CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — In an effort to promote and maintain ecological diversity, the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, along with assistance from federal agencies, is investing in programs meant to reintroduce species back into the Cuyahoga River.

What You Need To Know

  • It's an opportunity to diversify the population of sturgeon to the rivers of Lake Erie

  • While not endangered, the lake sturgeon, or Acipenser fulvescens, is considered threatened in 19 of the 20 states in which it resides, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

  • Mussels are "functionally extinct" from the Cuyahoga River within these regions, however, they provide important ecosystem services to the river and create habitats for certain other species

Park biologist Ryan Trimbath explained that there are currently two programs in place for the reintroduction of these species, one of which is lake sturgeon.

Initially, they put their efforts into conducting research to show that there had been lake sturgeon here historically. After proving that, the next step was to determine if the current habitat would be suitable for the fish.

"And that is the wheelhouse of our U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service," he said. "They did that for the Maumee River, so they're implementing that same methodology or process here."

The federal agency decided to move forward into this year by creating a habitat suitability model. Trimbath said the park was more than happy to help.

"They're doing most of the work," he said. "They've floated the river using the side-scan sonar technology, which basically maps the substrate, and then what our participation has been kind of helping with their logistics and access," He said. "Then this next phase of it, with this model substrate product that they create with that side-scan sonar, you go out and do these transects every 250 meters, where you actually quantify the type of substrate there."

That helps inform the suitability model Trimbath spoke of earlier, as he said they're looking to create a model from the mouth of the river up to the Gorge Dam to determine if the river can sustain these fish. The model, he said, will show where there is a suitable habitat, "specifically for spawning sturgeon and then what they call age-zero sturgeon."

The age-zero sturgeon are the freshly-hatched fish in the river, waiting to go back out to the lake once they reach adulthood. Similar to other fish like salmon, they also want to have an environment suitable for these fish upriver, when they come back for spawning time. 

There are a variety of reasons, Trimbath said, as to why it's important to reintroduce these fish to the river.

"They used to be here, so they deserve to be here," he said. "And so we are at a point now where the river seems to be restored to a point where it can support these populations again."

This is also an opportunity to diversify the population of sturgeon to the rivers of Lake Erie. Right now, he said, they currently only exist in the Maumee River.

"The desire is to have another one," he said. "You have more than one site, you know, your population (is) probably going to be doing a little better."

This project combines the general public interest, he said, and the goal of preservation of species and ecological diversity. While not endangered, the lake sturgeon, or Acipenser fulvescens, is considered threatened in 19 of the 20 states in which it resides, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Trimbath said the end goal with the reintroduction of lake sturgeon to the river is to have a self-sustaining population that allows for ecological diversity and public education, as you can watch the fish make their way to the breeding grounds. This may be the first species they've considered reintroducing at the local level, he said.

"We haven't really done much of that, but there's a lot of species that have been lost," he said. "As we put this ecosystem back together, right, we're doing a great job dealing with storm water and various things like that. We've removed these dams, and so we're trying to restore the ecosystem, but part of that is getting those species that have been lost, getting them back into the system."

The lake sturgeon aren't the only species the Cuyahoga Valley National Park is working to restore to the river. Trimbath also spoke about another project that involves collaborating with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reintroduce mussels to the river.

Mussels, he said, are "functionally extinct" from the Cuyahoga River within these regions. However, he said, they provide important ecosystem services to the river and create habitats for certain other species.

"We called a group of mussel specialists and folks from the state and federal agencies together to say 'do you think now is the time to give it a try?'" he said. "And everybody was supportive of doing a test to see if in fact the river is ready for a potential large-scale reintroduction of mussels."

They're in the middle of their pilot research project, he continued, where they have selected roughly 40 fatmucket, or Lampsilis siliquoidea, mussels for a trial run. They have the mussels in enclosures at multiple sites, where they will remain soaked until the end of September to see if they survive.

"If they survive this season, we'll do a larger scale study where we're going to target a couple more species, maybe do something with more diversity of habitat needs, and do some more sites and refine our approach to a potential large-scale reintroduction."

The future, Trimbath said, is uncertain. We don't know what we and the natural communities will encounter in the face of climate change, spreading invasive species and other challenges.

"One strategy you can use to ensure you maintain diversity into the future is by adding diversity now," he said. "We want to make sure that instead of having a community that has five species, where if you lose one, you've lost 20% of everything that's there. We're better off if we have a community of 10 species. You're building for hopeful redundancy in a sense."