River and Stream Narratives of the Upper Chippewa Basin

Below are narrative descriptions for waters for which we have a description on file. Not all waters in the basin are listed below.

Elk Creek, 1996

The Elk River supports a good warm water sport fishery and is heavily used. The upstream part of the Elk River to the Musser Flowage is classified as a Class III trout stream. but is affected by beaver. Some small farms lie along the river between Musser Flowage and Duroy Lake, some small farms are located along the river. Once the Elk River enters the Phillips chain of lakes, point sources become important, due to historical and continuing discharge to Elk Lake by Phillips Wastewater Treatment Plant and the Phillips Plating Corporation. The Elk River is an important tributary to the South Fork of the Flambeau River. Work in the 1970s and 1980s documented sediments contaminated by metals in Elk Lake. The study noted phytoplankton and benthic macroinvertebrates accumulated metals. However, this did not appear to extend up the food chain to fish. Metals have also been transported downstream in the Elk River system, where they have been found at elevated levels in the sediments in Lac Sault Dore (Smith 1983) Little endangered resource inventory work has been done in this watershed. The Elk River, as a major tributary to the South Fork of the Flambeau River, is important to downstream endangered resources in the Flambeau.

Little Elk Creek, 1996

Little Elk Creek, a Class I trout stream, has farms on its banks: both dairy and row cropping. We have no water quality data on this stream.

Squaw Creek, 1996

Squaw Creek, a tributary to the Elk River system, flows through a series of natural lakes and wildlife ponds maintained by U.S. Forest Service dikes in its upper reaches. Walleye use it as a spawning area where it enters Solberg Lake. Below Solberg Lake a gravel operation may have impacts on the creek. Squaw Creek also serves as a muskellunge spawning area for Duroy Lake.