek is to prevent the movement of rough fish from going upstream. The carp up-root all the aquatic vegetation and stir up bottom sediments. This re-suspended phosphorus into the water column where the algae uses this phosphorus to create large algae blooms, this make the lake look like pea soup. School Section Lake has been listed on the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Impaired Waters List for not meeting water quality standards. The District soon hopes to do reclamation processes on these upper watershed lakes