By Ricky Rieckert
Dear readers,
Here is more information about the Fox River.
From southeastern Wisconsin to the Chain O’ Lakes in northern Illinois, the Fox is a sleepy river passing through marshland.
South of the Chain O’ Lakes, the natural river bottom from Stratton Dam in McHenry drops 10 feet in the next 15 miles to Algonquin. This stretch has fast boat traffic and can be a bit of a concern to smaller boat craft.
In the Algonquin section of the River, the powerboats disappear and the underlying geology of the River begins to change.
The harder bedrock base starts to disappear along this reach, exposing an older and softer riverbed, which slightly steepens.
The Fox River is a shallow, normally slow-moving warm-water river. In the 4.4 miles from Algonquin to Carpentersville, the river drops just 8.1 feet, which is called stream slope.
For comparison, the Colorado River, through the Grand Canyon, averages eight-feet-per mile slope and the whitewaters of the Yellowstone River has a stream slope of more than 20 feet per mile, which produces the high flow for the rapids.
At the middle point, the Fox River averages enough water flow to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool every minute.
When the water flowed naturally, before the dams, the Fox River was just a series of riffles and shallow pools with a sand and rock bottom.
When/if the dams are removed, the more narrow banks and higher water flow, the Fox River should be able to scour-clean much of its bottom and the shoreline.
Much of the sediment behind the dams will drain out with the water flow and will be released. These sediments will become natural sandbars as they will move downstream to provide a new habitat for fish, mussels, and other wildlife.
But the dams were built to mitigate flooding and without them, what could happen?
Next week: Pros and cons of dam removal, and the future of the Fox.
Have a great week!